You ask me so, so much about sewing machines— which ones I recommend, which ones to avoid, what to buy if you want to start sewing without spending too much… etc., etc. So I’ve decided to write a post about my experience with them.
I’ll start by saying what I always tell you: if you can, go to a specialized store. You’ve heard me say it countless times, but no one knows better which machine best suits what you’re looking for and your budget than experts at a store specializing in sewing machines, who work with all kinds of brands and models. But I know many of you don’t have specialized stores in your area, so here’s my post.
Now that I’ve said that, I’ll tell you which ones have worked well for me—the ones we had in the store and put through a tremendous amount of use. They passed through many hands without any major problems, only the wear and tear of use, nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a little filing and oiling.
I’ll start with my first machine: the Alfa Next40
I couldn’t be more grateful to it. It was my guinea pig and my travel companion. I got a lot out of it; it’s pretty on the outside and works very, very well. If I’m not mistaken, its sister is the Style 40, and I have its little sister, the Style 30.
Alfa’s new model is the Practik, and recently we got the Practik 7 (we did an unboxing on our YouTube channel). There’s also the simpler Practik 5 and the more complete Practik 9. They’re all beautiful and super functional.
And I’m super happy to be able to offer you discount coupons on Alfa machines!
They’re for use on the Alfahogar website. Use these coupons at checkout to see the amazing discount.
Style 20 machines— LULU20 | Style 30— LULU30 | Style 40— LULU40
Practik 5 machines— LULU5 |Practik 7— LULU7 | Practik 9— LULU9
Important: When you buy an Alfa, you have the opportunity to extend your machine’s warranty by an extra year for free simply by filling out the form at www.alfahogar.com/asistencia. It will ask you for a detail called PURCHASE ESTABLISHMENT. It’s fine to enter LULÚ FERRIS.
Next up is the Alfa inizia 525:
Sturdy, it sews everything, and it’s very reasonably priced. We had two of these, and they never stopped producing all kinds of projects.
Another one that withstood everything and more was the Elna Sew Green
And finally, the Astralux H40
Lately I’ve been putting it through quite a lot of use. This would be a level above the others I mentioned. It’s computerized and makes numbers, letters, and many decorative stitches.
You can sew without a foot pedal! It has a start/stop button, just like the backstitch button, and another feature that works really well is the option to adjust your sewing speed.
That’s it for the ones I recommend. As I’ve said many times, I haven’t tried every brand or every model. This is my experience with the machines I used most while I had the store. We used them both to sew orders and to teach classes, so they sewed practically every day for 6 years.
Now for the ones I don’t recommend: the Ikea one, for one simple reason. If you want to sew, if you want to enjoy sewing, you can’t buy a machine that’s going to make you lose your desire to sew, like this one will—and that goes not only for Ikea, but also for similar machines that seem more like toys than real sewing machines.
It won’t sew well, the thread will catch and break, it won’t be able to sew when you want to make something a little thicker, and it will take away all your desire and motivation to sew because with these machines you’ll spend more time fixing and unpicking than sewing.
As for the Lidl Singers, which you also ask me about ;)—let’s see, my experience with them is minimal: only the ones I’ve seen when the girls brought them to class, plus the comments I’ve received from you. If yours works well, it’s great, but they break down a lot, a lot. My trusted shop always has a bunch of them in for repair, a much higher percentage than other machines they carry. That said, there are also girls who are very happy with theirs.
I’m updating this post to talk about another machine I used for a few weeks.
For a few weeks I sewed with this machine thanks to Maquinas de coser Low Cost, who lent it to us for a giveaway :)
We put it through quite a lot of use with substantial projects like the roller-skate bag, and it sewed them without any problems. It’s a very complete machine with plenty of power. It has no problem sewing through different layers of denim or thicker pieces; it does it without any trouble, hence the name. So I recommend this one too.
And that’s all for today’s post. Tell me about your experience with these or other machines you’ve had; it’ll be really helpful for all of us!