Having a working sewing machine is pretty much necessary for me. Not only can I not use one if I don’t have one, but it makes my heart hurt. Maybe my brain? I’m not sure. I just know it causes a constantly increased stress level and makes me sad. Feeling icky makes me want to accomplish less, so it’s overall a bad deal.
Being that I need one to manage my hobby/business, when my 1970’s Bernina Bernette quit working, I had to make a call- Fix the old beast or buy a newer, faster machine. After a lot of weighing back and forth, I decided on getting a new machine and keeping the Bernina as a back-up.
I began the hunt for a sewing machine. So that you know, I really dislike making purchases like this. Things that later might cause me to think “Gah! I should have gotten the other one!” are rough. Any time I’m spending more than $50 on a single item, I go through this whole deal. I lean this way and that way and search all corners of the internet for possible options. I wonder what I’m going to kick myself for later, trying to fruitlessly predict what future problems future-me might have.
This time, I went to my shopping guru. She said “Singer. It’s the way to go.” I instinctively trusted that, and looked for a Singer that would make me happy.
I found it. In no time. The Singer Heavy-Duty Sewing Machine, Model Number 4423. You know
what it does? Not much. It sews stuff. But it does it really quickly. Top speed of 1,000 stitches per minute. It also does it really smoothly, effectively, and quietly. Check it out here.
It has the zig-zag stitches and the back-tack thing and all the stuff that ye average sewing machine has. It has it in a relatively intelligently laid out manner, and the case looks clean and simple. It sews evenly and well and doesn’t shake the table it’s sitting on (like the Bernette Monster did). It’s not particularly heavy in weight and isn’t all that large.
The one thing I don’t like about it is the spool holder is horizontal on top of the machine. To me, it makes the thread go through the machine in a weird way. I found an easy fix for that at JoAnn’s in the form of an overlock thread holder and cone spools. It works great, and even if I get a machine that holds the spool vertically, I’ll still use the overlocker.
If you want to do embroidery or get a machine that comes with a bazillion little doo-dads, this is not the machine for you. If you want one that will sew stuff to other stuff reliably and easily, it just might be. If you want to see things that have been sewn with this machine, visit these tutorials:
http://begangstress.blogspot.com/2014/06/flower-and-lace-tank-top-tutorial.html
I've had the machine over 6 months now, and I've never had a single issue (that wasn't operator error). I've sewn lots of different materials on it- denim, cotton, satin, lace- and it handles them all beautifully.
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