The models

The last dayes 2 Elna Supermatic has arrived my home. The first one “Ellen” is cleaned, timed and in oiled conditions and the other one “Elnora” is in good conditions but not cleaned and oiled in years. “Ellen” is sewing, but I want to clean and oil “Elnora” before using her.

The first one, “Ellen” is from November 22th 1957 and the other one “Elnora” is from October 19th 1956 and boths has two tones of green colors. I got the dates from stamps at the buttom.

The Elna Supermatic models (Elna 2) was made at the Tavaro factory in Geneve in Switzerland. This model was speciel because it was the one of first zigzag domestic sewing machines and the launch of the model started in 1952. This was only 4 years after their first model Elna (without a number, but later called “The Grasshopper” because of the green color) was launched the international market and this is a very short time window for development of a such complicated and innovative model. They must have worked on it in the years of the war?

The development of the models

The first and second models of the Elna sewing machines – Elna “The grasshopper” and Elna Supermatic – were developed during the war during the period when Switzerland was neutral and therefore, according to the agreement, could not produce weapons. They had the time when rest of the world used the time for killing each other for developing of the Elna Supermatic! This is an example of what a country can do if they not are using all their energy and resources in a war!

The production of parts for sewing machines is closely linked to the production of parts for ammunition, as they are the same machines and tools that can be used for both.

The materials

The Elna Supermatic was made of aluminium, which made it more lightweighted than most of the Singer sewing machines and other sewing machines at the market at the same time. I have some Singer 201 sewing machines from the same period.

The case was made of steel and rumors say that it is a ammunition case. I have tried to find pictures of ammunition cases from this time period and indeed they looks like the cases for these Elna models – both the Grasshopper and Supermatic. If you think the factory was only producing the sewing machines as long as Switzerland could manage to be neutrals in the war time and that they needed to be ready for a production of ammunition – then you understand why the case is made of steel and looks like a case for ammunition.

The colors

The colors of the two models, Elna The Grasshopper and Elna Supermatic is both green.

I think the choice of colors too is connected to the time of war. Before the war it was normal that the sewing machines was painted black, but in this time, where the first Elna models was produced, it was “normal” to have a lots of green paint, because green paint is camouflage paint. This can be the reason for the changed color on the Elna The Grasshopper. After the war in the time of the production of the Elna Supermatic models I think they just continued with the color because they liked the change or because they had a lots of green colors as a sort of leftovers? Remember that under and after the war in Europe there was a lack of most materials in both everyday life of people and in the productions. So they used what they had: The green paint.

Later, this green color for sewing machines was taken up by Husqvarna, who based their sewing machines after the war on the model Elna Supermatic, but that is another story.