Buying the Best Sewing Machine For You Session 2: Breaking It Down

It used to be when you went shopping for a sewing machine, your only decision was do I want a straight stitch machine or a zigzag machine? It was relatively simple. Today, we have a myriad of options to choose from, thanks to technology. And because of technology, the terminology has exploded. Even your salespersons get some of the terms confused, and it can feel like you're working with a jumble of terms.

So let's get through them so that you're a sharp and savvy consumer when you go out to the marketplace. First off, machines today are electric. That's a term I want you to keep in mind. They're electric. That means they use electricity to power them.

They're plugged into the well, and that's what makes your machine go. There are human-powered non-electric machines that have the push pedal that you see some of the Amish using. But for the most part, those old-fashioned human-powered machines are found in antique stores. The machines that you will find at your sewing dealer are all going to be electric. Now, this machine is pretty big.

It's pretty sleek. It may look a little overwhelming. That's not your only choice, but I'm going to use it to show you some of the differences between the three major categories. The three main categories of machines are mechanical, electronic, that's part of where the confusion comes in, and computerized. A mechanical machine uses knobs and levers to create the stitch settings.

You will have to move a knob or a lever and get everything set up on your own. It uses mechanical linkages and cams that make the different stitches. The motor is a conventional or standard wound motor, which means it starts slow and speeds up and oftentimes may stall out at slower speeds, kind of like that manual transmission car when you're in first gear on a hill. It may wanna stall out on you, or at least it feels like it's going to. On the other hand, you have the electronic machine such as this one.

It uses circuit boards and has push-button controls. You'll have a digital display, and servos and stepper motors are used instead of the conventional standard wound motor so that you have full speed and full power, no matter what speed you're at. From the get-go, you are up and running. A computerized machine, on the other hand, is a programmable machine. While this machine looks pretty fancy, it is not a computerized machine, and that's because it's not programmable.

Computerized machines are programmable, meaning that you have memory. You have the ability to save to a thumb drive or to other external storage devices. You can interface with another computer, possibly wirelessly, depending on the model that you buy. You will have embroidery capability. It may not come with the embroidery attachment module, but you will have the capability.

And so you can download and transfer embroidery designs from your main computer over to your computerized sewing machines. Think of the electronic machine with its digital display as your iPad. You can use it. You can interface. You can touch the screen and make things happen, or you can press some buttons and make things happen on a smaller screen, perhaps, but you can't save your work.

That's the biggest difference between the electronic machine and the computerized machine. The next thing you need to think about is size, and size does matter when it comes to a machine. Couple of things you need to think about. This is called the arm of the machine. It's the distance between the needle and the vertical post.

This is your workspace, and it is important. On a short arm machine, it's going to be nine inches or less. It's going to be a much smaller work area. It's, eh, approximately that big. A mid arm machine such as this one is 12 to 17 inches.

And a long arm machine is anywhere from 18 inches to about 30 inches. Now, when you go into the dealer, this is another point of confusion. A lot of people consider a long arm machine to be the machine that's on a special table with a track and a carriage where you move the machine over the fabric to quilt. A lot of manufacturers and even dealers, eh, are very loose with the term, and they will take a machine that's actually a mid arm, and because it's riding on that carriage across the track, they'll call it a long arm machine. But a true long arm is one that has the long arm space under the top of the machine.

That's really how it could be determined. And a true long arm is 18 to 30 inches. The space vertically under the machine is called the harp. And technically, that is determined by the arm width and the height under the machine in square inches. I tell people, "Don't worry about that." It's not a measurement you see too often.

Instead, look at the machine, and see how big it is. The reason arm length and harp size are important is because especially if you're a quilter, you wanna have room to put your quilt under here and have it rolled up as you're quilting it and have plenty of space. The main time that you will use this is when you are machine quilting, and that's when it becomes critical. It also is critical if you do work with large amounts of fabric. Perhaps you're putting a applique on the middle of something, and you have a lot of fabric.

You want room to push it over here. Technically, or typically, I should say, you're going to see maybe more lights on the larger arm spaces. So these are all things to consider as you look at machines. You're also going to hear full-size versus 3/4 machine. This would be considered a full-size.

Ti's a relatively good-size machine. A 3/4 machine is much smaller. It's going to have that short arm. In fact, a lot of them are very short. You may see only about five to six inches in here.

But it's designed to be portable. It really cuts down on the weight. You'll find those machines are maybe about eight pounds at the most. They're smaller, so they have streamlined features. They're going to be very basic in what's offered, but they are more than adequate for most sewing.

It could be either mechanical or electronic, and it can be a travel machine or a class machine, or they're great for in the dorms. So don't rule them out. It depends on your needs. But that's the main difference between a 3/4 machine and a full-size machine. Then we need to think about free arm versus flatbed.

The free arm is a removable piece. It just slips off the machine just like that. And now you have this arm, literally an arm sticking out, and there's space all the way around it. This allows you to be able to do sleeves, cuffs, pants hems. Anything with a tight fit, you're able to do it much easier than if it was a flatbed.

When you put the module back on, you now have the flat bed, hence the term flatbed. Original sewing machines had the flat bed, and nowadays a lot of your commercial have the flat bed. You typically see them on straight stitch-only machines. I have it on a Janome 1600 that I use that's straight stitch-only, and it is considered a commercial version. I absolutely love it.

It goes about 1,000 stitches a minute, and it meets my need in my professional long arm studio for a lot of the professional type of work that I do. I absolutely love it. It's a great machine, but it's straight stitch only, and it is flatbed. Now, what about the quilting editions? It seems like every brand has a quilting edition, and how does that compare to the other machines?

Well, if you're a quilter in the market for a machine, don't be lured in by this. It's a marketing ploy. It really is. What they've done is they've taken the main features that quilters want and kind of grouped them together. Your stitches are going to have different versions of the stitches that most quilters want put in a specific area of the machine, but they're still gonna have all the rest of the decorative stitches that you can get on any other machine and a lot of the same features.

What I've seen is that you'll have several different versions of the straight stitch. Primarily, you have the straight stitch where it's down the center, lined up with the center of the needle. Then they'll have a stitch that's to the left of the needle or to the right of the needle. And those are things that you can do on any machine by simply pressing a button and moving your needle to the left or moving your needle to the right. And you can still do that on the quilters' machines if you want to go more or less for your needle positioning.

It's just kind of a convenience. You'll also have a series of stitches such as your blanket stitch. They'll have it facing left. They'll have it facing right. The blanket stitch is typically used for applique work.

They'll also take the commonly used stitches, decorative ones that are fun for crazy quilting, so you don't have to decide. It's a convenience factor. But you're gonna find those same features or same stitches, rather, on any of the other machines. The biggest thing they do is they group accessories. They're going to give you accessories that we find that quilters really enjoy, such as the 1/4-inch or piecing foot.

They're going to give you the narrow edge foot, which is wonderful for stitch in the ditch. They're possibly going to include a table that sets over the machine or right next to it that extends the bed and is wonderful for free motion quilting. They may also include a walking foot for your machine if it doesn't have the built-in integrated dual feed, such as this machine has. And I will demonstrate the integrated dual feed a little bit later in another session. All of these things, the walking foot, the piecing foot, the narrow edge foot, even the table for free motion, you can buy separately as accessories.

So make sure that if you do choose the quilting machine that it's really what you want and that another machine won't meet the need, and look closely at the pricing. It may or may not be the right machine for you. They're all very lovely. It's very convenient. But there really isn't a lot of difference between the two types of machines there.

When it comes to pricing, you may be getting some sticker shock. These machines today don't come cheap, and it's because there's a lot of engineering that goes into it. You're marrying a lot of mechanical processes with computerized processes, and it does cost a bit to develop that technology. There is a markup in machines, but there's a markup in cars and anything else that we buy. So when I come back, I'm gonna show you a cost analysis that may give you a reason to say, "Hmm, maybe I can afford this machine after all." If you haven't looked at the cost of a new machine lately, you might wanna sit down while I give you the price ranges.

An entry-level machine, you want to pay somewhere between 500 and $1,300. This is for getting a new sewer started or if you just want a travel machine or maybe a second machine for whatever reason. And you're probably going, "Wow, that seems kinda high, especially if I just wanna get a machine to get my kids started." I don't recommend going less than $500, and this is kind of a lot of people in the industry that I talk to say the same thing. The quality just isn't there. The machines are made entirely differently.

And I have just seen so many people have frustration and problems with these machines. If the machine is always jamming, if you're always having problems, you can't enjoy sewing. You're gonna throw up your hands, and you won't sew. If you have a machine that's reliable, that's easy to use, user-friendly, there's more chance you will use the machine and find enjoyment with that. And for a child starting out, a young teenager, it will set them on the path for a lifetime of enjoyment with sewing, so it's really a good investment.

Again, for an entry-level machine, 500 is the lowest amount I would spend, really. A mid-level machine, you're gonna be spending anywhere from 800 to $4,000. And for a top-of-the-line, you will be spending between 5,000 and $10,000. Embroidery machines can run anywhere from a basic machine will be $1,000, all the way up to $20,000 for a top-of-the-line machine. All right.

Oh, what about those 3/4 machines, the little travel machines? Typically, you're gonna see them anywhere between 300 and about $800. That would be the only exception to going below $500, and I would probably still stay closer to 500 to $800 on your travel machines. I think you'll be happier. The bottom line is you need to buy the best machine that meets your needs.

Let me say that again. Buy the best machine that meets your needs. But let me show you something that may change your mind. It's a way to analyze the cost that may make it that you say, "You know, that machine may not be that expensive after all." Let's say your machine cost $10,000. We're looking at that top-of-the-line sewing machine.

An estimated lifespan for a machine on the low end is 10 years. It's usually good between 10 to 15 years. Typically, people trade their machine sooner than that or right around this point, even the machine is still working very well, because they want different features, or they want the latest technology. But let's just use the lower end of 10 years. At that price, a $10,000 machine is gonna cost you $1,000 a year.

Over the course of the year, that's only $83 a month or $21 a week or less than $3 a day, about what you pay for your Starbucks, maybe even less. And your machine's gonna do a lot more than that coffee does. If your machine cost $5,000, which is a reasonable price for a low high-end machine, if you will, or even a top-of-the-line mid-line, mid-level, you're looking at 500 a year, $42 a month, 11 a week, or $1.57 a day. Pretty good investment. If you're down looking at a $2,500 machine, again, you're at 86 cents a day, less than a dollar a day.

I know it still seems like a lot of money, but you need to look at over the long term. This is an investment in you. It's an investment in fun. It's an investment in creativity. It's part of your entertainment expenses as much as going out to eat or going to the movies.

Another way I tell people to look at it is if you are one who gets a manicure and a pedicure, typically to get both runs somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 every two weeks, twice a month. That ends up being $100 a month that you're spending to get your nails to look gorgeous, about 1,200 a year. Guess what? You're halfway to the cost of that $2,500 machine. I think when you start looking at it in these terms, you'll decide that maybe you really can afford that machine of your dreams after all.