I treated myself!
My beloved old Silvercrest machine was about 15 years old, having been bought for me at the Lidl when I was a teenager. It had started to smell faintly of burning when ran for too long, and despite my best efforts to keep it cleaned and maintained I came to realise the time may have come to upgrade. I also recently was successful in being awarded a permanent contract for my day-job at the museum, which meant I could prevail upon the 0% finance available at Sewing Machines Direct to buy the Janome 360Dc which got delivered on December 22nd.
The service from Sewing Machines Direct was amazing – I didn’t expect it to arrive so quickly, especially with the finance application being during the Christmas period. I only placed the order on the 19th! It was well packaged too and came with a bonus quilting table, which extends the sewing space. I’m yet to try quilting but suspect it’ll come in useful for many projects where I want a bit more support underneath whatever I’m making. It also came with a hard case lid and a number of feet, but I’m glad it also fits the standard low shank feet I’ve collected over the years too so I can continue using those as well.
And so here he is, my little ‘Jerome’ – he’s a beauty.
I did do a lot of research and comparison of different models, including another Janome and two Brother models. Ultimately I decided this would do everything I wanted at a price I was comfortable with, and had the brand reputation of Janome behind it too. The seven different button hole options are also a really exciting touch, as are the wide range of decorative stitches – I love the floral one (27) and I’m sure I’ll find a way to incorporate that into a project or two soon!
What really sold me though is a feature not unique to this machine by any means, but that I think is life-changing – the bobbin housing has a transparent lid, so you can see when the thread is about to run out. Life-changing! Do you know how many times I’ve got to the end of a seam only to realise that part way through my bobbin has run out and I’ve stitched with thin air? Now I can keep a much closer eye on it and be prepared for replenishing the bobbin before disaster occurs.
I’ve only used this machine for a few hours because with it arriving just before Christmas I didn’t get much chance to play, but this week I managed to find an opportunity to start exploring. I’ve made a set of CSPs using a kit from Little Gumnut and everything went very smoothly. I love the adjustable speed control as well as the lock stitch and button needle up/down. It’s all very exciting to have ‘modern’ features as compared to my old manual baby! I did love that machine and it did me well for more than a decade but it was time for the retirement and I couldn’t be happier with this decision.
Particularly with all the wedding sewing still to occur, having a great reliable machine was of paramount importance. I love this one and really think it’s going to continue making me happy for many years. And I can see the bobbin thread! I’m still not over that yet.