Am contemplating buying a new sewing machine, help please

[duchesse]

I seem to be doing a lot of "heavy" sewing at the moment- throws and bed spreads, and my ancient Toyota just isn't up to the job. Since I'm about to start sewing together four suedette floor cushions, which will certainly not be my last projects ever, I would really welcome some advice about machines. It's been a while since I bought one. I'd also quite like to be able to do monogramming and naming straight onto garment. Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance, boring thread I know

John Lewis have very knowledgeable sewing machine staff. I have a very ancient Elna that I bought in about 1983. It is used very regularly and still going strong.

look at a Janome, John Lewis should stock them although i bought my lovely janome memorycraft 9000 from ebay and am very pleased with it.

I teach textiles, so we have have to have tough machines that are fairly kidproof.

Bernina are the best without a doubt, but expensive.

Brother do very good embroidery machines which we have at school, some of which will do normal stitching. However the multi purpose ones are veeeeery expensive. (like £2000), but do everything including huge letters, and embroidery programmes

If you want the best advice find the supplier which supplies your local schools, these will have the most knowledge (even better than John Lewis!)

Thanks for your suggestions ladies. I am thinking about this Janome DC 4100, which also happens to be reduced in our local sewing shop to £349. That seems quite a bargain given the online prices I've been able to find for it. What do you think, and what do you think about Janome in general (I notice a few people have quoted Janome). The lady in the shop was not very complimentary about Singer and Toyota- she thinks they've lost their edge. What do you think?

Jealous??

Try being there when the entire class manages to jam the machines at the same time..sometimes I want to run away..

Although the rest is fun

oh me too, I would appreciate some advice Fizzbuzz. Would you choose Bernina over Pfaff if the Pfaff was a bit cheaper? I'm trying to decided between this Pfaff and this Bernina

I love my Janome 4800, and the machine you're looking at has my three favourite features - auto declutch for bobbin winding, needle up/down and top loading bobbin. My old machine was the bottom of the range John Lewis one, and I was getting a sore wrist when piecing quilting blocks from turning the wheel to get the needle down for turning a corner - the up down button is brilliant.
Enjoy whatever you end up getting!

I have a Janome Memory Craft 6500 and it's brilliant - it's specially adapted for quilting and very tough - goes through leather and is excellent for heavy sewing

It does monogramming/embroidery but the down-side is the lettering is quite small ...max about 1 cm high I think ... but don't quote me on that as I haven't got the manual to hand right now!

Overall, it's very easy to use and reliable though ...

i'd go for a bernina. expensive, but quality.

I agree that Bernina are the creme de la creme - I really wanted one - but I found out the parts were really shockingly expensive and quite difficult to come by where I live, so I opted for the Janome instead.

If the parts aren't a problem, I agree a Bernina should last you a life-time and they are used by the pros ...