My Big Summer Purchase

I recently embarked on the most fun shopping experience I have had to date—getting a new sewing machine! It was a lot of information to take in and tracking down dealers in my area and doing research to know what questions to ask was a lot of hard work. In the end, I’m glad I did my due diligence and am happy with the machine I chose.

To date, I have been sewing on my great-grandma’s 1950’s Singer. This is truly an extraordinary machine, especially considering it is over 60 years old and I have used it for the past ten years to sew nearly 50 quilts! I’m a little nostalgic about doing my first quilt not using this machine—I have now christened her Old Dorothy because both of her owners were named Dorothy and every good machine needs a name—but I’m super excited to use my new machine for the first time.

So . . . what did I get? We’ll, its on back order, so let’s talk about what I learned first and then I'll post photos of my new machine. Hey, if I have to wait you do too!

When I started this process I did some online searches to see what the best machine was. Most of the feedback was not that helpful as everyone said that the most important thing is support and to make sure it “does what you want it to do”. Ok, so I want it to sew and I want to have someone I can call to help me through issues. That led me to focusing on purchasing from a dealer and not a box store. For me that was the right decision as I am looking to gain new skills and expand my project base. But it still didn’t tell me what brand to get, seeing as I am now brandless since Singers are not the same machines that my grandmother bought.

The next issue I ran into was price range. There are a TON of beautiful, capable machines out there today. But honestly, thinking of going from a 1950’s basic Singer with no digital anything to a deluxe, sensor-equipped smart machine was a bit daunting. Don’t get me wrong, I completely wanted to step into the 21^st century and get a machine with some digital capabilities, but I’m not quite ready to start sewing on a touch screen machine—as my friend said, it would be like going from a model T to a rocket ship. Additionally, my price range was nowhere near what the top of the line beauties cost.

So, what do you get for a nice, basic machine when you are looking to upgrade—somewhat slowly—and have room to learn and grow on a budget? I checked out Bernina, Pfaff, Viking, Elna, Janome and Baby Lock, and looked at machines between $500 and $1,000.

Reviews of each brand, and the big reveal of what I got coming your way soon!