Bargain Sewing Machines

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent the better part of last week shopping for a new sewing machine. Say hello to my new baby, a Janome Horizon 7700!

I’ve only had her for a few days, so I haven’t used a lot of the advanced features or quilted yet, but so far she is a rock star! Sews like a dream, soooo quietly and steadily. Every time I walk past, I just have to give her a little pat. : )

But now that the process is done and I’ve got my beautiful new machine, I have one simple question: ? It isn’t easy to compare models and features when most dealers carry only one or two makes. I don’t like getting the hard-sell from salespeople, and what’s with all the secrecy about what people are actually paying for these things? It’s worse than buying a used car!

So I spent an intense couple of days reading everything I could about the various models and test-driving machines at dealers. Here’s my wish-list of the features I was looking for:
• a larger throat space to fit quilts under (my old Baby Lock had about 7.5″ from the needle to the side of the machine)
• a dual-feed system (which means it feeds the fabric from both underneath and above)
• needle up-down feature
• auto needle threader and thread cutter (my Baby Lock had these, so I don’t think live without them now!)
• knee lift for the presser foot (my Baby Lock came with this, but I could never use it comfortably with that machine)
• good extension table for quilting
• excellent free-motion quilting feet/accessories—preferably included

With that list in hand, it didn’t take me long to narrow down some contenders via the reviews. My “finalists” are below. I found both The Quilting Board and Patternreview.com to be good sources for reviews, although on Patternreview.com you have to register to read reviews more than six months old, and I was unable to get their log-in screen to work (it kept re-directing me in a loop). There are also Yahoo user groups for certain brands/models, which may be helpful—just do a Google search for a specific group.