Their tips include questions you can ask yourself as well as different ways to approach shopping for a machine.

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork radio. Hello, and welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew within intention and joy.

Today we're talking about finding the best sewing machine for your budget, and we're going to cover our top ten tips for figuring out what you need in a machine, where to look for a machine, and how to approach your shopping.

We're not really necessarily going to recommend certain makes and models today, but we want to help you figure out what you need so you can find the one that's right for you.

All right, so our icebreaker today, Haley is, “Are there any sewing related terms that you're afraid to say out loud because you're afraid you're going to mispronounce them?”

Haley
Oh, my gosh. This is a good icebreaker. I think that the ones that I get tripped up on the most are pique. I think pique and oil just sounds sounds so wrong to my ear, but I think phonetically, that's how you would pronounce it. Also, there's voile that has an E at the end, though, so that makes sense. That just sounds prettier. I want noil to be “noal". That would be nicer to my ears.

Sarai
Yeah. I've heard people pronounce voile as voyle as well, which always sounds off to me, so I don't really know. But I think any sewing term that's in French or that is derived from French is a little bit anxiety inducing.

Haley
I feel like we put our little American twang on it.

Sarai
Yeah, like croquis. Croquis is a word that just sounds like, that's how I've heard every American say it, but it definitely sounds Americanized. When we were talking about this before, and I was mentioning that for a while, I worked a German company when I was in grad school, and almost all of the other employees, they had a whole bunch of interns. I was an intern there, and they were almost all German from Germany who came over to work there. And there was one guy there who was German. He'd also lived in the UK. So we had this really lovely German British accent, and he liked to make fun of the way Americans pronounce things. And I just thought it was hilarious to hear an American accent from somebody who was not American. He would say chocolate. Is that what it sounded like to him? When we would say chocolate? It sounded like chocolate. And he's very self-conscious about my American accent.

Haley
It's very like Fran Drescher pronunciation of chocolate. I appreciate it. I like it. I think it's cute.

Sarai
Does that always sound like, to non0Americans, we sound like Fran Drescher? I hope not.

Haley
Probably. I truly hope so. That brings me one step closer to her than I'm into it. I have this fantastic video on my phone somewhere of my husband pronouncing different, like, fabric substrates at a fabric store. At Mill End, which is a local fabric store here in Portland. They have signs above each section. He's, like, pronounced intentionally, just totally butchering it. So for silk charmeuse, he was saying, like, silk charm-use and just things along that line. It's hilarious. It's like a very niche sense of humor, though.

Sarai
I think one of the things that's hard about pronouncing words that have a derivation that's not in your native language is it's hard to decide whether you should try and emulate the actual pronunciation and accent or if that just makes you sound really pretentious.

Haley
Yeah, like a Giata Laurentis kind of thing. I always think of her. I'm like, Do I want to go there? Usually my answer is probably not, because then it feels like you're doubling down. Right. So what if I still mispronounce it? But then I'm really trying hard to say it very properly. It just feels like twice as embarrassing if you really mess it up.

Sarai
And it's kind of jarring, like if you're watching a newscast or something and they have an American accent, and all of a sudden they pronounce one word with a completely different accent. It's kind of weird.

Haley
I think some people can pull it off. When someone has very impeccable pronunciation, I think they can pull it off, and I kind of respect it. I don't know. I'm too self conscious. But I'm like good for you. You went, there you go, girl.

Sarai
Yeah, I get it. Because I don't think there's a right answer here. You're going to feel a little weird no matter what. All right, well, that was quite the tangent, but we welcome your icebreakers. So if you have an ice breaker for a future episode, if you're a member, you can go to Seamwork.com/go/icebreakers and let us know, and we'll probably use it on a future episode.

Haley
All right, so today we're talking about sewing machines. So whether you're buying your first sewing machine or you're maybe upgrading your sewing machine, this can be, like, a little bit of an intimidating process. If you're buying for the first time, you don't necessarily know what you're going to need or know how much you want to spend or need to spend to get those things. And if you're upgrading your machine, you still might be overwhelmed because you want a machine that you can grow into, but also you don't want to blow the bank. So, Sarai, how did you go about buying or finding your first sewing machine?

Sarai
My first sewing machine was a gift, so I was only 16 when I got my sewing machine, and it was a gift from my parents, so I didn't have really any input into it, which was fine because I wouldn't have known what I was looking for anyway because I hadn't even sewn at that point. So I didn't really have this issue when I first I think it was pretty inexpensive machine that they found at a place like Joann or something like that. What about you?

Haley
My first sewing machine, my stepdad bought it for me as a gift. And I was in school for fashion design, and I had only ever used industrial machines up to that point. And when I came home for Christmas, he took me to Sears because at that time there wasn't a Joann in the town where my parents live. And so he took me to Sears because that's where his grandma bought a sewing machine. In his mind, he's like, yeah, this is where you buy an appliance, and a sewing machine is an appliance. He took me there and they had like, three sewing machines because this is like 2006 or 2007 or something. And we just bought, like, the middle one. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive.

Sarai
That's how I buy wine.

Haley
Yeah, it's a pretty good strategy. In general, I stick to it to this day. But I knew how to sew. But I had never ever sewn on a domestic sewing machine, so I had no clue what I was looking for. Thankfully, this machine is still the same machine that I sew on today. And just by sheer chance, it ended up being a machine that was just kind of perfect for me.

Sarai
Is it a Kenmore machine?

Haley
It's a kenmore from Sears. It's like computerized, but like light computerization. But I mean, I've had it for a long time now. I've had it for 15 years and I just get it tuned up and it's great. I was in over my head when I bought it, but now it has everything that I need. I'm curious, what are the features on your sewing machine that you love?

Sarai
Oh, man, there's so many. So I currently sew on a BERNINA. I've been using BERNINA's for years now, and they have a lot of features. There's a lot that I really love about it. I love the number of stitches it has. There's a lot you can do with it. I love that it has a lot of specialty feet. BERNINA is kind of known for that, that you can get all kinds of specialty feet to do any kind of job that you want, which is really awesome because they're made really well, the feet are and they make a lot of specific sewing tasks a lot cleaner and easier. So I love that. And it's fun shopping for feet. I think a lot of the automatic features automatic buttonholes works really well. The invisible zipper foot works really well. I like the automatic thread cutter on it. I love just about everything about it. It's a fantastic machine. It's just a real versatile brand, I think. What about you? Are there features you really love on your sewing machine?

Haley
I'm like a sewing, as you know, a sewing minimalist. My machine has lots of different features and I don't use very many of them. But the three that come to mind are automatic buttonholes. I love. I also love well, I guess this is two and three kind of combined. I like the needle up down button because I just find that to be, like, really helpful when you're pivoting or when you're doing something and you want to have the control of your needle always landing in the down position. I love that feature, and I use it all the time. Those are probably, like, the only two fancier features on my machine that I actually use. Though there's a lot of things on my machine, particularly all of the fancy notches that I very rarely use. Are there features on your machine that you don't use very often?

Sarai
Yes, there definitely are. Well, actually, I thought of one more thing that I really like about this BERNINA, which is new to me with this particular machine. I bought this machine about a year ago, and that said, it has the bobbins that hold, like, twice as much thread. So they're like extra large bobbins. And that's fantastic because I hate running out of bobbin thread. It's the worst having to unthread your machine and then rethread it. It's very annoying. But also, I like to batch sew as much as possible, so if I'm sewing two garments in the same color, same fabric, I don't have to change out the thread. That's always really nice. I don't always do that, but when I do, it's really nice to have that extra large bobbin. But as far as features I rarely use, I think there are a lot of features on it I actually haven't even discovered yet or haven't tried yet. There's a ton of stitches, and obviously I haven't used all the stitches yet. I do like having access to a lot of stitches because I like playing around with different sort of, like, heirloom sewing techniques and things like that.

And it's nice to have a variety of stitches to be able to play around with that. Any kind of embroidery on it, I don't use. My old BERNINA also had some embroidery stitches, and that's something I specifically don't look for in a BERNINA, but it just came with some because BERNINA does have machines that do a lot of machine embroidery. That's one thing. One of the reasons I bought this particular model is I wanted to try some free hand quilting. And they showed that to me when I bought it, and I thought I would use it on this particular project I was working on. And I haven't gotten around to it yet. So that's something that I have not done with it yet, but I think I will eventually. What about you? Are there a lot of features on your machine that you don't use besides the stitches?

Haley
You know, it's really just like you. I'm sure that if I broke out my manual, there would be, like, some features that I just have never explored before, but mainly it's the stitches. It's a computerized machine, but like I said, it's 15 years old, so it's not quite as advanced as a lot of machines that have come out in the last five years. Even so, really, it's just a lot of those decorative stitches. Once in a while I'll break them out. It has like a letter embroidery feature that I use. Once in a while. I put a little quote on Charley’s baby quilt when I made her one and things like that. Once in a while I'm thankful that I have it. But my week to week regular sewing, I'm like straight stitch, zigzag stitch, some stretch stitches, buttonholes. That does it for me, fulfills my sewing needs. If you are going to go look for a new machine today, what features would you look for? What would you shop for?

Sarai
I think a high quality machine is obviously the most important, something that has really high quality parts and is going to last a long time. I would look for a computerized machine, probably, but I like mechanical machines, too. But I think for me specifically, I like things like the automatic buttonholes and a lot of the features that come on computerized machines, I'm just used to them. That's what I've been sewing with for a long time. I love, like I said, the big bobbin feature. If that was something that was an option, I would definitely look for that. I also really like having a knee lever, personally, for raising and lowering the needle. I use that a lot. I know some people don't like it. We had BERNINA in the studio, and I know people who are sewing on it would take out the knee lever and not use it. But I personally love it. So that's something I would definitely look for. What about you?

Haley
I'm kind of torn because I've been considering getting a new machine. And I'm unsure whether I want to get something kind of like a little bit more of an upgrade in terms of something computerized with all of the cool bells and whistles or if I would want something that is more of a workhorse machine that's like a home industrial that just does like a straight stitch in a zigzag or something like that. I definitely would shop for a knee lever, though. I remember when I switched over from industrial machines to home sewing machines, I would, like, reach for the knee lever with my knee and like, a phantom knee lever that wasn't there. And it took me years to stop doing that. I would love to incorporate that feature back into my life. I don't know why the presser foot lever has to be in such, like, an awkward place. It's so awkward. There has to be like I'm sure there's like, a technical reason for that, but it just never feels like a good place.

Sarai
And it's so helpful to be able to use your knee to just raise the needle up a little bit so you can use both your hands to position the fabric. If you're trying to do something really precise, it's just really helpful and it's faster. So that's definitely something I appreciate. All right, well, we're going to get into some tips that might help you. If you're thinking about shopping for a new machine and if maybe it's your first machine, or you're thinking about upgrading your machine, or you just need a new machine, I think these will be really helpful questions to ask yourself and sort of things to think about as you go through the process.

So we've got ten tips, and the first one is about stitches. So we talked about all the stitches that come on our machines and that's the first thing to consider. Ask yourself, do you really need all those stitches? So there are stitches that are bust darts and then there are stitches that are nice to have and you may or may not need those. Nice to have stitches. You may or may not actually end up using them.

Sarai
So that's just something to think about. And if you are somebody who is, this isn't your first machine. If you've had a machine for a while, think about whether you've used these or you would have wanted to use these if you'd had them. So some of the musthave stitches, stitches you should definitely have on your machine. Straight stitch, obviously zigzag stitch. There are machines that don't do a zigzag stitch, few and far between, but that's something to look for. And then some kind of buttonholes. So the ability to do a buttonhole would be another one. You can create a buttonholes with the straight stitch and the zigzag stitch, but it's nice to have a feature on the machine specifically for making buttonholes. So I'd say those are the three really pretty important stitches for home selling of clothing.

And then there are a whole bunch of nice tabs. There are just tons and tons of stitches that you can get on your machine. Some of these might be the stretch or lightning stitch, which is great for sewing stretch fabrics on your non-serger machine. A faux overlock so you can replicate the look of an overlock on your machine.

Sarai
A blind hem stitch, so you can create blind hems. These are all really nice to have if you're going to use them. If you're not going to use them, it might not be something that you want to pay extra money for. So that's the first one. Just think about the stitches. I think a good practice might be to just if you have a machine to jot down which of the stitches on your current machine that you've used, and if there are ones that you haven't used, you might think to yourself, oh, well, maybe I will need it in the future. But if you haven't even really looked for that or thought about using it, then it might not be something that you need. So that's tip number one.

Tip number two, which goes along with that is just pay for what you actually need versus things that you're not going to need. So the things that you should prioritize, first of all are basic sewing quality. So does it sew well? Does it do a good job with the regular straight stitch, just overall sewing quality? And that's something that you shouldn't cheap out on.

That's the first thing to consider. Then from there, there's going to be a whole bunch of features. We're not just talking about stitches, but a whole bunch of features that you might use and you might not use. And when you're in a store environment and you're talking to a dealer, they are going to be really helpful. They're going to answer a lot of questions for you and they're going to demonstrate a lot of the cool things your machine can do or this potential machine can do. But remember, they are salespeople so they're going to be showing you things that are really cool, but they might be features that you're not really going to use. So just bear in mind that when you're in that environment, there's lots and lots of cool stuff you could get on your machine and the dealers are going to try to convince you that this is something that you should have and it may be something you want, it may not be something you want. So just kind of go into it with that mindset, recognizing that just because something seems really cool in the store, it doesn't necessarily mean you need to pay for it. So that's tip number two.

Tip number three is to buy from a dealership rather than a big chain. So I mentioned earlier, my first machine I think came from like a Joann or a place like that. Haley said hers came from Sears. Nothing against those places, but if you can buy from a dealership, you're going to get better long term support for your machine and you're also going to have a place to ask questions and get help in the future. So the dealers are really going to be there for you to provide that extra support that you might need after you make that initial purchase. A place like Sears, which doesn't really specialize, I don't know if they even sell machines anymore. I don't think they actually sell sewing machines anymore. But if you went to like a Walmart or another huge chain store, you're not going to be able to go back there and ask questions and even get lessons or figure out things that might be a little bit confusing to you. So if you go to a dealership, you'll have a much better experience after the purchase. So that's the third tip to buy from a dealership.

But if you can't find a dealer our tip number four is to look for a webinar. So often a dealer is only going to carry one brand. So you'll find like a BERNINA dealer. Here in Portland, we've got a few different BERNINA dealers, and these are either sewing stores, so they might be fabric stores that are also BERNINA dealers, or it might be like a store that does sewing machines and vacuums. So you've probably seen those stores and they might be BERNINA dealer. And that's true of other brands as well. So often these dealers are only going to carry sometimes they'll carry multiple brands, but often they'll only carry one brand. And if you educate yourself with webinars before the fact, you can actually explore multiple brands and figure out which brand might be the best for you before you decide which dealer to go to. So doing some of that initial research on the web and watching some of those videos, which can be really helpful on their own, will help to kind of get you the education you need to even start making that initial decision about what brand of machine that you might be interested in.

So that's a really good way to go. And that's something that wasn't available to us probably when we were getting our first machine. So it's a really helpful feature, I guess, a really helpful thing that's available to us now. All right, so that's tip number four.

Tip number five is to sit down and actually sew on the machine. So when you go to the dealer, when you go to actually learn about the machines in person, make sure that you're able to sit down in front of the machine and actually do a little bit of sewing. Because sometimes you're going to find things that you absolutely hate about the machine when you're actually sewing. Or you might find things that you actually really love about it. For example, if you've never used a knee lever before and you get to use it in the store, you might find, oh, I can't get used to this. This is really uncomfortable. Or you might find, this is amazing. I can actually use both my hands to position the fabric like I was talking about. So actually being able to physically sit down and sew is going to be really helpful to determining that. So that's the fifth tip.

Tip number six, which is sort of related, is to take swatches of the fabric that you expect to sew the most and try sewing on the machine with them. So when you go to the dealer, they might only have one type of fabric to sew on and that might not be something that's applicable to you. So it might be like a canvas or something like that that's really nice and stiff and easy to sew on. And that's great. That'll show you it's great for showing the stitch quality, showing you what the stitches look like and everything. But you might be sewing on a whole variety of fabrics, and you want to make sure that you know what it's going to look like on the types of fabrics that you're actually going to sew. So bring those with you. Just bring some swatches with you and try it out and see how it feels and maybe even get some help and how you might need to adjust things, adjust your stitches and adjust the tension and things like that. And you might actually learn more about how you would actually interact with the machine than you would if you're just using the stuff that they provide.

So that's a really good idea. And if you sew knits, if you're planning to sew knit with your machine, be sure to bring those two because that's going to be a different sewing experience than sewing with a woven fabric. And again, you might get some tips from the dealer about the best way to sew with knits on that particular machine. Different stitches. That might be good working with knits on that machine. You'll just learn a lot more if you bring a variety of fabrics with you. So that is tip number six.

And then tip number seven is this is kind of like the goldilocks thing. You want to get a machine that you can grow into, but not so big that you feel intimidated to use it. What you don't want to happen is you don't want your machine to become an obstacle to sewing. I think anytime you get a new machine, it's going to be a little bit of an obstacle because there's going to be new things to learn and already you've got like a little bit of a hurdle. Now, I know when I bought my new machine, it sat in the box for well, I had just moved, so that was another obstacle.

But it sat in the box for quite a while, while I kind of figured out where it was going to go and how I was going to use it and what all these new features were. It took me a while to get sewing with it, and I think that's true usually when you get a new machine, even if you're sewing with it right away, to really, really get into it. So the more you can reduce that, the better, while still getting a machine that's going to serve you for years to come. So that's a really good reason to kind of look at the feature set and make sure that it's something that's not going to feel super intimidating to you, that you feel like you can baste and get into in a pretty short amount of time. So that's just something to keep in mind. Another reason not to kind of go whole hog when you're buying your machine and get the most expensive feature rich thing you could possibly get, it's not just about the money, it's also about the use and how easy it is to use.

So tip number eight is to gather as much information as you can, but be mindful when it comes to reviews. So reviews are extremely helpful. You'll find a lot of great information if you just Google the make and model the machine that you're thinking about. There are lots of websites out there in places where people post reviews of their machines. The only thing that we'd caution is be sure to put more weight on the reviews that are relevant to your type of sewing. So if these reviews are coming from people who primarily do quilting, for example, they don't do a lot of garment sewing, then they're going to have a really different experience than somebody who is sewing garments, sewing different types of fabric, sewing, knits, that type of sewing. It just requires different features and it's a totally different feel. So that's just something to keep in mind. Look for reviews from people who are doing the type of sewing that you're doing and you'll get a lot better idea of what might work for you and what might not work for you.

So tip number nine is don't be afraid to buy used either. You can find some really good deals on used machines because most high quality machines are designed to last for decades.

They're not just like a computer that you need to replace every few years. Unfortunately, it's something that you will have for a long time if you get a high quality machine. And buying used is a great way to save money. I know some of the machines, even from Haley, mentioned having a Kenmore. Some of those Kenmore machines, like from the 60s still are going strong. They still work extremely well. They're workhorses they're made with all metal parts, some of them are, and they just last a really long time and still do a fantastic job. So if you decide to go for used, just be sure to get it tuned up. So once you get that new machine, take it in somewhere and make sure that it's been serviced and it's ready to go. And that's going to make it perform great for you right off the bat. The other thing you might want to consider is to just make sure that you can still buy parts and get the feet that you might need for it. So just make sure that those are available and that machine can still be serviced somewhere. If you're getting like an old Kenmore, it's like an old car, they're actually easier to repair in a lot of cases than a newer computerized model. So that's another really great thing about them.

And then tip number ten is if you're still stuck, a really good place to ask for more direction is in the Seamwork community or another community online of your choice. But if you've narrowed it down to a few choices, it's really nice to have a community to go to, to. Ask and see what other people with those machines think about it. It's a great place to ask about features that you might not have considered or figure out if a certain feature or a certain model might be useful for garment sewing as compared to other types of sewing. So the great thing about the Seamwork community is it's community of garment sewers and it's a very large community, very active community and people there are super, super helpful. So if you're thinking about a certain machine, that is a fantastic place to ask questions. And I think just think having a community around you where you can ask those kinds of things and get some feedback is invaluable not just for buying a sewing machine, but for any kind of big decision that you might be coming up against with your selling or things you're struggling with.

So that's tip number ten and that wraps it up. I've been talking for a long time, those are top ten tips for getting a new sewing machine and I hope they're helpful.

Haley
Yeah, I just want to run through those tips one more time because there is a lot of them and I also think that they're really helpful. So tip number one is to ask yourself if you really need all of those stitches. Make sure you are prioritizing your must haves and your nice to have and not getting swayed by lots of fancy things you may not necessarily use. Number two is pay for what you really need. Again, you're wanting to prioritize the things you're going to use, prioritizing baste quality and not getting swayed by bells and whistles that aren't necessarily super relevant to your sewing. Tip three is to buy from a dealership rather than a big chain. Tip four is if you can't find a dealer look for webinars. These can be really helpful for exploring multiple brands. Tip five is to sit down and actually sell on the machine. Some things you just won't know until you have a little bit of first hand experience with it. Tip six is to take swatches to the dealership. Lots of times they're only going to have one fabric available to you and bringing some fabric with you is going to help you test out in a more realistic way, but also might give them a little information on the features that you actually need.

Tip seven is to get a machine you can grow into but isn't so big and intimidating that you don't want to use it. So we don't want to create too much of an obstacle by this really intimidating machine. Tip eight is to gather as much information as you can but be mindful of reviews and definitely place a little more weight in those reviews that are written by sellers who maybe have similar sewing practices as you. So the same kinds of things. Tip nine is don't be afraid to buy used lots of machines, good quality ones are meant to last for years and years. So buying used can be a great option. Just make sure that you're getting it tuned up and that you're still able to buy any parts or feet that you might want. And tip ten is if you're still stuck, ask the sewing community. Ask the Seamwork community. Chances are there's going to be someone on the community with maybe the exact same machine as you or the one you're looking at. Or maybe they have some tips for similar types of machines. So that's a really great resource for you to explore when you are considering a new machine.

I think that my big takeaway from this episode is I really like the machine that I currently have. I think lots of times I get this feeling that I should get some fancy machine because this is my job and everybody else has fancy machines, so maybe I need one. But I like my machine. It does the job and I just don't know if I'm ready to spend more money on something that's going to be maybe a little redundant in my life.

Sarai
That's related to what I was thinking, which is that buying a sewing machine is a lot like buying anything else in your life. There's a lot of pressure to have more and it can be really exciting to see all the cool stuff you could have. But it's not just a matter of the money you spend on it, but also the complexity that it adds to your life. The more you have, the more complexity you have in your life. And sometimes going simple is the best option for you, not just because it saves you money, but also because it just makes things a little bit easier. And I think that's true for sewing machines, but it's also true for the amount of clothing you own, for the amount of technology you own, for the amount of just things that you own. So I thought that was an interesting thought that came to me as we were talking about this.

Haley
For those of you who want to learn a little bit more about machines, you got machines on the brain. You can check out some other resources we have. We have a video called Five Tips for Sewing Machine Maintenance and we also have a couple of articles you can check out an article called The Anatomy of a Sewing Machine and an article called How to Maintain Your Sewing Machine. And we will link all of those in the show notes. And if you want even more resources on sewing machines and tools and all of that fun stuff, we are creating currently right now, a guide to sewing tools and equipment which should be released by the time this episode is published. So we will link that in the show notes as well.
Sarai
And we'd also like to mention that if you are somebody who is new to sewing, if you're thinking about buying your first sewing machine, we also have a new premium course out there called Learn to Sew Clothing for Absolute Beginners that Haley and I taught. So if you would like to learn all about sewing your own clothing and this is something that is new to you, check that out on our website, and we'll put a link to that in the show notes, as well. All right, and that wraps us up for this week I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.