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Posted by Erin on March 23, 2008, 7:12 am
On 22 Mar, 18:49, imaanjoshi_at_gmail_dot_...@foo.com (imaan) wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am new to the world of sewing, and am currently taking my first class after
not having sewn much since high school. I am really enjoying it,
Hej from Sweden!
I'll turn 44 in a couple of weeks and have sewn during most of my 4
decades of life! Don't laugh, I remember DEMANDING a needle and thread
at the age of 4 because I wanted to sew just like my beloved
Grandmama. :-)
The best advice I can give is, just do it! See if you can get hold of
remnants or cut-up old sheets or get scraps from a sewing buddy and
just practice! Try out all the different bells and whistles on you
machines. The great thing about cheap (or free) fabric is that you can
feel free to experiment without worrying that you'll mess-up!
If you want to have a finished product at the end of the day, tote
bags are simple and then you can use them to store your odds and
ends.
Hope this helps! I'm afraid I need to put-on a pot of Darjeeling tea
soon so my poor brain will wake-up. . .
Erin
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Posted by Sarah Dale on March 23, 2008, 6:42 pm
imaan wrote:
> down the track, if I enjoy it and am good at it, I might dabble with
> quilting, for the grandkids (that's abt 20 years away, my kids are 2 years
> and 8 mths!)...so where do I start?
Just be prepared for not a lot of time to sew....... my sewing time has
approached zero since DD joined us......
Sarah
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Posted by trisha f on March 24, 2008, 1:46 am
On Mar 22, 12:49=A0pm, imaanjoshi_at_gmail_dot_...@foo.com (imaan)
wrote:
> Ideally, any and all machines I obtain I hope, will last me 10 or more
> years. How does one know what brand is good?
I started with a Singer that my first husband got from a pickup pile
at a neighbor's curb. It had a knee pedal. It did a straight stitch,
and I think that was it. I used it for 5 years. I progressed through
several used and re-conditioned inexpensive Singer machines bought at
repair shops. I think at the time the most I paid for any of them was
$75. They all did the basic stitches, and a couple even did a manual
buttonhole stitch. They never required repair....never broke
down...and I ended up giving them to someone else. A few are still in
use, from what I hear. My daughter has the machine she learned on. I
gave it to her older sister, and her older sister got a little bit
newer one on Freecycle with cams and such so she passed the other one
on to Becky, who is thrilled to get "her" machine back.
I have a Janome 4800QC for my quilting and fancy stitching work. I
got it for $700, half the retail price, from a lady who bought it,
used it for 4 hours, and decided she didn't want to take the time to
get to know all its little doodads and gizmos so she sold it to me and
bought a much more simple machine. Anything too big for this machine
either gets hand quilted or sent out when I have the money.
My workhorse is a simple Kenmore. No computerization. No up-down
needle thing. It does have a buttonholer, and a few extra stitches,
but not much. I use it for denim, fleece, flannel, and basic
piecing. Rag quilts are handled by this machine much better than on
the Janome, which prefers lighter-weight material.
Those machines, well maintained, I expect to last me a long, long
time. I clean them regularly, change the needle with each new
project, and stay away from cheap thread.
I would, one day, like a basic embroidery machine, so I can
personalize the quilts I make for the grandkids as well as other
things like shopping bags, and make labels for the things I sell with
more than just letters on them.
I prefer the more simple machines because they are easier to maintain,
cheaper to fix, and on my not-so-smart days, less capable of totally
destroying a project I might be working on strictly due to user error.
I guess what machine you get depends on what you want to do and what
your budget is. I stick to the tried-and-trues for budget reasons as
well as for functionability and the fact that they provide what I need
and not a lot of what I won't ever use. It's the same reason I drive
a used Pontiac instead of a BMW. My lifestyle just doesn't call for
it.
Trisha in MO
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Posted by imaan on March 23, 2008, 10:22 pm
imaan had written this in response to
http://www.sewgirls.com/sewing/Re-Advice-please-30947-.htm :
thank you to everyone that replied with advice, I appreciate it; if there
are more of you out there, please keep the advice coming, I can never get
too much!
I shall see how I go...I suppose the main reason my husband is pushing for
the model with the bells and whistles is that he thinks I am likely to
detour into quilting and the like eventually; he is probably right. When
we had our daughters, NO ONE made them quilts, or knitted for them etc. My
mother does not sew or do anything of the sort; and my mother in law does,
but told us she is too busy with her own life to do such things. :-) And I
feel, I want to do nice things like that for my kids and grandkids, rather
than just buying something from a shop. how sentimental is that!
So anyways, my husband thinks I ought to get the fancy computerised model
for what he hopes I shall grow into, so that I don't end up wasting a
machine by throwing it out or giving it away, and buying another...
we shall see. As someone else advises, each is different, and it comes
down to testing them out to see what works for me.
Thank you again...I shall keep you all updated. I opened the box of my
Pfaff hobbylock (It has four spools, and I suspect it is a 4/3 model)
yesterday, but have not dared to use it yet:-) I have reserved a book on
knowing your serger from the library, and waiting to pick it up...tips are
always appreciated.
Imaan
Sydney Australia
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Posted by Samantha Hill - take out TRASH on March 24, 2008, 4:32 pm
imaan wrote:
>
> So anyways, my husband thinks I ought to get the fancy computerised model
> for what he hopes I shall grow into, so that I don't end up wasting a
> machine by throwing it out or giving it away, and buying another...
Seriously -- get a basic but well made inexpensive machine and use it
for a few years. I know too many people who, in the pre-computerized
days, even, spent TONS of money on a machine that they expected to grow
into and ended up either not continuing with sewing or else being so
overwhelmed that they ended up not using the machine.
You can trade in your basic machine on a computerized model, but to
spend $5000 (USD, anyway) on something that you might end up not using
much is a total waste when a $500 mechanical machine would be just as
well built and last you decades longer, if not an entire century.
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