"only a sewing machine"

[gerbilonwheels]

It's not such a big deal if I break mine-- it has a 10 year warranty. 

Yeah but a 10 year warranty on what?  Have you read the fine print?

My car had a 5 year warranty on it, 2 out of 3 major things that went wrong with it weren't covered by warranty. 

Don't worry, Beloved Goddess, it's a FULL warranty with very very little fine print (water damage won't be fixed, if I run it over it won't be fixed.). I read the fine print. ^_^

[lilliesnremains]

teehee, i just found a 1941 Singer fullsize with table for $75 on craigslist.

gunna go check it out and see how it sews i think. it also comes with a bunch of different attachments.

even if i have to tkae it in and get it cleaned and oiled, etc, for $50, its still a good price!

[BekMonkey]

Oh man, I feel the pain of having to turn people down.  I have 2 machines: I have a workhorse 80's Kenmore in a case that was my mom's, she bought it with grand ideas of making curtains and clothes, used it once and never touched it again.  I also have a Singer Touch N Sew in a cabinet that I bought from a seamstress when I was 16.  She had bought it for her daughter (so that she could use something other than the $3500 computerized machine!!!) who never used it.  I'm in college, and the Kenmore is with me, the Singer is at my parents' house.  Every time I go home, there's always crap piled on top of the cabinet, half full water glasses, etc.    After much scolding of the fam, I convinced them it was not a table, especially since it seems like every time I go home, I have to set it up because someone needs something repaired.  Two years ago my sister and my mom, much to my surprize, took up hand quilting with my grandma and aunts.  My sister calls me up one day because she had been planning to load up the Singer (in her trunk) and take it to Grandma's house so they would have another machine to use to sew the blocks together, but Mom made her call and ask me for permission.  I told her it was going NOWHERE!  I did agree to let her and my mother use it at home, but with the agreement that if it got broken, they'd be responsible for getting it repaired, and the next time I came home, I showed her how to thread it and use it.  A couple of weeks later she calls again.  "YOUR sewing machine isn't working"  Oh for Pete's sake, what did you do? "Nothing!  It just stopped working!"  Or so she says.  The next time I go home, I take a look, and it's jammed up BAD.  I finally got it out of her that she had threaded it wrong, the thread got tangled and the needle jammed.  What did she do?  SHE FORCED THE WHEEL!!!  Until she heard a loud CLUNK, and the wheel turned, but nothing moved.        So I told her to take it to the repair shop.  The next time I go home, it's still broken because she can't figure out how to get it out of the cabinet....um, unscrew it.  Duh.  So I take it out FOR her, and she finally takes it in about 6 weeks after that, when I made threats of bodily harm.  Then she nearly crapped her pants when they told her it would be $185 to repair it.  "Can't I just buy you a new one?" she whined.  Yeah, sure, for about $400 bucks.  We had a deal, suck it up.  Since then, she has treated it like royalty!   And it purrs like a kitten.

The Kenmore, that thing has seen me through many a project.  I've made leather butterfly chair covers, repaired countless jeans, sewn hundreds of doodads and decorator projects, gifts, and it shows no sign of slowing.  When I lived in a dorm, word of mouth spread like fire!  People would come by while I was sewing, and jaws would literally hang  "Can you fix stuff?  'Cuz I have a pair of jeans [or a button, or a broken zipper, or a ripped _____, or what-have-you] that I need fixed?"  My roommate, bless her heart, was always telling people "Oh, don't worry about that ripped blah-blah, my roomie can fix it!"  My friend since kindergarten commissioned me to make covers for the frames of her butterfly chairs.  She picked out black leather with an electric blue satin trim!! That was 5 years ago, and she still uses them today: even my 280 lb friend Joe has enjoyed them.  I've repaired tents for my friend's boy scout troop. 

I loaned the Kenmore once, and once only.  While I was in high school, one of my friends, who had very little money, and also happened to be my best friend's girlfriend,  begged me to let her borrow my machine for a few days.  She had a pile of clothes that she wanted to try and repair, and she wanted to make a dress for an upcoming dance.  I conceded grudgingly, loading up the machine in its case with a bunch of the accessories and the manual, and trucked them across town to her house, helped her get it set up, and told her to let me know when to pick it up. At first she said a few days, then a week.  After a week, it was "oh, I'm not quite done"  "I haven't had much time to work on stuff"  " I'll be ready soon"  A month later I said, ok, that's it, I need it back, sorry if you're not done.  The following weekend she had her dad bring her over with it, but none of the accessories or the manual was with it.  Um...hello?  She did manage to return the accessories, but the manual was no where to be found.

So yes, I'm protective.  There's more to them than you think.

[Mikaiyawa]

reading all this (with winces of sympathy in many cases) I'm glad only three people touch my machines.

Me. (that machine is up there with Lance and my cat for what gets grabbed in case of fire)

My other half (who sews and if he mucks up yells *immediately* for help, and will spring for tune ups if things gum up beyond a dusting and oiling)

My Mother in law (who taught my other half how to sew and that a sewing machine is not a cheap toy! She's also the one who got me a back up machine [$150 on sale, but a good little thing anyway] for Christmas after she found a good basic machine for under $400. It does Straight stitch in three variations [super long, medium and short] and zig zag [narrow, medium and watch your fingers] and really *nothing* else, I said it was *basic*.)

My Mother has her own machine (which my Father bought for her when I moved out with mine) it sits on the desk and mostly does nothing.  Dad does use it, very occasionally to patch his jeans and is more careful of it than Mother is.  He keeps threatening to give it to me if she doesn't use it at least once a month.

Ask any of the nitwits if you can "borrow" their car, computer or Ipod,for an unspecified reason and time period, bet you get a NO most of the time.  Our sewing machines deserve at least that amount of consideration.

Mieka

[quean]

this is the first post i've ever made on here...

at the end of last year i was working as a seamstress for an independant clothing company here in Toronto. the people who own it are very nice and all that.. but... thier sewing machine wasn't working and they had borrowed one from thier neighbours, they took good care of it and all since it wasn't thiers.. when the owner asked for it back i thought, since they took good care of that one, i will bring mine here, since after all i am getting paid to be here and i like my job...

MISTAKE

every day when i got to work it was a new nightmare.. there would be piles of shit on and around my machine... the little light would get left on all night (not by me).. and other small anoyances... but the real problem was nothing i could have imagined... i came into work one day after a few days off to find my entire sewing are full of random boxes of stuff and my machine, my 500 dollar machine, was teetering on the edge of the table, half on half off, still plugged in.. looked like someone yanked on the extension cord it was plugged into, the power cord was almost ripped completely out of my machine and still hang part way out to this day.. no one ever said a word to me about it either.. the only thanks i ever got was getting laid off a week before christmas...

luckily my machine still works fine... but i will never let anyone else touch that machine again.

[gerbilonwheels]

quean- your story makes me very sad.

[soulofgrace40]

My mom has a Husqvarna, and that sucker does damn near everything but embroider by itself and make coffee.  My boyfriend couldn't understand why I never wanted to touch it. 

Him:  "Why don't you want to use it?"

Me:  "I'll totally break it if I touch it."

Him:  "So?  It's only a sewing machine.  Just buy her another if you break it."

Me:  0_o  "Are you freaking insane?!  That sucker cost more than I make in six months!"

oh my goodness i want this machine. the newest se model is listed at 7999.00. my bf said does it cook and clean also 

[Sbean]

"It's only a sewing machine" Ha ha. Sewing machines are just like people, you just have to get to know them. My first machine was a toy machine made of plastic. But I made doll clothes on it 'till it gave up and died.
Then, My Mom bought me a used model circa 1970. The thing was so retro-teal green, and it was HEAVY. My best friend used to come over and try to sew on it, and always ended up breaking the machine. She would slam her foot on the pedal, and try taking it apart.I used to feel anger sharks swimming whenever she would go near it(Don't touch my baby!)
That machine eventually passed, too.
 Years later, my future mother in law gave me her old machine. I came home from school one day to find it in the trash because it was taking up space in the living room.(It's only a ...)
When my great-grandmom died, I hoped and prayed to be bestowed with her antique, wrought iron, table model Singer. IT WAS THROWN AWAY! (sniffle)
I'm sewing now on a pretty decent White- it has all the bells and whistles. But yet, not much personality. Then again, maybe I just have to get to know her a little better...

[Sewlittletime]

I have my Mom's Singer from 1958...the year my parents married. That thing is the best, but we can't find the box of accessories and manual that goes with it since my parents moved a few years back. It's in their house somewhere, by god, 'cuz I know I don't have it!!
For a while I tried using a Singer that my Mom had bought in the mid to late 1970's, but I finally gave up on it after continual problems with the bobbin. Cheapo materials, I guess.
after my Mom's parents passed away, and she finally got her share of the inheritance, she treated herself to a Bernina. She's all into quilting now. But since the Bernina is so freakin' heavy, she went out and bought a Brother sewing machine that she can take to any classes she goes to.
She lets me keep the Brother at my house to use. It's not a bad machine for what they paid...less than $200. But I hate the zipper foot attachment on it. It seems a bit wobbly.

You know what kills me, though? My sister got our grandma's old Singer. One of those old black ones that tucks down into a table. It IS electric, though...no pedal pumping, but old none-the-less. My sister HATES sewing!! She hasn't touched it once in the 10+ years she's had it, except to move with her to her new home!! She even asked me several years back if I would sew a slipcover/tablecloth thingy to dress it up!! She never did get around to picking out a fabric for that, but there it sits, in the spare bedroom of her present home. Poor neglected thing!!

[skye691]

this thread makes me a little sad-- we just got rid of my great grandma's singer-- neither mom nor I could muster up the guts to use it though, on fear of tetanus.

but NOBODY and I mean NOBODY touches my baby.

it may be "Only a sewing machine" but, Belinda is the love of my life, and I would be homicidal if anything happened to her.