What kind of sewing machine to buy?

[DamnBamboo]

Hello all,

I am fairly handy around the house and have always been of the make do and mend variety as I really hate to throw things away. Never really had any major sewing repairs to do but more recently (and now my boys are older) I want to start making minor repairs to things (knees in jeans for example) as well as perhaps make some cushion covers etc, but I can't sew - with a machine anyway.

Not sure how difficult it will be - no doubt much harder than it looks, but I was wondering if anybody had any advice as to which machine would be a good idea for a complete novice like me, for the purposes of doing relatively simple jobs.

Any advice would be most welcomed.

many thanks

Hi there, I also bought a sewing machine to tackle the holes in boys' jeans!! Got this Janome one from John Lewis in January:

www.johnlewis.com/janome-7025-sewing-machine/p231340608

I'm not a bad hand-sewer, but was a complete novice on the machine. The instructions are really clear and I've found it really easy to use so far, although I've just been doing basic sewing so far (hemming, name labels, basic repairs and alterations eg turning ripped jeans into shorts). I'm still trying to figure out how best to do knee patches without needing to open the side seams (can't move the material enough to stitch length-ways, if you see what I mean - if I'm missing something obvious MNers, please tell me).

I really love using the sewing machine and wished I'd bought one years ago.

HTH

Janome are a brilliant brand, if you have a local independent sewing centre do go there as they will always be on hand with tips and help. For a good quality machine look at spending around £180 ish.

BlueMonday - does your machine have a sleeve set-up? Usually you slide off a section of the base so that the bit under the needle is left hanging out with clearance underneath it? You might need to practice a bit first, but it's fairly easy to sew in every direction without turning the fabric so long as you turn off the feed dogs. You set the stitch length to zero and sew slowly and move the fabric slowly to create the correct stitch length.

TerribleTantrums thanks for the tip, I'll look closely at my instruction book and see if I can do this.

Practise on a scrap first, it's not hard but it does take a bit of practise to get the stitches even.

A technique for patching that I haven't seen before here, but it does show how to drop the feed dogs and free motion stitching.

Sorry for the thread hijack damnbamboo. I second the Janome recommendation, I've had two and have found them pretty sturdy and reliable. If I was buying another one now I would probably buy a Pfaff, but that's because they are particularly good for quilting, which isn't what you need.