| | Looking for a Sewing Machine
For the past few months I’ve been finding out about sewing machines and which one would suit our purpose best. When repairs are necessary on the sails, the hood, cushion covers and so on, it is rather handy to have a machine to do the work. So the sewing machine has to be suited for a lot of things, that doesn’t make choosing easier. Of course, a professional machine is the best, but that is a tiny bit above our budget, we’re talking about more than € 1500. We have to make a choice by now, because there are still a lot of things to buy and to do before our boat is ready for the Main Trip.
After reading on several websites of other ‘leavers’ that a normal sewing machine satisfied the requirements, the choice was pretty soon made. Now to find an affordable one...
We found a sewing machine shop in Rotterdam. Well prepared as I was, I had taken some test rags of difficult fabric with me. I was curious if a ‘normal’ sewing machine would cut through 4 to 8 layers of fabric. Smooth fabric, comparable to a sail, a rough thick belt and thin elastic raincoat material.
The lady in the shop immediately led us to the more expensive machines, a Pfaff. Cheaper machines, so she told us, should be advised against. Bu this machine had much more functions than we needed. We were just looking for a good, reliable, solid machine with not too much hoop-tee-doo.
The machine she showed us had some trouble to get through all the layers. This made us doubtful about buying a – or this – expensive machine. Let’s think it over....
Through internet we found another big sewing machine shop, named Wouters, who has been around for 150 years and is established in Amsterdam-South. Saturday 3rd November we went to Amsterdam and took the old sewing machine from my mother with us, to see if we could make a dime at the same time. In this shop we were assisted by a very briskly Amsterdam lady. We explained to her about our Main Trip and that we were looking for a multifunctional sewing machine. She immediately conceived we were not really waiting for a computer-operated machine that can make beautiful embroidery. She gave us the time to ask all the questions and tried out all of the test rags. The machine she picked for us was a Bernina from Switzerland.
A solid machine, powerful enough to do the things we had in mind. Effortless the first folded fabric passed under the needle! Once more folded and so on up to 8 times. The machine had no trouble at all. I tried out several other things and came to the conclusion this would be an extremely well suited machine for us. He is by no means cheap, but certainly not as expensive as a professional one. After some negotiation, we bought the test model, which made another € 100 difference. We even got something back for the old machine. We bought some extra firm needles for jeans and leather and such. After more than an hour of shopping we left the shop with our new gain; the lady wished us good luck.
In the same weekend I tried the machine and first made a swatch of all possible stabbing. My first real job is to repair the liflelines, these run from front to back across the deck. The crude band went without any trouble under the sewing machine. I was very happy with our new machine.
My second job is a much larger project, namely to create a new bimini! The current bimini is worn, torn and hard to replace. That will be a challenge for me and our new sewing machine!
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