From your comments and emails, Janome wins hands down, I had been leaning towards Janome or Bernina so I started my research but had a problem that the machine model numbers are different here to overseas so I was asking hubby to find some prices for this model and that model but he couldn't find the model I was after hmmm.
So, Saturday we were spending the day at the Montessori farm (more on that later) I asked hubby if he could could find a sewing machine store we could pop into on the way home, luckily there was a Janome dealer not too far off route. When I was trying to decide on a model, I had a list of things that I did and didn't want, things that annoyed me about the Brother machine and things that I wanted to upgrade to because my little Brother can't handle it. It was quite a long list, I found a couple of models that I thought would be suitable and printed out the specifications and took them with us but when we walked through the door we were greeted with this.....
Hmmmm, I hadn't looked at the spec for the Horizon since I know it is the latest super-duper model and thought it was well out of my price range (going on US prices and some that hubby had quoted). It turned out that the model I had been looking at is one step below this and Janome are no longer making it plus the price difference was only about ¥20,000, which considering how much better the Horizon is, isn't that much of a difference.
Did I buy it? Nope, not yet... it is ¥210,00, which is a LOT of money, I can scrape the money together, I did try it out a bit and it sews like a dream, I have also read every review on it out there on the net, there have been some problems but at lot of the problems sound like user error or calibration error so I am not too worried about that - I expect a lot of the user error if I decided to get my hands on it. To be honest I would be worried if there were no problems with a new design! It does do everything, it has a squillion stitches and something like 11 button holes! And I did tell myself I wasn't going to go for the all singing all dancing model but the things I LOVE - the amount of workspace there is all 280mm of it, I have trouble getting a dolls quilt through on my old one! The computerized display is multilingual, so no more having to figure out the Japanese, auto tension, 7 piece feed dogs, and stupid as it sounds, the compartments build into the machine for holding the feet and other bits and bobs. Things I don't like, ermm, the price. lol. I7m not doing a very good job of talking myself out of it am I?
So, do I bite the bullet and part with my yennies? It is a bit like having to decide between this...
and this...
after you took the Farrari for a test drive.
Save your money and buy the very best one you can. If that one does the job smoothly and easily then it will pay for itself in all the hours of frustration and fiddling you will save yourself in future years. You are pretty much a professional sewer - give yourself the correct equipment.
ReplyDelete(Not helping the "must not buy this " vibe here but honestly, this is your JOB!
I saved for two years for my first really good machine. During that time I drove them all. With my own fabric, threads, and project samples. You are the only one who can decide what is best for you.
ReplyDeleteDealers here are giving $1000.00 on trade ins so be sure to ask there if they are offering trade in credit. They don't bring it up first :)
Good luck!
thank you!
ReplyDeleteVicky, I think you just put the nail in the coffin as it were on whether to get it, you are right, my last machine I bought when sewing was a hobby, now it is so much more, I should be using something that is up to the job. thank you!
Hi again Jojoebi,
ReplyDeleteI really think that you should go ahead in getting a machine that suits you. It is not like you are using the machine once in a blue moon. You need a reliable machine to churn out your products.