Shopping for sewing machines can be a bit overwhelming. Trust me, I just did this! I’ve bought 2 machines in 2 years. The sales websites and sales reps were busy trying to show their best features. My first shopping trips made my head spin.
How to decide between so many makes and models?
Did I need 65 decorative stitches??
Some machines cost as much as a small car?!!
Can you relate?
I needed a plan so my needs could control the shopping experience, not the best sales pitch and promo. You and I might decide to choose the latest and greatest features – that’s OK. It’s just important that we know what we really need the machine to do well, and the rest will be fun extras – like the cherries on the top!
Using 3 steps, I was able to find 2 machines, in 2 years, that were exactly what I needed, and for less than I expected to pay – wahoo!
Step 1: Decide what you Need
Why are you looking at a new (or new-to-you) sewing machine?
Clarify what your machine is not doing well. Are there features you need? Is yours broken and not worth repairing?
Here were my top needs:
- Auto Snips – I really wanted an auto-snip…Really, REALLY wanted an auto-snip. Yes, I am a quilter and I’m supposed to be chain piecing. But I’m a 4-H mom and we also do garment sewing. I had the chance to sew on a machine with auto snips and now I can hardly sew without them.
- Good Buttonhole – Again, I’m a quilter. I shouldn’t need a buttonhole. But when you need one, you need it to be decent.
- Excellent with heavy fabrics – including 6 layers of denim to hem jeans, or through a quilt sandwich.
- Extra Long Arm (Harp) – I really want to do more machine quilting so I wanted at least 9 inches or more.
Step 2: Bring Sample Fabrics
I created my plan of what I needed, and printed my comparison charts to make notes as I went from dealer to dealer. Sample fabrics are your next important step. I wanted a versitile new machine that could handle nearly anything I threw at it. So I brought the following sample fabrics – enough for each machine test.
Sample Fabrics:
- 2 8-inch squares of light colored quilting cotton
- 8 inch square of denim (old jeans in my case)
- 12 inch quilt sandwich (top layer of cotton, batting, bottom layer of cotton)
- 8 inch square of rayon with lots of drape
- 8 inch square of slippery polyester (like lining fabric)
- 8 inch square of any other fabric that’s been challenging for your machines
- Red thread (label yours) – it’s much easier to see stitches in a contrasting color, the dealers generally just used light thread
- Black thread (label yours) – I didn’t bother making bobbins, except for the final 3 machines in consideration.
Step 3: Free Comparison Worksheets
Here are my Comparison Pages and Comparison Charts. Customize them for what is important to you. I’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions – because I’m sure I’ll have my sights on another machine in the future 😉
I printed several Comparison Pages and test drove many, many machines. I loved having my list of important features right in front of me and the sales people stopped their “sales pitch” and instead helped me figure out how to test drive based on what was important to me – Score!
Back home, I spread out all of the Comparison Pages at the table and used the Comparison Chart to rate the machines against each other. Quickly, I was able to find my top 3-4 machines. For each of these “contenders,” I checked reviews on www.patternreview.com (free registration required) and in some cases got important questions to ask of the dealers.
So what was my result? I tested machines from Brother, Bernina, Elna, Janome, BabyLock and Pfaff. At the end of the day, I bought a Janome 8900 two years ago and I’m thrilled with this machine. It has many more features than I can ever imagine using, however, it lined up perfectly with my wish list: great buttonhole, powered through denim, 11 inch harp, AUTO-SNIPS (still the bomb after 2 years). Lots of machines have these, so what took this machine over the finish line?
I can machine quilt on it!
No, I’m not kidding here.
On every other machine, my machine quilting looked ridiculous. Yes, even the Bernina with the special foot and regulator.
But somehow on the Janome 8900, my machine quilting looks really good.
Two years later, I’ve quilted more than 4 quilts and lots of quilted gifts on my machine.
So, if I estimate that each machine quilt sent out would cost at least $150, my machine has saved me $600! That’s $600 I can apply to the cost of the machine – my husband affectionately calls this “wife math.”
Please feel free to share these worksheets with your friends. I would love to hear your suggestions. And if you buy a new machine, please let me know so I can cheer you!
When you download these free worksheets, I’ll also email you with the planning questions I used to determine my wishlist before going shopping.
Can’t wait to hear how your shopping trip goes!