A Basic Sewing Studio for Knits

I am indebted to the Leabu Sewing Center for not only repairing and maintaining my machines, but advising me on how to provide myself with the essential machines for my work, without breaking the bank.

Many designers do great work without sewing, but I design mainly by sewing. Since I began working mainly with knit fabrics, in developing the Pixyworld line, I realized that my sweet little Huskystar 219 (Husqvarna) wasn't going to be adequate for sewing my samples.

I first acquired a serger, used, which was a good start but a bit of a disappointment. It arrived broken, and after the first repair I was able to use it for awhile. I then started having trouble with the threads breaking, and Leabu showed me that it was because of a design flaw, not a problem that could be repaired. My new serger, only about $500, is the Janome 1110DX, and it is working just fine for me.

I then splurged on the MemoryCraft 350E, an embroidery machine which I needed to embellish my designs. It was very inexpensive for an embroidery machine, and I have had no problems with it so far.

Finally, I got my CoverPro 900CP, on sale for $300. Nearly all my hems are coverstitched, and it does fine with those. It does not have a narrow gauge setting, which I would have liked, for foldover necklines, but I am happy enough.

If I were to choose on more machine, it would be a 5-thread machine for topstitching. But at present I can use covertitch, upside-down, to create an approximation for factory samples.