Baby Lock Sewing Machines
In the world of sewing machines, Baby Lock is a baby. Most of the brands we know and love today have been around 100 years or more. Baby Lock Sewing Machines have only been on the market since 2006. Let’s dive into how the Tacony family got into the sewing machine world and birthed these machines.
This might be the most difficult history section I’ve put together. There are few outside sources for Tacony and Baby Lock, the Wikipedia page even notes the majority of reference links are back to the company’s website. They are a “new” company but I do wish they were a little more boastful about their roots.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps support the site so I can continue to offer great content to you! Read my full disclosure statement.
Tacony Corporation 1946 – 1970
In 1946, Nick Tacony invested his life savings in sewing machines and parts. This started the Tacony company which is the parent company of Baby Lock Sewing Machines. By the 1950s, Nick had established himself as a leading sewing machine wholesaler in the US.If this sounds familiar, it is similar to Leon Jolson and Necchi.
Nick had an 8th-grade education, per his granddaughter, and was a mechanic by trade. His goal was families working with families. In 1970 that became true when Nick’s son joined the company. Ken would bring Baby Lock to the world.
Tacony remains a family-owned and operated company with Ken’s daughter, Kristy Tacony Humes.
Baby Lock Machines Are Born
Baby Lock didn’t begin with the domestic sewing machines that many quilters know and love today. They started with sergers, a.k.a. overlock machines in the 1969. We have a Babylock 4 serger and from what we can piece together it was the fourth version of the serger that Babylock made. She’s old but she puts my “modern”, it’s 20 years old, serger to shame. It is so fast!
Manufacturing of Baby Lock Sewing Machines
I’ve struggled with this section because I want to educate you about Baby Lock sewing machines without misleading anyone on how they’re made. The simple answer is, a Baby Lock is a Baby Lock is a Baby Lock. They are their own entity and not another brand of sewing machine with the name Baby Lock on it.
There are three primary ways of getting a sewing machine to market, a badged machine, self-manufactured, and third-party manufactured.
Badged Sewing Machines
This used to be a very popular way for department stores to get sewing machines with their name on it. A company, like National Sewing Machines, would make a bunch of sewing machines and department stores would buy a quantity of them. National would then put the store’s name on the machine and ship it out. The same machine might have 10 different names on it. This continued with the Japanese-made machines made post-war.
Self-Manufactured Sewing Machines
This is what we normally think of when we think of sewing machine manufacturing. Singer makes Singer sewing machines in their factories. Brother makes Brother sewing machines in their factories. There is currently no evidence that Baby Lock has its own factories.
Third-Party Manufacturing
This is my working theory on what Baby Lock does. Again, this is only a theory based on the fact that I can’t find documentation of factories and other manufactures I have researched have spoke about where their factories are located.
This happens with a lot of things that we use in quilting. My friend Carolina Moore isn’t making her 6-inch Glow Ruler in her garage. She has a company manufacture them for her based on her specs and design.
This is what I believe Baby Lock Sewing Machines does, which makes a lot of sense in terms of costs. They can hire a company to make their sewing machines and in turn put the money they would use to build and maintain a factory into research and design of their sewing machines.
Kenmore did something similar, but unlike Kenmore, which shopped around for manufacturers, I don’t believe Baby Lock does that currently. They might have in the very beginning because our serger does have a few parts marked Juki but my current Baby Lock has nothing like that.
Addressing Manufacturing Rumors
There are rumors that Baby Lock is made by Brother. Some even say they are the exact same sewing machines. These are only rumors, there is ZERO EVIDENCE of this. Neither company has stated this and until they do, go with “it’s just someone’s theory” similar to my theory that Baby Lock pays someone to build their sewing machines.
Timeline of Sewing Machines
I got hung up on sewing machine brands that Tacony might have owned but my brain finally kicked in and said, “Mel you are writing about the history of Baby Lock sewing machines not the history of Tacony.” Once I got past that stumbling block I was back to researching but I couldn’t find a timeline of sewing machines.
Baby Lock UK’s website has a wonderful timeline of their serger machines including a photo of the wooden prototype. It’s really cool so take a second to check it out.
So what’s a girl to do? I put together my own timeline. I used review dates on websites and Baby Lock YouTube’s Page publication dates. Is that the most accurate timeline? Probably not but it’s better than nothing and now that we have the chart started I can keep it up to date going forward. I will probably switch the Brother sewing machines post to a chart like this in the future.
If you scroll to the right you will find affiliate links to online stores to purchase currently available sewing machines. As a reminder, I make a small commission when you purchase and that’s what funds the documentation projects.
Baby Lock Sewing Machines 2006-2024
I did keep the chart to just sewing machines and sewing & embroidery combo machines like a typical quilter would own. I might in the future add in their long-arm machines, sergers, and multi-needle embroidery machines to other tabs.
The date of 2006 also matches Eleanor Burn’s bio saying she became a Baby Lock ambassador in 2006.
Bobbins For Baby Lock Sewing Machines
Baby Locks use three different bobbins, Type L, M Class, and Class 15. These are common sizes used today, Class 15 is your typical domestic sewing machine bobbin. M and L are used in long-arms and embroidery machines because they are bigger and hold more thread.
You don’t have to use Baby Lock brand bobbins if your machine comes with a plastic bobbin use a plastic bobbin. If it comes with a metal bobbin use a metal bobbin. I have made machines very cranky by swapping metal and plastic.
Needles For Baby Lock Sewing Machines
I didn’t see any of the domestic sewing machines list that they took anything different from a Class 15 needle which is the standard needle. My rule of thumb though is to always use a good needle like Schmetz or Klasse. Just to add to our history lesson, Tacony is a Klasse distributor, they might actually own them but that’s some of that fuzzy info I was talking about earlier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before we go I wanted to answer some of the questions that are asked about Baby Lock sewing machines that weren’t already covered.
Are Baby Lock sewing machines any good?
I have a Jazz II and I absolutely love it. I have a few friends who have other models, including their entry-level machines and they rave about them too. Baby Lock also typically is the top-selling machine when I’m updating my posts about machines by price and machines by feature.
Do I need to oil my Baby Lock sewing machine?
Keeping a sewing machine properly lubricated is key to keeping your sewing machine running for years to come. It’s why both Paul and I have written articles about it. You only need to oil what the manual calls for the rest will be done when you have your machine serviced. My machine only has me oil the bobbin race.
Why are Baby Locks so expensive?
I wanted to see if it was just perception that Baby Lock sewing machines were expensive or if they were inline with other manufactures. I used Sewing Parts Online and SewingMachinesPlus.com as my two sources. The brands that I went with were picked based on their top selling machines being similar to the top selling as Baby Lock. For example, I didn’t include Brother because their top machines are their expensive embroidery machines. I also excluded sergers since we are focused on sewing machines.
The Breakdown
The brands that I used were Elna, Janome, and Juki. These are popular, well-known brands and have a good variety of sewing machines available for sell online. So let’s see where Baby Lock falls in price.
- Elna – The average cost of Elna’s top selling machines is $1,837. Elna does have some machines that are marketed as “semi-professional” so I excluded those.
- Juki – The average cost of Juki’s top selling machines is $884. I excluded Juki’s industrial machines because those would have skewed the average and the majority of quilters aren’t buying those machines.
- Baby Lock – The average cost of Baby Lock’s top selling machines is $864. I did not exclude any of their top selling machines because their serger came in 6th and I was focused on top 5.
- Janome – The average cost of Janome’s top selling machine is $817. Janome had more beginner sewing machine in their top 5 than the other brands did which helped bring their average down.
Now we know that Baby Lock being expensive is a perception and not reality. These sewing machines do not cost more, on average, than other popular brands.
Which Baby Lock is best of quilting?
I currently recommend 6 different Baby Lock sewing machines for quilting. It really depends on what features you need, be it portability, low cost, mechanical, or with all the bells and whistles there is probably a Baby Lock on the list that will suit your needs.
Are you sponsored by Baby Lock?
I am not, I am an affiliate for them. This article is truly part of my on going quest to document the history of sewing machines.
