Bernina Viking
Dec/080
What is the best sewing machine for garment making?
What brands (Viking, Janome, Bernina, etc)?
Also, what essential features are a must-have on a sewing machine particularly for garment making?
I make almost all my family's clothes (I don't do socks! no socks!!!)
For me the must haves are:
Adjustable presser foot pressure
Very good straight stitch
Good zigzag
Buttonhole method that doesn't drive you nuts
Blindhem and stretch blindhem.
(Sewing machines used in the couture world, btw, do only straight stitch.)
I also like having a few decorative stitches... something useful for fagoting and hemstitching, like pinstitches, classics like a featherstitch, something that looks something like a blanket stitch for machine applique. Non-jamming bobbin cases are a big plus in my opinion.
What is most important to me is reliability... I want to sit down and start sewing with minimum fuss and bother. I don't want to have to spend hours fussing with it and taking it apart and putting it back together and hoping it'll work (did that growing up, thankyouverymuch, neveragainplease!).
I do a lot of everyday clothes on a serger, and I guess if I had to pick between a good serger and a really topnotch sewing machine or a really good serger and an ok sewing machine, I'd go with the really good serger/ok sewing machine. I do not use walking feet (I've learned the methods of fabric handling that ready to wear sewing uses and don't need them). I do need a good looking buttonhole method with minimal fuss and bother.
I happen to sew on a midline Viking electronic, and like it alot... it's done well for me these last 10 years. It was pretty much a choice between that machine and a similar Pfaff. The family engineer liked the specs on the Viking better and so I got that one--- it's been a good worker for me. I sew everything from silk chiffon to 8 layers of denim to the occasional piece of naugahyde (the naugahyde wasn't particularly fun, but doable.)
If I were on a tight budget and wanted a new machine, I'd look carefully at the Janomes -- many Kenmores are Janomes in disguise. -- Janome seems to be good value for the money. Berninas are nice machines, but I feel like I've got 10 thumbs when sewing with them. Elnas are also nice machines, and I've heard good things about Toyota machines, also.
If I were on a really tight budget, I'd go to the best sewing stores around and see what they had as tradeins or used machines... there are some very nice "preloved" machines going for a pittance. More: http://www.cet.com/~pennys/faq/smfaq.htm
I'd also send you to the library to get a copy of Carol Ahles' book, Fine Machine Sewing. Read the first and last chapters about getting the most out of your machine, and buying a machine. Carol *really* knows how to do elegant, precise work, and how to coax elegant, precise stitches out of a machine. (Actually, I'd suggest you might want to buy a copy of it anyhow-- the chapters on narrow hemmers and machine blind hems are worth the price, even if you never do anything else out of the book.)
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