My New Janome 3160 QDC January 17, 2012

My sweet husband bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas! I was as excited as my 6-year-old self was, 30 years ago, to get a new purple bike called “Dusty Rose.”

My husband and I had been talking about buying me one sometime within the next couple of months, and when he kept pressing me to go to the store and figure out which model I wanted, I did suspect that he might buy it for me for Christmas, but I really wasn’t confident about it.

Here’s my old machine:

My old machine is a basic Singer, which my mother-in-law bought me when my husband and I were engaged. It has been a great machine, and I sewed for many happy hours on it, but the main reason I wanted to upgrade was that I wanted to be able to do free-motion quilting.

Here’s my new machine:

It’s a Janome 3160 QDC. I love this thing! I never knew what I had been missing! Here are some of the things I can do with this machine that I couldn’t do with my other machine:

• needle up/down button (love this!)
• an advanced feed system that keeps me straight, especially when backstitching
• beautiful overlock stitches!!!!!! (I’ve decided that I don’t need a serger after all!)
• the ability to drop the feeds and free-motion quilt with a darning foot
• easy button holes
• stretch stitches for knits
• automatic cutter

One nice thing about buying from a quilt shop is that I get free classes. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about sewing, but in my first class I had a blast and learned a lot about using my machine to its fullest.

If you’re looking at this model, I recommend it. It has most of the features the higher-end machines have, for 1/3 the price. It is a lighter machine, which means it doesn’t have as much heavy metal inside, and anyone will tell you that the more metal inside, the better made it is. That did give me pause before choosing this model; however, this machine has the same warranty as any other Janome machine, and I have enough confidence in the company to feel like this machine will last me for many, many years. After all, I was very happy with my basic Singer for more than 10 years, so I think this Janome is going to suit me just fine for quite a while.

And my Singer still runs like a champ, so I’ve given it to my 8-year-old daughter, who is thrilled. I’m excited about sewing side-by-side with her.

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