New fantasy

I won't do it, unless my Janome just totally gives up the ghost, but I was looking at a Pfaff 1527 yesterday. Looking for something that will handle leather, and silnylon. Even with an aftermarket walking foot, my Janome isn't perfect at thin slippery stuff. I'm also thinking about making some shoes. I think that's even a bigger fantasy. I have a hiking shoe design I want to make. No experience at all.

Dwight

Reply to
duh
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Dear Dwight,

A sewing machine for shoes is completely different than a garment sewing machine. My students used to go to Cordwainer's College, part of the London School of Design, to learn shoemaking. Cordwainer means shoemaker, and the school has been there since the twelfth century. If you like London, have the time, and want to learn about shoes, the school has a summer program. The people who ran the program used to come to my school in Missouri to recruit, but they were older than I am, so are probably long retired. I don't know who's in charge now, but it's on the web.

As for other types of leather garments, your best bet is to go around to different shops and test drive to see what the different brands can do. One of my students designed a fabulous leather jacket with lots of topstitching, and the school machines wouldn't touch it. She went around town (St. Louis) and found a machine that made perfect topstitching, and she won best of show for the jacket. Sorry, I don't think she ever told us what machine she finally used to do it.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

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If anyone else is as intrigued by this as I am, here's a link to the site that describes the shoemaking courses:

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's actually the London College of Fashion, which threw me a little!

Reply to
Karen Maslowski

Dear Karen,

Sorry I got the name wrong. Cordwainer's was independent when my students went there. One other great thing with its summer program is that it gets the students internships with top designers. One that I remember worked for Jeffrey (Geoffrey?) Green, and ended up getting a full-time job there. Another became Zandra Rhodes's personal assistant, and sent me an autographed book. They all came back with great shoes. If things haven't changed, the students could make as outlandish as they pleased, and the school provided the materials.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

You don't say which model Janome you have, but both of my Janomes handle 'slippery stuff' and lightweight leather (haven't tried heavy as yet) with no problems.

Have you adjusted the foot pressure? With these types of fabrics I use a walking foot, but about to buy a Teflon foot.

Bronwyn ;-)

duh wrote:

Reply to
HC

It still sounds like a great deal of fun. I was just in London in January, and passed by a couple of the big schools, including one that had Art in the name. Don't know if that's the same one, but it did trigger a fantasy of going back to college, far, far away from home!

Reply to
Karen Maslowski

I bought a rebuilt ConSew 226R from A & B Sewing Machine Co. down on Washington Ave. The folks there are great. I went to them knowing I needed a machine to handle leather and neoprene but not much more than that. They talked me through the decision-making process, laid out my options and let me try out several machines they had there in the shop.

The only down side is that none of the local repair shops will touch it, which means I have to load it up in the van and drive it back to St. Louis for servicing (75 mile round trip, 150 miles to drop it off and then come back and pick it up). Luckily this has only happened once in the last two years but I took the opportunity to load up on needles and bobbins, neither of which are available locally.

Kathleen

Reply to
Kathleen

Janome 5124, Home Decor model. Perhaps my problem is the silnylon stuff stretching more than the waterproof breathable I"m trying to match it against. Just put a 9 ft zipper into a bivy sack, and things didn't quite match up. Oh well, I'm sure the marmots and bears won't critique my sewing.

I have a walking foot on the Janome. I actually use it for everything now. What would a teflon foot do?

Reply to
duh

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