Sewing Machine Musings

[callistotoni]

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.: I grew up in a sewing family. More specifically, my grandmother was a professional seamstress (i.e. she worked in a sweatshop in LA) and when I was a kid she sewed almost everything I and my sister and cousin wore. She had a Singer, as did my mom (although she sewed far less). So the machine brand I grew up with was Singer.

When I was 19 or 20 I tried my first Bernina. It was owned by a woman in the SCA who helped me out a lot in my early SCA years once I moved away from home. It was a revealation. I now new what driving a really fine sewing machine felt like. Very quiet and smooth, perfect stiches. (No, I don't remember the model, but she'd gotten it from an old school home ec program, so it probably dated to the 60s-early 70's.)

My first personal SCA machine was a mechanical Singer and it dated to about 1980. It was noisy, it vibrated, stiches were not prefect, but it was a workhorse. Eventually I gave that machine away.

I got experiance with industrial machines in 1985-1987, when I did a not-quite 2 year stint working as a sample seamstress at a design studio (which is a story in and of itself ;-) ). We had 2 rip-roaring industrial straight needles and a big Juki 5 spool serger. Boy, those were the days. I learned a lot there.

Sometime in the late 1980's I picked up a Baby Lock 3 spool. It vibrated like *crazy*. The edging was skinny and it was a hard to thread as you can possibly imagine (it's a small machine.) And it produced rather crappy stitches. So it never got used much. (In point of fact, I still have this machine. It's sitting in a case buried in my sewing room. I should get rid of it, but I can't imagine anyone using it.)

In 1990 I made my first big sewing machine upgrade. I bought a Viking #1. Very expensive, I have to say. It was the top of the line Viking machine at the time (the 1+ came out very soon after). I used this machine a lot, and I still have it. I bought some of the extra emboidery cards, but I never used them. They were just straight line designs, not the large satin stitch that most people think of nowadays when they think "machine embroidery". It's still a good machine.

I think it was also in 1990, or in 1991, that I bought a serger. I wanted a 5 spool because of my experiance as a sample seamstress. I got a Elna Pro 5 DC. Until the end I never had problems with it. I never used it as a 5 spool, though, and, frankly, once I got back into the SCA in 1999 I used it less and less (started lining bodices instead of just flatlining.) I weird thing happened with it. I had not used it for a while, then a group of us took machines for servicing to Ray's Sewing Center. Ray serviced it, but said "it was a lemon of a machine" and that one of the loopers was recalled and had to be replaced. OK, I paid for that. But when I got it back it sat for a year before I pulled it out to use it, only to discover that I did not get my foot pedal back. So I had to purchase a new foot pedal. At that point I needed money, and I wasn't using it, so I sold it. I've heard that the Pro series had a bad reputation subsequently, but I always thought it ran fine, felt solid and smooth, very little vibration, and had nice stitch quality.

When I got back into the SCA I decided that I needed a workhorse mechanical machine, and I wanted a Bernina for that Bernina feel. I got a Bernina 1008, which I was told was created to fill the gap for folks that couldn't find the classic mechanical Berninas anymore. Like I said above, it has the best stitch quality of my machines (i.e. better than my Vikings). It has one kind of buttonhole and you have to turn a clunky wheel to do them. But if you're careful the quality of the buttonhole stitches are still better than the automated Viking buttonholes (more even and more coverage). Only square button holes though. It's OK, I'm doing my buttonholes by had these days. Cons, like I said, are the lack of an adjustable pressure foot.

Around 2005 or so I picked up a used Viking 1+ with a complete embroidery package. I got this machine because for what you got the price was so good that I thought I could turn around and find a home for it. This did not happen, however. It's still a nice machine, and I do like it better than my original #1. It fell victim to J/S' gambason, however, when I had to start using it when my favorite Viking Platinum 735 died from said gambason (more below). The bobbin tension has gone south and needs to be fixed. It's waiting for me to decide to spend the money for that, though (again, more below)

I had some moneyburning in my pocket in Dec 07-Jan 08 and I fell in love with my Viking Platinum. Wonderful twin cam motor, very powerful. Just the right combo of feel and available stiches. It was on sale, and the 735 was the bottom machine that had that engine. I think I paid about $800 for it. My Bernina started to be a dust collector.

Then came the Gambason of Doom. Platinum died. I switched to the Viking 1+. That died, so I finished with the Bernina 1008. I swear I felt like a gun slinger casing aside weapons as they ran out of ammo. Never before have I felt so good about being a collector of sewing machines!

Currently I'm doing all my sewing on my Bernina. I should break out my Viking #1 just to make sure it still works.

Well, I should hear about what the Platinum repairs are going to be before Monday. I may get the call while I'm at the Emprise of the Black Lion this weekend. Think good thoughts for that machine, folks, 'cause replacing that would be a big pain, given the current state of machines!