Advice for buying a machine

I have been sewing for years on an old and tired machine with few features
and am now in the market for a new one with some handy features. I love the
idea of an embroidery machine but also want to do conventional sewing. I
have been shopping around and am leaning towards the Husqvarna Platinum
Plus. The one here is priced at 3500.00 Can. an includes the embroidery
package and d-card with reader/writer.

Any advice would be appreciated,

DJ

D. Janusson murmured while asleep:
I have been sewing for years on an old and tired machine with few
features and am now in the market for a new one with some handy
features. I love the idea of an embroidery machine but also want to
do conventional sewing. I have been shopping around and am leaning
towards the Husqvarna Platinum Plus. The one here is priced at
3500.00 Can. an includes the embroidery package and d-card with
reader/writer.

Any advice would be appreciated,

DJ


--
What Machine Should I Buy FAQ:
www.cet.com/~pennys/faq/smfaq.htm

D. Janusson wrote:

idea of an embroidery machine but also want to do conventional sewing. I
have been shopping around and am leaning towards the Husqvarna Platinum
Plus. The one here is priced at 3500.00 Can. an includes the embroidery
package and d-card with reader/writer.

Husqvarnas are lovely machines of good quality. Have you tried it out
already and like the way it operates?

If you are getting an embroidery machine, don't get rid of your old
machine (assuming you only have one machine and that it still works
fairy well), in case you would still like to do sewing while your
embroidery machine is embroidering.

--
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. - Mother Teresa

Great machine but shop around for a better price.
Roger.

D. Janusson wrote:
I have been sewing for years on an old and tired machine with few features
and am now in the market for a new one with some handy features. I love the
idea of an embroidery machine but also want to do conventional sewing. I
have been shopping around and am leaning towards the Husqvarna Platinum
Plus. The one here is priced at 3500.00 Can. an includes the embroidery
package and d-card with reader/writer.

Any advice would be appreciated,

DJ




--
Yarn Forward
Your On Line Yarn Store
http://www.yarnforward.com

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 19:24:40 GMT, Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply
wrote:

snip If you are getting an embroidery machine, don't get rid of your old
machinesnip.

Good point - you also don't want to sell a good workhorse, ever. I mainly
use an Elna 8000 - it's an embroidery machine, but not like the high-end
types where you can design sailboats and whatnot. But the Elna is picky
about thread and not terribly robust. Of its 600 or so stitches, I mainly
use the same dozen or so: topstitch, shell stitch, flower stitch, etc.

For heavy work I still use my old NewHome, which I bought in about 1983 -
it's more robust than the Elna and will willingly sew through endless
layers of fabric without a whimper.

I guess what you want depends on what you want to do. I don't do
buttonholes much, for instance, and sew mainly with wovens, so I don't use
the special 'jersey' stitches much. Overall, the features that I find most
useful on my machine a
* Needle down - so when you stop the needle stays down.
* Back button - so you can sew backwards until you stop, then it
automatically sews forwards again without you having to flip anything.
* Shift needle position - so you can decentre the needle to left or right,
rather than resetting the fabric.
* Mirror image - so you can 'flip' embroidery stitches and get a reverse
image.
* Tension bypass - for bypassing tension on the bobbin. This saves you
having to alter the tension on the bobbin case, or having two bobbin cases
- one for regular sewing and one for machine embroidery.
* No oil - other than brushing out lint there is no maintenance on the
Elna.

I do use the memory on my Elna, but not all that often, and for free
machine embroidery I still prefer the NewHome.

Whatever you choose, buy the best quality embroidery thread you can afford,
and experiment with different types. I use mainly Madeira and Gutterman
rayons.

HTH

Trish