My Awesome Christmas: New Sewing Machine For The Win!

Each year, my parents always ask us what we want and then they do their utmost to get said item. I've known since my birthday that the thing I wanted most was a better sewing machine. I mean, not to hate on my cute little Hello Kitty machine, but it was quite limited in it's functions. It's great for just sewing a seam, but zippers, buttonholes, ANYTHING other than a straight seam ... forget it.

So, I've spent a reasonable amount of time over the last few months looking into sewing machines. It's something I've never had to decide on before - other than my Hello Kitty machine I always just used my mom's - so I've never had to pay attention to different features and figure out what I wanted and didn't need. Going into the hunt, my only criteria was that it would do all the basic things I would need (i.e. zippers, button holes, straight and zig zag stitches, etc). I deliberately avoided machines that boasted fancy embroidery - like with cartridges and whatnot - because while it's a neat feature I knew I would hardly if ever use it. Besides, my sister has a fancy Baby Lock machine that does embroidery so I can always go use hers if I really need to :)

Anyway, the biggest decision to make was if I wanted a very basic but high quality machine (like a Bernina or a Pfaff) or if I would rather get a medium quality machine that would do more. I wanted to avoid certain brands outright due to their cheap reputations. To help me decide, my mom and I went to Joann's just to look at the Husqvarnas and others they had in the store. While we didn't get to actually try any machines that night (how stupid is it that the sewing machines are considered a separate store and can close earlier than the actual store when they are all inside the same store together - yeah, pretty stupid), I did manage to take pictures of the models they had so that I could look up reviews online and see how they measured up.

After much comparison and discussion with my mom, I made my decision - The Singer Quantum Stylist 9960 :)

This machine not only had great reviews, but it also had a great price. It ended up being priced better on Amazon than anywhere else, plus I knew that if I had any problems Amazon would be incredibly helpful as they always are. This baby has many more bells and whistles than I knew I wanted, but just from playing around with it tonight I am really happy with my choice. Some of the cool features of this machine:

• Automatic needle threader
• Automatic thread cutter
• 600 stitch patterns, 13 button holes and 5 fonts
• Stitching customization
• Autopilot sewing - you don't even have to push the pedal! You just put the start button and it goes!

Another big perk for me is the fact that it came with pretty much every foot I could ever want and many that I didn't even know existed. It included:

• General purpose foot
• Zipper foot
• Button-Sewing foot
• Satin foot
• Buttonhole foot and underplate
• Blind-Hem foot
• Open-toe foot
• Overcasting foot
• Narrow-hem foot
• Cording foot
• Straight-stitch/quilting foot
• Darning and Embroidery Foot
• Even-feed/Walking foot
• Clear-piping foot
• Fancy-trim foot
• Stitch-in-the-ditch foot
• Braiding foot and guide
• Single-welt cording foot
• Adjustable bias binder foot

Whew, that was a lot to list! And that's not even mentioning a few extras like the clearance plate and shank and whatnot. This baby seriously came with everything I could want for it and now I'm all ready for any sewing project my crazed little mind can come up with.

It's been a crazy few days since Christmas so until tonight I hadn't gotten to do anything with my machine except take it out of the box. Tonight though, I finally had a little time, so I packed up my sweet little Hello Kitty machine and set my new machine in it's new spot on my kitchen table. I then sat down with my manual and pretty much worked through each category from the table of contents and thus far I am completely in love :) The one-touch thread cutter is one of my favorite gadgets on here and it was also nice to not even have to use the foot pedal - how lazy am I? Pretty lazy now, yeah.

Here is my sampled I ended up with after my trial run. I should have picked a more contrasting fabric and thread combination, but you get the idea. It looks great! I can even write cryptic messages in Russian if I want to (and you can bet I am going to).

After my night of playing around on my newest utilitarian device toy, I now feel confident in sewing an actual item. Maybe my goal of finishing my skirts that just need zippers put in them by the end of the year will actually be reached! How crazy would that be? It's not like they've been sitting for 6 months or anything. ndb. So yeah, my newest best friend is now my Quantum Stylist 9960 and I can see a long and happy future ahead of us :)