Sewing Machine Down!

Do you have a favourite tool in your studio?

Mine is the sewing machine - I have been using the SINGER 1100 for over 15 years now, and it has been my most trustworthy tool in my textile art journey. Just last year, however, the foot pedal refused to work and I was in a bit of a panic as I was preparing for my show. As it was so last minute, I ended up getting a very basic Singer sewing machine from my neighborhood mall just for the foot pedal - yes, that’s what I did! So, at the end of 2023 I had two sewing machines.

The new Singer is a 2259. Yes, it is extremely light compared to the 1100, but it isn’t very good at handling heavy stitching and textures.

There are some limitations to my Singer 1100 too, but the major limitation is its inability to do a tiny zig zag stitches. My machine creates zig zag stitches at a set width, and I am unable to adjust it. This means I can’t free motion embroidery other fancy stuff, but it has meant that I have to use the straight stitch and use tiny micro movements with my hands to get the desire effect. I admit that I could continue using this machine for these types of stitches, but it has gotten to the point where I am crouching up close to the sewing machine and squinting my eyes, which his not very healthy for me.

Secondhand Bernina

So, drum roll…… I decided to get a new sewing machine …… on a budget.

I admit, it is very difficult to do so. However, I tried a secondhand Bernina 1001 machine at Craft Atelier, last year and fell in love!

It’s very sturdy, and doesn’t rattle like the newer plastic sewing machines
It has the stitch that I want !
The foot pedal for the sewing machine is so ergonomic - it is actually the size of my foot, which means I use my whole foot to press it.
It runs so smooth too

Chen Chen kindly sent me in the direction of Ghim Soon (aka Stitch4You) and they had the last Bernina 1001. Apparently, a secondary school had decided to stop giving sewing classes, and so, the sewing machines were sold off. The boss at Ghim Soon was really nice, and helped ensure that the feed dogs could be lowered for free motion embroidery. Sadly, the machine could only do straight and zig zag stitch as the other functions were not working, but that’s all that I was looking for, and at the price it was going for, it was a steal!

Bernina Adaptor for Universal Snap On Feet

Unlike my Singer 1100, I couldn’t get the machine to sew free motion embroidery without the footer. The resulting stitches were horrible and kept having skipped stitches. I troubleshooted the whole day, and it really tested my patience:

Rethreading the needle and bobbin
Adjusting the tension
Changing the needle
Free motion embroidery with the feed dogs up but covered with paper

I decided that it could be the absence of the free motion embroidery footer causing this as the fabric was flapping under the needle each time I started the machine.

I couldn’t find the Bernina free motion embroidery footer for this model in Singapore, and the ones overseas were very expensive. Fortunately, I found a Bernina Adaptor for universal footers at the Sewing Bee Fabrics, UK at a reasonable price. This allowed me to attach my existing Singer free motion embroidery footer to the Bernina.

It was such a relief because I couldn’t find it in Singapore. Not even the Singapore office of Bernina had this adaptor or the free motion embroidery footer I was looking for - I think they were trying to convince me to buy a new machine altogether!