Have you ever had one of those days that started out brilliantly only to watch it go slowly down the pan? The kind of day that has you thinking that everything is going your way only to find that it’s gone on without you? Today was my day.
Today I had to switch sewing machines from my modern Frister Rossman because the stitching was becoming so erratic to my dependable vintage Singer 201, a smooth lady that nothing phases, until today that is, when her bobbin tension decided to go AWOL ~ so back to the modern FR and having to put up with a hit and miss performance. Always the optimist, I told myself that my quite new overlocker wouldn’t let me down. Well that was naïve of me. Instead of overlocking and cutting the edges neatly, it spewed the cut fabric back over the stitching. By now my shoulders burned and my head ached but ever the masochist I ploughed on. Eventually the number of stitches to be unpicked became impossible to ignore, so in true English fashion I made a cup of tea and sat down to think, and unpick.
Did I want to go back to hand sewing everything? Not really. It has its place and I do find it restful, but it is time consuming and the arthritis in my hands means that on some days I can’t hand sew for any length of time any more. So a machine it has to be, so I decided to make a wish list of things I want from a sewing machine. Here is what I came up with.
- Ability to sewing all types of fabric. [Like my Singer 201 – when it’s behaving]]
- Reliability and sturdiness. [-ditto-]
- Automatic tension [my FR has this and it’s brilliant]
- Choice of one step buttonholes. [the single choice on my FR is rubbish]
- NO [that’s right] automatic needle threader.[ They just get in my way.]
- High lift of foot lever – whatever that is called. [essential for thicker layers of fabric]
- Drop in bobbin. [of course]
- Varying stitch length and width.
WHAT WOULD BE VERY NICE AS WELL? – a knee lift and a ‘needle down/thread cutting’ capacity.
I don’t need a lot of fancy stitches, one or two would be nice, but not essential. DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF A MACHINE LIKE THIS? If so please let me know.
there must be something out there!
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lifeaworkinprogress 
Before you buy another machine, have you had your others serviced recently? It could make a huge amount of difference and might put off the new machine purchase. My service man also buys and sells second hand machines so that might be an option too.
But if you really just want a new machine I would recommend a Janome.
Mine is an older version of this one
http://janome.co.uk/janome_products/model-2522le/
It is a sturdy quality workhorse that does all that you have listed. It is also what they use in the vast majority of schools and is infinitely fixable.
Thanks for that Lucie, I’ve had a look and it is certainly a possible contender. A service did cross my mind but I don’t want to be without my machines for any length of time. Hope the wedding arrangements are going well – love the paper roses!