My Sewing Machines!

Assalammu'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog.

I have been taking pictures of my sewing machines a little too much that someone start to dm and pm me to recommend a machine.

First of, I have 4 machines at home, with 4 different purposes. I guess with sewing you need to know what you want to do, and what you may have in your hands that need sewing before you can even ask "so what sewing machine would you recommend?" to anyone.

If you are a beginner just getting to know about sewing, I'd probably suggest a mid range machine. Why not just a basic one? To me, if you are a beginner, you will tend to abuse the machine. A basic one may die on you, or make your sewing journey a nightmare. Then again, there are also many advanced sewist who started with nothing more than a basic brother machine which cost S$99. I cannot handle that machine, it is noisy and unstable in my opinion. I have nothing against a Brother, I own one of their machine.

I grew up watching my mom on the vintage sewing machine, you know the one that uses leg power and some power hand leg coordination thingy. yep. When that kindda broke down, my mom decide to get it repaired and upgraded, she added a motor to the machine, and run it on electricity. She sews so fast back then, and when she is not looking and make me play on my own, i pretend that machine is many things, sometimes a cashier (because of the many drawers), sometimes a race car, sometimes a mini swing. Heh.

When we had to shift to a HDB flat, she brought that huge machine along with us. That huge monster was almost silent. I never get my sleep disturbed by that machine. We brought it along to the flat my dad bought as well. I think it was in 2001 maybe 2004 that my sister bought her a domestic sewing machine - the Janome 348. Then she bought herself the Sakura Serger.

The Janome 348 is still working even till today! She still brings it out to do simple sewing when required. I abused it in 2011/2, I didn't thread it properly, get fabric stuck at the dogfeed, broke a needle maybe two. And of course mom wasn't home when I did that. And she still works, to date. Not noisy, and sews beautifully.

I used that machine again 2015 when I reignite my desire to sew, right until I got my own machine in 2016. I bought the Janome Heavy Duty HD1000.

It being heavy duty means it would be able to take in my abuse. And I abuse it well. I sewn many things with it. Multiple layers, many different fabrics, from upholstery fabric to denim to slippery stuff, and many more. Then I trade in my mom's Sakura Serger for a Janome 4 thread serger, the 990D. Again, I abused it well, I probably worked on these two for hours in any one time non-stop. It didn't give any issues at all.

I bought the HD3000 for my new house, brought my HD1000 over. Left the serger so my mom can use when needed. I bought the Babylock Enlighten. That change my whole serging game. I had no worries abt tensions. I just serge, anything and everything, and I dont need to worry abt tension - at all!

With me sewing a lot of knits, I began to find some need for a coverstitch, and bought the Janome Coverpro 1000cpx. This one took me a month, maybe more, to tame.

I sold my HD1000, as I find myself using it lesser with the HD3000. I grew interest in embroidery and bought a 2nd hand Brother Innov-is 955. And feel in love hard, so hard, I got myself an upgrade in less than 6months. I bought the Brother Innov-is 800e.

And like that, I own 4 machines, 4 different functions, from 4 different store/vendor/individual.

The Janome HD1000,HD3000 & Serger 990D was from Uncle Freddy.
The Babylock Enlighten was from 2Quilters.
The Janome Coverpro 1000 cpx was from Mr Tan from GLL.
The Brother Innov-is 955 was from TSN member
The Brother Innov-is 800e was from SMH

Front most: Janome HD3000 (heavy duty domestic sewing machine), behind covered, Janome Coverpro 1000cpx (Coverstitch) and the Babylock Enlighten (Serger/Overlocker)

Brother Innov-is 800e (Embroidery only, goes up to 6x10 hoop)

I am currently eyeing a computerised quilting machine (not to quilt, just to sew). The Janome 3160qdc, it is light and computerised, I can just press start and stop, and do light sewing when I am scheduled for the procedure. No leg work, I think that might work as my spare machine just in case, as well. And this time I can probably get it from Ghim Soon. Maybe participate in a draw or something, and hope I get lucky to own it. Heh.

I think I will do a personal review of all 4 of my machines in separate entry. This shall be an introduction of what machines I have.

Until the next entry,
Jun

Wassalam