Need some advice about finding a machine

[Cheer Bear]

Hi I'm Kathie and I am a new quilter and just love it. I have been sewing since high school(40+ yrs) but have not done any quilting or embroidery until now. I'm hooked on the quilting and am now thinking I would like to do some embroidery too. I have been looking at machines but am totally confused. There doesn't seem to be a lot of help available so I am turning to all of you. Where do I start? I've done some of my research online and read many reviews of different machines. It seems as if the reviewers either really love their machines or are ready to use them as boat anchors. As a beginner in embroidery, what should I look for? Any advice is welcome.
Thanks!
Kathie

[fun2sew]

Kathie,

Welcome to the club... my advice is because you are going to get hooked and love it, if you can afford it get a machine that has a hooping bigger than 4x4. Then you can do the Dolly Mama Designs.
You will not have to upgrade sooooooooooooo soon! I think we all here have different machines and if you can go through a dealer and take classes that would be helpful too.

I have Brother BabyLock Machines (love them) and had no trouble with them at all.

Maybe others can give you more advice...... Welcome and HAVE FUN!

[StitchinGrandma]

Welcome Kathie to the Embroidable forum. You will love this site and the designs are awesome too. The members here on the board are very friendly and helpful so I'm sure you'll be hooked in no time and be spending as much time as the rest of us have here.

Because I've been around since the forum was added to the site I remembered there have been a few threads with some good advice/info exactly what you are looking for. I used the search feature which is in the upper right corner of the page and found some of those for you to read through. That way you'll have more comments to read through until the members see your question and can give their comments to you.

One is here (http://www.embroidables.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1465&highlight=machine+advice) This thread had multiple questions so there will be more info than what you wanted but, the comments about buying and which machine are also there.

Another here (http://www.embroidables.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1220&highlight=machine+advice) and in there I placed a link to this thread with questions about buying a serger but, in that thread was my thoughts on which machine to buy. My advice is the same whether you are looking for a embroidery machine or a serger. Test sew every brand to find which one YOU feel more comfortable using. That's the biggest thing I can say.

When buying a machine you have so many things to consider and some may be more important to you than others. This would be my initial list to look for in a machine.


Cost - what are you able to afford. Check out the financing options each brand offer because many of them are very good deals offering no interest for 12 months
Location - how far are you willing to drive for classes, service, supplies etc.? Buying your machine from a dealer further away from your home may make you less likely to go there very often to get classes or to learn the different techniques you want to learn on your machine.
Options - what comes with the machine as compared to other brands?
Personality - how friendly is the dealer you will have to speak to in the store you purchase your machine from? If they are not overly freindly or outgoing then do you really want to buy from them? Keep in mind these machines are at times complicated to learn depending on the technique/presser foot being used so you really want to have a very freindly dealer since you will be 'picking' their brain quite often in the first six months or more of owning that machine.
Feel of the machine - the days of machines being the same are long gone and each now have thier own personality. You need to feel comfortable in using your machine so test driving every brand you are considering is a huge thing to do. Go and test each machine and see how you like each one because you may be told by many that this or that machine is the best yet you might find that for whatever reason you don't like it. Your own 'feel' of the machine while testing is going to be your best advice to follow.You really would be best in taking your own fabrics with you to test each machine so that you can see how each of the different machines act on the same fabric. Many dealers are going to have fabric samples but they might not be the same as another dealer so then you are attempting to compare apples to oranges. When using your own fabric you then control your tests and how they act on the same exact fabric in each store. Any salesperson that refuses to allow you to test on your own fabric is one I personally would walk away from because there is no reason you shouldn't be allowed to do that. I have heard of this happening in the past and still don't understand other than the fabrics they use are going to be those which will show that machine in its best light and they know there will be no problem testing on those.

In asking others you are going to find that each person will just LOVE their own machine and then give you reasons why you should buy that one. Listen to their comments but, go yourself to every dealership and test drive every single machine you think you might want. Treat this search the same as you would when buying a car.

And I totally agree with getting a machine which has the capability of the 5x7 stitching field. I would not buy anything less than that size as the minimum. You WILL be sorry if you do; that much I can promise you. I've read numerous posts by others in all the groups I am a member of that they are so sorry for getting a machine which won't stitch any designs larger than the 4x4 hoop size. Oh and that is another thing, these machines will all do a 4x4 size hoop BUT, some aren't truly a 4x4 stitching field and are smaller. If you get one like that then you're going to find you have problems when you purchase designs which state they are for a 4x4 hoop. You will be resizing the designs down further to fit your 4x4 hoop because it doesn't have the 4x4 stitching area. I'm sorry but I do not recall which machine that is.

Lastly, I did not know anything about the tackdown stitch which my machine has and that not all machines have that. I would not buy a machine which doesn't have that feature because it's a often used thing when I am doing things which can't be hooped and must be floated over the hoop. You'll need to tackdown the fabric to the stabilizer which was hooped to secure the fabric down. Without the tackdown stitch capability you then have to use pins or glues.

I'll shut up now. :D

[debmac]

I totally agree with getting a bigger than 4 X 4 hoop. I would suggest to get the biggest hoop size that you can afford. The main thing that my machine does not have that I wish it did is the ability to cut jump stitches automatically. Also to buy from a good dealer. One that not only will teach you all about your machine but also teaches classes that interest you. The more they have the more you want to learn.

[Cheer Bear]

Thanks, all of you. I am starting a notebook with all of your suggestions plus any others I get. I will also continue my research with dealers here in town. We don't have many but a larger city is within an hour drive. I do have an excellent repair shop about five minutes from here and he repairs all machines and most of the time he has the machines in and out of the shop within a couple of days.

I am glad to see you all think that a larger hoop is important. I thought so too but wasn't sure. Isn't it amazing how personal a sewing/embroidery machine is? I love my regular machine and don't want to give it up.

Now I have questions.

1. There are some machines that are meant for a combination of regular sewing, quilting and embroidery. That is the type of machine I think I want but do they do all those functions well or is quality in one or more functions less in the combination machines. Is is better to have a machine just dedicated to embroidery?

2. Are there books available that explain machine embroidery? I caught a couple of terms in your responses that I am unfamiliar with such as "tack down stitch" and "cut jump stitches". I am sure there are more.

3. What are some of the features on a machine that you simply cannot do without?

This site is going to be so much fun.

Kathie

[StitchinGrandma]

Thanks, all of you. I am starting a notebook with all of your suggestions plus any others I get. I will also continue my research with dealers here in town. We don't have many but a larger city is within an hour drive. I do have an excellent repair shop about five minutes from here and he repairs all machines and most of the time he has the machines in and out of the shop within a couple of days.

Be very careful at using another repair tech. The manufacturers of these machines, the same as any other product you would buy for your home, while under warranty MUST be repaired at the proper place. Anyone who is not an authorized repair technician for the brand of machine you buy will very possibly void your warranty the second he opens up your machine to do any repairs. If this is something you want to do then I VERY highly suggest you speak to the dealer(s) you are considering buying a machine from and ask them about this. AND I very VERY highly suggest that you get it in writing that they will approve another technician to repair your machine without voiding your warranty. I've seen horror stories of potential buyers asking questions similar to this and then after they've purchased the machine in that store they find the salesperson wasn't quite truthful. You do not want that to happen to you. Most dealers are going to tell you the truth but, there are some which are more like a used car salesman who will tell you anything to make the sale. ;) These machines are way too expensive to learn that type of lesson.


Now I have questions.

1. There are some machines that are meant for a combination of regular sewing, quilting and embroidery. That is the type of machine I think I want but do they do all those functions well or is quality in one or more functions less in the combination machines. Is is better to have a machine just dedicated to embroidery?
Most of the dual machines are going to do regular sewing as well as embroidery. For it to be a useful quiliting machine you would want a larger throat on the machine to enable fitting of large rolled up quilts to fit through as you are doing the quilting. Many of the newer top of the line machines have that larger throat (distance between the head and needle) but they are extremely costly. I can't afford one of the newer machines and if it were me, I'd lean toward a good embroidery machine which also allows for sewing and maybe another used quilting machine. You could get both for less than the price of those newer TOL (top of the line) machines.


2. Are there books available that explain machine embroidery? I caught a couple of terms in your responses that I am unfamiliar with such as "tack down stitch" and "cut jump stitches". I am sure there are more.

Tack down stitch ~ sometimes called an outline stitch ~ What this does is a single stitch which will outline inside the hoop the outside lines of your embroidery design stitching area. If you have a design, for example, which is 2" x 3" the tack down/outline stitch might be a square or rectangle of about a 4" x 4" size. It stitches your fabric down to the stabilizer so that while the design is stitching out your fabric cannot move or shift which will help keep the integrity of your design. This is something that is extremely helpful if you will need to float your fabric over the hoop.

Since you might ask this next ~ floating the fabric over the hoop and why? Sometimes you have some material or item you are embroidering on which is just too thick to hoop with the stabilizer. When this happens you only would hoop the stabilizer and then tighten that down. Then the item/fabric is layed on top of the hoop and either pinned down making sure to keep pins far away from anyplace the needle will stitch, or hold that down by using the tack down stitch. Make sense?

Jump stitches ~ When you are embroidering an item your needle will need to jump from place to place while doing the design. The reason for the jumps is either a new area of stitching on the design in another color maybe, or because while digitizing a design you need to be careful how you do it. A really good digitizer will ensure that there are minimal jump stitches in a design by burying them underneath the stitching but, sometimes that just isn't possible. In the instances where they just can't transition from one area of the design to another they will need the needle to jump from one part of the design to another thus creating a 'jump stitch'. When you are done embroidering a design you will see small threads between embroidery areas and those need to be cut off. Those are the jump stitches. My machine doesn't cut/trim jump stitches and I've never been too concerned with that since that's all I've known. Machines built after mine started adding that feature so you don't have to sit after you do a design/project and trim out all those jump stitches.


3. What are some of the features on a machine that you simply cannot do without?

This site is going to be so much fun.

Kathie
It's not really a feature of my machine but something which did not come with my machine that I can't live without. I dragged my feet for a very long time when they introduced the 5x7 hoop for my Viking Designer 1 machine because it was not cheap. I finally broke down and bought one and do not know now how I lived without it. It seems that I am using that more than any of my hoops on a regular basis.

Features on my machine I can't live without though would be the tack down feature.

Something else I thought of too. These machines all have specialized presser feet for them. Many of them are not interchangable between brands and even within the same brand between different models. When you have purchased many of the extra presser feet you have a very large amount of money sunk into those. You might ask the places you go to test and see the machines if you will be able to buy another machine later and have the capability of using any of the specialized presser feet you purchase to go with the machine you are looking at buying now. I know with my machine the next model up will take my feet but, any after that I've heard will not which means if this is true, I will have to start all over again buying all of the specialized feet I have now if I were to buy two steps up from my machine.

[twin mom]

I would like to add that it's not a good idea to give up your "old" machine. Even if you get a machine that can do it all, I find that I like to be sewing on my "old" machine while my embroidery combo machine is stitching out the embroidery. It's also good to have a reliable backup machine, and I also regularly have others over to quilt, and have found that it's easiest to have my my "old" machine set up for my friends to sew on, rather than have them bring their machines, (which are usually their Grandmothers machines that are less than reliable).

Good luck with your decision!

Kim

[Granny313]

Vicki - Again - you need to be an instructor!!!!! Great Job girl!

I also cannot live without my tack down stitch or my 5x7 hoop. My machine is a Designer SE (Viking) and it took me a long time to learn - I still have ALOT left to learn. I am basically not stupid- so to speak - but I am impatient and want to learn everything at once. My biggest advise it to just be patient and learn little things at a time or have Vicki come and spend a couple of weeks with you(LOL)

I would keep my "old" machine also if I could because I embroider on one and while that is going - I am sewing on another.

Good Luck and just TAKE YOUR TIME IN Deciding!

Debbie

[StitchinGrandma]

Vicki - Again - you need to be an instructor!!!!! Great Job girl!

I also cannot live without my tack down stitch or my 5x7 hoop. My machine is a Designer SE (Viking) and it took me a long time to learn - I still have ALOT left to learn. I am basically not stupid- so to speak - but I am impatient and want to learn everything at once. My biggest advise it to just be patient and learn little things at a time or have Vicki come and spend a couple of weeks with you(LOL)

I would keep my "old" machine also if I could because I embroider on one and while that is going - I am sewing on another.

Good Luck and just TAKE YOUR TIME IN Deciding!

Debbie

:rofl: Debbie ~ You are too funny. You seem to be my vacation planner now too eh? Just make sure when offering my services that it's near a casino or water OK? LOL (and NO, anyone reading I do not have any "services". LOL Debbie is just too funny is all)

[susank]

Kathie - you will soon see that Vicki's advice is always helpful. She has helped me with many things.

The one thing I would add that might be helpful is to look at the information you can get on the manufacturers websites. Many list the features of each machine. If you print this out and take it with you it helps with comparisons. I found that when I looked at a number of brands I had a hard time keeping all the different features straight and they don't always have brochures you can take in the stores.

I did what you are doing a few years ago and ended up with Husqvarna/Viking machines. I have had the last three TOL machines and liked them all (although the latest one - the Diamond has given me a few headaches). You are shopping at the right time because in Canada at least, Viking has a spring promotion on. Some of the deals are very good - especially the add ons (free software, bags, machine with machine etc.) You should also have someone talk to you about software. The machines come with designs but very soon you will want the software to work with more designs.

Good luck!

[StitchinGrandma]

Boy are you right on the Viking promotions they have right now. I'm cringing everytime I speak to my local Viking Sewing Gallery manager. She keeps telling me all these great bargains she has right now. Just this past weekend she told me that I can get an open stock/repack SE for $5000 off its regular price. I wanted to cry knowing that we cannot spend any money now because we have to get the house electrical rewired. :(