Should I get a sewing machine?

Shorter than average arms and legs... Yup - hemming up is standard for us short folks!

Started late! I was watching my mum and gran at 4-5, and making garments for me at 7-8. Better late than never. Alterations skills are excellent, but not my area of expertise. I find it quicker to start from scratch!

Cord is about the same weight and toughness as denim jeans: you want a machine with a bit of welly if you are to do this regularly.

EVERYBODY should have (and learn to use!) a sewing machine! ;)

Make and price are up to you. How much to you want to spend? If your budget is less than £200/$200, you might like to consider a pre-loved machine, as most new ones in this price bracket won't do well on lots of jeans sewing.

basic dressmaking: it'll teach you how to handle the machine and fabrics.

Rats! I'd rather GIVE clothes away than lose them! maybe it ran away... Feral jackets! :D

This is for those intending to go into the factory and sew all day for work.

You know, you may START by just wanting to do alterations, hemming, and the odd mend, but if you do a class, stay here with us too, and really relax and enjoy the process, you could end up making lots of other stuff! :) Welcome aboard!

BTW, I am about to acquire my 13th machine! The tenth pre-loved one, too...

Go ahead and take the class. You will never regret it. By the way, I design and make most of my dress clothes (i.e. not jeans and tee shirts), but I still hem up pants by hand. It is usually quicker and neater than doing it on the machine.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

Well, I just want the original stitch pattern as sometimes these seem to maintain a particular flow. Recently, I did it by hand as it didn't even need cutting and I just rolled it one more time.

Actually, I was told that I am highly proprotional but may be I need

I don't want to learn to make clothes. I don't have time but it's just that it is ridiculous that I have beee spending so much money on alteration.

I agree.

I probably won't be buying jeans (not bliue jean anyway) that much anymore but if I do buy one or two, I can take it to alteration buying a SM to include features to handle jeans would hike the price.

As for a pre-loved one, one ould need to know what one is looking for, right? I have no idea. I helped my mom making curtains way back then only because I was a curious girl and wanted to do everything. But I don't have time now.

Would love to indulge in such a hobby but not realistic as I am constantly having to spend time learning for my career. May be once I have my career more stabilized, I might feel relax to try making clothes for myself.

May be I should just get a SM and try to start doing hemming. Can you folks help me pick out something. I won't hold anyone responsible. Anything is better than my getting it on my own.

Do you shop online? I am in US.

Yes, but if you are less than 5'6" tall (standard height for women, and the height for which most clothes are manufactured), to be in proportion, your arms and legs will also be shorter than those of average height with the same proportions.

Think how much time and money you'd save making them! Clothes for work, particularly... I made a suit for my husband. The cloth and lining, and all the findings for a traditionally hand tailored suit cost me £76. It would have cost twice that for a very inferiors off the peg one that would then have needed altering at more cost. A decent tailored suit from the people who made all my dad's suits and uniforms would have been £2000 - so I saved nearly nineteen HUNDRED pounds! Is THAT worth doing? I just made a coat for me in less than 5 hours. Even if I cost in my time at £10 per hour, plus £40 for the fabric, that's considerably less than I was seeing fairly thin cheap coats going at half price in the sale. And you save a HUUUGE amount of clothes shopping time buying fabrics on-line while you eat dinner... ;)

As a teacher, I was working 80 hour weeks during term time (what with all the preparation, setting up, marking, meetings, in-service training, and other crap that goes with a full time teaching post), but I still made most of my own clothes. Sewing helped me de-stress and empty my head of all the niggles of the week.

Not necessarily. You just need to get one that does a decent range of household stitches that fits in the budget you set yourself. With pre-loved ones, you get a LOT more bang for your bucks! :)

Set a budget and look for what you like the feel of. Try a few, and see how they behave for you.

MAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF! You cannot give the career/job the attention it deserves if you try to concentrate on it all the time: you'll burn out and be useless. Take time for relaxation and something that has nowt to do with work to give yourself time to recover.

Look for an older, all metal machine with a decent buttonhole, decent blind hem stitch (see my web site for what that looks like and how it works), and good controllability. Makes to looks out for:

Singer, pre 1964 (ish). Later ones (until very recently) were mostly pretty naff and are not worth the cash. Some of the newer ones are excellent, if you only want a light weight machine, but if you need to do lots of suit weight hemming the older ones will go the distance better, and will certainly cope with the fabric.

Elna: very nice machines

Bernina: workhorses! I've sewn through soft drinks cans with one of the

Husqvarna Viking: as for Bernina!

Pfaff: again, similar to the Bernina for toughness and reliability

Necchi, Fister & Rossman, and Riccar are all good household machines, if not as tough as the Bernina.

Not for machines! Try your local dealer: a good local shop is invaluable, even if you have to make a special effort to get there. You really DO need to try the machines out before you buy the one that fits you. The shop I went to yesterday is an hour across the wilds of Kent down twisty back roads, but is well worth the trip.

I do a LOT of postal and on-line fabric and findings shopping, and bought two of my family of dress dummies this way too.

Yes - get one. I am no seamstress and cringe at the thought of clothing construction - - no pattern in the world fits me -but I think every household could use a machine.

I use mine to hem clothes, make simple valances, curtains, placemats, fix pillowcase hems and the like - made some simple garment bags out of old sheets - made sheets for the boat -

I bought a Simplicity machine for about $150 from qvc about 10 yrs. ago. and it paid for itself with the first project - curtains for some odd shaped windows.

Absolutely -- but consider getting a good used model. More 'bang' for the buck. The Singer 401 comes to mind, they were top of the line back in the 50s, all gear driven, powerful and an absolute joy to sew on (I have two!) I love them, they will sew anything you can fit under the foot and have a lot of built in design stitches. YOu can sometimes find them at a thrift store (I found one last summer in a case for $39) and they are often listed on eBay.

I think the 'fundamentals' class is the best bet - get the basics down and sounds like it is geared towards the home sewist.=20

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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