Sew Guilty

Brandon comes home one day and says he's bought a Christmas present for me already. He said it was too good of a deal to pass up. I'm thinking Christmas is still 3.5 months away, but whatever, I guess it can just hang around until then. About a week later a large box arrives at the door, Brandon swears he has no idea what's in it, even though it is sent to him. Brandon ALWAYS know whats in any box he's ordered. I am skeptical, but he is insistent I should open it. Inside:

Singer Perfect Finish Sewing Machine and Serger Set

I have always been very leery of electronic sewing machines, even though I'm an IT major. I've just always felt like if you're going for durability and quality, a sewing machine should be all mechanical. My 60's Necchi has been a great companion for all the years its has been mine. I still love that thing and man is it heavy. I'm sure you could chuck it down a flight of stairs and it would just sew on like a champ. However I have always been a little curious of the new machines and features they offer. While I get the general sense this is a mid-line machine, if nothing else, the serger was worth the price.

I finally got the chance to sit down with it and explore its features the other day and overall I like its capabilities. I think the real test will come on a sewing project verses some scrap fabric. I have to say as I moved my trusty Necchi to the side of my sewing table all I could feel was horrible guilt as it sat there looking at me longingly as I giggled over the cool decorative patterns the singer produced and the ease at making perfectly sized button holes. I only felt a little redeemed as I told my Necchi she could never be completely replaced because she would let me control reverse speed and the needle threader on the singer was just a ridiculous attachment and when the electronics surely busted a capacitor, she'd still be there to see me through the thick and thin fabrics.

I do have to say I was quite impressed with the manuals for the sewing machine and the serger, they had a lot of useful information and examples on using many of the techniques and presser foots, excellent reference charts, and are overall well written. A horrible design flaw of the sewing machine is the bobbin area. A flimsy little plastic door covers the bobbin and mechanism and the latch to open it is sitting right where you feed fabric through to the needle. No doubt that little door is going to pop open all the time. The bobbin also sits very loosely in that space and tends to bounce around and clickety clack as you sew. Otherwise the machine would be whisper quiet.

While my Necchi will always be my first love, I think I can find some room in my heart for this bobbin-clackity new Singer. The serger and I will no doubt be attached to my hip and I can return my mom's serger back to her. It performed exactly as expected in all tests I did compared to the old Simplicity serger I had been using. The only slightly annoying thing about the Singer serger is to use the free arm is a bit clumsy and difficult to remove the side casing and it completely comes off. The Simplicity machine allowed you to pull lightly on the side casing and it swings out of the way of the free arm remaining attached to the machine. Related to that effort, rethreading the Singer is a little more annoying than threading the Simplcity, but it's a serger, and rarely is threading one not a time consuming feat. Next sewing project will be performed solely on this new duo to see what a perfect finish it really is.