High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! BERNINA is the sewing machine brand of the Fritz Gegauf AG company, founded in 1893 in Steckborn, Switzerland, and is also often used as a shorthand for the company itself, which has formed part of BERNINA International AG since the beginning of the 1990s. The origins of the company lie in the invention of the hemstitch sewing machine by Karl Friedrich Gegauf in 1893. The sewing and embroidery systems developed to date enable sewing, embroidering, quilting and overlocking. Recent Models of BERNINA sewing machine include the B830 and the B820, which came on the market in 2008 and 2009, respectively.