A sewer? That’s where Ralph’s pal Ed Norton worked. :eek: In Papi, Alan Arkin said, “It is better to die in the ocean than live in the sewer!”
Maybe it would sound better to say, "Hello, my name is xbuckeye, and I sew.
:eek: Sewist! I am a Sewist!! :smack:
or maybe even a seamstress!
My problem with my White isn’t so much oil or lint (although they both require way too much attention in this machine) as bent and broken pieces and general wearing out of the mechanisms. It wasn’t designed to be used as often as and in the manner in which I use it.
Mrs. longhair has a Bernina Activa 145. She is very pleased with it. She spends quite a lot of time quilting. I think it cost about $1200.00 new.
I must start betting on the ponies! I may be only one win away from a new Brother.
My machine is a Janome Harmony 2049, which does not please me at the moment. I lost the instruction manual, and have not been able to find a replacement. Consequently, I’ve no idea how the blind hem foot works, and the buttonholer befuddles me every time I try to use it. That’s okay, though, since most of the sewing I do is historical and machine buttonholes look kind of out of place.
Pros
- Available for somewhere between $80-$200, depending on where you shop.
- Supposed one-step buttonhole. Also comes with a blind hemming foot, a cording/zipper foot, and a quilting set-up. Twin stitching (for knits).
- Winds bobbins quite nicely.
- Works very well for two layers of medium-weight to the light end of heavy fabrics (lightweight quilting cottons, medium-weight to heavy silks, cotton velvet, etc.) Not so happy with very lightweight fabrics (chiffons, georgettes) or very heavy fabrics (heavy denims, twills).
- The scalloped zig-zag (setting K) is a really good choice for finishing hems on chemises and nightgowns if, like me, you are sometimes too lazy to care. Two yards of embroidery in under twenty minutes!
- Two spool pins, because of the twin needle capabilities.
Cons
- No walking foot (excluding the quilting set-up) included. Kind of a drag.
- Doesn’t like to sew through many layers of fabric and has trouble feeding fabric over bumps, like flat-felled or French seams. Big negative for me, since I believe in seam finishing in a serious way, and none of that serging nonsense. Caveat: I sometimes end up sewing through five or more layers of fabric. Most people don’t.
- Bobbin jams all the time. I think I might not be using the right size bobbin, but notice the lack of manual right now.
- The case doesn’t swing open where the light is housed (to the left of the tension arm), so if you want to replace the lightbulb, you have to take the whole thing apart.
- Pretty damned loud. Quiet enough that when I used it in my dorm, the neighbors didn’t complain, but it wasn’t any fun to hang out in the room while it was running.
Conclusion
Apparently, this thing is supposed to have a good reputation for an affordable machine, but mine hasn’t really impressed me all that much. It’s a pretty good machine if you just want to do basic sewing, like throw pillows, most curtains, modern clothing, etc. It’s probably not the machine that’s bad; I think I’ve outgrown it. If you consider yourself above the lower end of intermediate sewing, go for a model a little bit more luxe than this. A very good choice for a beginning/intermediate sewer, though.
I own two Elnas, both over twenty years old. I don’t use the Lotus much these days, but it’s only supposed to be the back-up to my Stella anyways. They are both light, portable machines, bought so that it would be easy to transport them back and forth to college and then back and forth to quilting classes. I have sewn everything on them, though mostly quilts these days. I bought the Stella specifically to make sleeping bags…the Lotus was having trouble getting through all the layers, so I dragged the unfinished bag into the store to see whcih machine could handle it. Aside from one incident involving a small fire while sewing four Mickey Mouse costumes in 1988, I have had no repairs done on my machine. I oil it as needed and it’s always been wonderful about doing everything I’ve asked of it. Because of its small size, I have trouble machine quilting anything larger than a crib quilt, but I usually handquilt those anyhow. I recently purchased a new walking foot for it on ebay, and now have two baby quilts to finish up before the kids reach kindergarten.
I also have a Singer serger that just got repaired, though the repairman said it was really not worth the effort. I am lusting after one of the new sergers that threads itself with a puff of air, and does all the neat stitches without all the hassle. And I’d love to get a new embroidery-type machine But they are way out of my price range. Ideally, I would get a new serger and just keep plugging away with my workhorse basic Elna for all the straight-stitching and quilting needs. I have worked on both Bernina and Husqvarna and like them both, but I’d need a lot more research on what’s available these days, and some of the those dealers just don’t want to take “I’m just starting to research machines” for an answer. I got quite the hard sell from one shop owner when I took my serger in for repair that I probably won’t go back when she’s there. Since I’m not close to having the money in hand to purchase, it’s a bit uncomfortable for me to ask for demonstrations…they get so giddy that they might be making a sale that I’m given the impression that I’m wasting their time if I don’t fork over $2000 right away. When I find a dealer who makes me comfortable, I’ll start some serious research.
I have two Viking/Husquevarna machines. The older one is a “sew easy electronic” model number 250 with about 10 stitches. I bought it second hand at a garage sale for $50, had it tuned at a local dealer, and used it for the next several years with no problems whatsoever. I think I’ve had it about 12 years now, but I’ve forgotten exactly which year I bought it.
I liked it so much, that when I got an unexpected bonus at work, I went out and bought a fancier Viking/Husquevarna, the Lily 545, which has a ton of sewing stitches and some built in embroidery stitches. It is just as good as the old one. I love it. It cost about $1500 new. I’ve had it 5 years now. I don’t use the embroidery, though.
I sew clothing mostly. I also have a serger, My Lock brand, which I use to make knit stuff.
The local quilters swear by the Berninas. They say it is the best brand for quilters. This is an affluent area, and most of the quilters I know here have expensive Bernina machines costing upwards of $2000. I don’t know how their lower end stuff compares.
My best friend, who makes extremely complex renaissance faire court costumes, also swears by Bernina.
It took me three years to make peace with my Singer Quantum Futura. The manual is sparse and the technical support is nonexistent–and the wire that connects the pedal to the machine broke once. Lucky, my dad is a handy guy and fixed it for me.
The biggest issue with this machine is threading it. It has a broken thread sensor that the thread MUST be situated in (deeply and solidly–like a thong on a size 20 rear end). Needless to say, the manual’s instructions for threading the machine ignore this thread sensor completely. The result was that, for three years, half the time when I sat down to sew I could sew three inches, then the machine would BEEPBEEP! BEEPBEEP! BEEPBEEP! at me, sew three inches… etc.
Then I joined the QuantumFuturaHelpGroup on Yahoo, and they straightened me out.
The embroidery software that came with it is really crummy, too. I can’t recommend this as an embroidery machine.
I love my two 1970s reconditioned singers. I love my new simplicity serger. I hate my newer singer though. The reconditioned singers are lovely and stitch beautifully. They have disks for different stitches and can chain stitch as well as lock stitch. and wind their own bobbins.
My serger is new and I think it will replace my newer singer. I only used it for some of the fancier stretch stitches anyway, which are easily replaced by the serger.
When I was sewing for a bridal shop, the women there said that the old singer featherweights are the best for straight stitching, bar none. They each had one and had it reconditioned regularly.
Yes, everyone I know who has a Featherweight loves them. My dad is trying to get one, but they aren’t that cheap or easy to find. (He’s been collecting old machines lately, and has some great hand-crank and treadle Singers. I take him to the quilt shop sales and he buys all the really ugly fabric to use for practice.)
AFAIK, though, any Singer from the 70’s on is going to be junk. My grandmother was always trying to buy Singers for some reason, and they never worked right. My mom bought her Bernina in about 1984 and it’s still going strong.
My mom’s machine is a Singer from the '60s – one of the ones that came with a table and cabinet, so it’s really a piece of furniture. It has disks for the different stitches, too, but I’ve never really figured that feature out, since I don’t do a lot of machine smocking or anything. It’s the machine I learned to sew on, and if it survived that, I think it could survive anything. It’s a pretty solid machine for being nearly forty years old.
These singers are from 1970 so maybe they are before they turned to junk. I do know that they seem to have nothing in common with my newer singer.
There are three sewing machines in my house. I hate all of them. I think they hate me too. Evil, noisy , finger-grabbing creatures.
I just sewed my second ever thing (a kimono style blouse) on my friends $100 Brother sewing machine. Really, I haven’t done anything but seams, and it works just fine for that.
I hate the foot pedal, though. It takes forever pressing down to activate, and then ZOOOOM! It’s very difficult to get just the right touch with it.
Oh yeah, I recently sewed something on my SIL’s Brother, and it was just the same. Nothing, nothing, ZOOM! I did get the hang of it after a while–sort of–but it isn’t exactly what you’d call a sensitive mechanism.
Oh, this takes me on a nostagia trip to my childhood. Mom had the Singer (avocado!) in a “sewing center” as well–the door opened and held up the table, and the door had compartments on it…so exciting when it was open and Mom was working on something new. She taught me to make simple clothes on that machine.
Seriously, what’s that about?!? Is it because I’m not holding on to the thread ends? I can’t do that and guide the fabric and hold down the reverse button at the same time… grrrr
I can only report that folks in my quilt guild seem to have Berninas and Husqvarnas. And Featherweights. And whatever they see at yard sales for cheap. So that should help narrow it down 
Since I learned to sew on an old Sears Roebuck machine my mother bought in college in the early 70’s I knew I didn’t want a fancy computerized one when I decided it was time for my own. I wound up with a Husqvarna/Viking Emma, very similar to the current special edition, the Madison, except mine’s purple where Madison is navy blue and the controls look slightly different, but have the same settings. It had been preceded by the Romeo and the Juliet (blue and red, respectively).
I don’t do much quilting, but I’ve used it on all sorts of fabric now and it’s handled all of it beautifully. It was a little expensive, but I got it on sale and the quality and service is well worth the price.