I've been lackadaisically shopping around for a new machine for quite a while, but just recently got serious in my quest. I tried out machines from Bernina, Janome, Singer, Brother, and Husqvarna. I would love to have a Bernina, it's what my mom has and what I learned to sew on, but they're incredibly expensive (her 40 year old machine sells for $400-600 on eBay). The first model the lady showed me was $3000. When I told her that was way out of my price range, she showed me one that was $1700, which was still on the high end of my price range. I went to another dealer to try out the Janome, Singer, and Brother. The sales ladies there were incredibly pushy and I was not impressed by their machines. At the Husqvarna dealer, I found a machine that had comparable features to the $1700 Bernina that I was shown, but for considerably less money. All of the machines that I looked at had computerized controls, but the computer's menu structure on the Husqvarna was the easiest for me to use.
A couple of weeks ago, I finally got a new machine. The model I got, the Sapphire 835, has about 100 stitches, 7 buttonhole stitches, and will embroider a simple alphabet. It does the most gorgeous blanket stitch that makes my heart flutter.
So far I've made a couple of aprons for my mom and I've lengthened a pair of flannel pajama bottoms that shrank in the wash. Nothing too exciting yet, but I have a list of things a mile long that I want to make.
I bought a desk, drawer unit, and shelf to hold all of my sewing clutter from IKEA (Swedish furniture for my Swedish machine). I found a cute old chair at a thrift shop and I'm working on refinishing it. My sewing corner in the spare bedroom has just now gotten to the point of being clean enough to show off.
I turned my grandma's sponge holder frog into a pin cushion by covering a scrap of foam with felt and stuffing it in his mouth. The shelf holds a handmade Rainbow Brite doll that I found at a thrift shop, a sock monkey that I made from a pair of tights, a few of my favorite sewing books (Denyse Schmidt Quilts, In Stitches, and The Practical Guide to Patchwork) and jars of old buttons and trim from my grandma.
My favorite part of the old Kenmore was the cover illustration on the manual. I'm going to hang a copy of it on the wall above my new machine.
