Singer Factories - Istanbul, Turkey

SINGER DIKIS MAKINALARI SAN. A.S. established a Turkish factory in 1959 on 52,000 square meters of land in the Istanbul suberb of Kartal. The first production at the plant began in 1960 with foundry, metalwork and woodworking departments employing a workforce of around 200 people.

In the 1970’s the plant made replicas of the original Singer 20 toy chain stitch sewing machines. These were identical to the 1926 models of the Singer 20 and were known as the K20. These can be distinguished from the original model 20’s made in the 1920’s and 30’s by a ‘Made in Turkey’ decal under the main Singer USA decal on the rear of the machine body. The Turkish K20’s were sold in a miniature bentwood case which has a metal Red S style badge rivetted to one side.

Early machines produced at the Istanbul factory were identified by serial numbers that took the form of HA, HB, HC etc. followed by 6 digits starting at 000001 up to 999999.

The Singer factory in Istanbul was finally closed during 2004.