Are you happy with your new sewing m…
Gerry_Swartz | Posted in Equipment and Supplies on
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This topic is intended for all those people who asked questions in the “What is Your Favorite Machine?” subject because they were planning to buy a new sewing machine, and for all other folks who have recently (past three years) bought a new sewing machine.
b If you bought your new sewing machine, are you happy with your choice? Which others were you thinking of buying, and why did you choose this one? If you could do it over, would you make the same choice?
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Hello again Gerry, I just replied to your other message. As for my favorite machine, it depends on the kind of project I'm working on. For heirloom sewing (like christening gowns, First Communion dresses, etc) I always use my Elna 9000/Diva. It was the last Swiss-made Elna and aptly named--it's stitch quality is divine for fine sewing. For regular garment sewing I use the Diva and my Pfaff 4870 serger. I keep my older, mechanical Elna Carina for a backup. I use a Brother 8500 for machine embroidery. For my new interest--quilting, I've got my grandmother's old Singer 201 in a cabinet and a Featherweight for quilt piecing. But I may sell those when I pickup my new Husqvarna Viking Quilt Designer III next week. It's got a lot of exciting new features--their Sensor Lift foot & needle up/down feature are controlled by the foot pedal so you can have "hands free" sewing, the presser foot lifts extra high to accomodate the quilt thickness, auto-adjust foot pressure, great stitch selection & upgrade-ability, loved the alphabet for quilt labels, etc, etc. What kind of sewing are you going to focus on?
*Leslie, I'll be doing quilting -- ordinary at first but I'd like to work toward making art quilts -- and garment sewing. No embroidery, I don't want to spend money collecting different color threads and I applique so I'd be more likely to applique than to want to embroider on something. But the machine embroidery I see sure is pretty! Hmmm ... perhaps I should start a discussion about: what's your favorite machine?/are you happy with your new machine? and specify that it is intended for folks who don't plan to own or use multiple machines. I'm not criticizing multiple machine owners, it's just not what I want to do. After reading a lot of postings I understand why some people have several sewing machines. Thanks for your information!
*When I started quilting I thought I'd just need straight stitch for traditional style quilts. However, I unexpectedly fell in love with the art quilts with decorative & textured threads. With my new Viking Quilt Designer there are several serpentine stitches that I use frequently. They also have wide "crazy quilt" stitches,a couple of applique stitches and a mock hand-quilting stitch that I use all the time. But this isn't the kind of embroidery you get on the machines that use design cards like the Brother 8500 or a Bernina 180E. I don't really like that look--it appears strictly machine made to me rather than hand-crafted. Oh, I've also done some quilting work with heavier deco thread in the bobbin. So anyway, you may find your creativity needs a little more than straight stitching. Happy adventuring with your quilting (Maurine Noble has a couple of GREAT books on machine quilting--I found used copies on http://www.abe.com)
*I bought my first-ever sewing machine two years ago, and I love it -- a Viking Rose. It's been so easy to use, and the dealer was so great with teaching me to use the machine, that I went from being a non-sewer wannabe to making custom bedding and window treatments professionally in the last two years! One thing I thought I'd do more of is embroidery, but I agree with the last poster that even the most beautiful machine embroidery looks too "mass-produced." I think I might do more in the future if I could digitize my own designs, but I haven't invested in all of that software yet.
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