Sewing Machine Musings

trystbat got me curious about current sewing machines. The bottom line of my day of looking online for machine reviews is that my beloved Viking brand, along with the well loved Pfaff brand, as gone to hell in a hand basket. The reviews for the machines that are the sort I would be interested in are *horrible*. The Viking Sapphire line, which appears to have replaced the Platinum line (I have a Viking Platinum 735 that I picked up in Dec 07 or Jan 08) reportedly has given people no end of bobbin problems. The Pfaff Expression line has also given people much grief. Singer, Viking, and Pfaff are all now owned by the same umbrella company. Much complaining of bad customer support from the company, and the lack of support for machines (like they stop manufacturing the computer cards quickly, so that the machine you bought a year or two ago doesn't have a current supply).

After reading all this I'm quite worried about my Viking Platinum machine that I dropped off last week for repair. One day, after a lot of work had been done quilting J/S' gambason, it just wouldn't turn on. I suspect that I bent the needle one too many times working on the uber-thick pieces (using cotton upolstory padding to boot) that the alighnment got super screwed up and that hosed the computer somehow. I also drove a big gouge in the needle plate from repeated needle bending. There's not a lot out there on my specific machine, but someone else with a Platinum 770 loved thier machine until something happened and the touch front plate had to be replaced. Never ran the same way again, and getting the replacement parts were a trial. :-(

I'm currently using my Bernina 1008. It is slightly off center due to being knocked off a table by my old Newfie, Torvald of Blessed Memory. But I super dislike the fact that there's no pressure foot adjustement. Stitches are a very high quality, though. And it's not as fast as my Platinum (which has/had a *great* motor).

So now I think whatever I thought I knew about good brands is wrong. Times have apparently changed. Berninas are still getting good reviews, and as are machines that I used to think weren't as strong and reliable, such as Baby Lock straight needle machines. My personal jury is still out on the Janome brand, though. Marguerite has one and I don't like it. YMMV, of course.


My history with and current sewing machines -- boring, but I felt like reviewing it.: ( Read more... )