My birthday always seems to last longer than just the day of and this year was no exception. Shannon and I picked up my new sewing machine last week and I have fallen deeply, seriously, in love. It’s pretty much the best thing I own!
As you can see, it’s another Janome but it’s an enormous step up from my last machine (which they took as a trade in at full price after being used almost daily for 2 years!). This model is a 3160 QDC and it has all the bells and whistles any sewist could want. Some bells that make me happy are:
1. I can sew without a foot pedal. Seriously. I can unplug the pedal and just use the start/stop button. The speed is controlled by a slider. While I’m not entirely used to this type of sewing yet, I’m more than willing to practice at it and do this a lot.
2. While sewing with the pedal I can tap it and it will do just one stitch. I never hand crank it. Never. This makes quilting a breeze, to get to the marks I have to meet.
3. Even while using a foot pedal it won’t fly away from me if I press too hard because I can set the speed on the slider and that’s as fast as it will go. Like cruise control. For me, I’m sure it will mean fewer mistakes.
4. Automatic thread cutters snip both threads. SNIP.
5. One of the stitches automatically does a lock stitch at the beginning of the row. Oh, how I love this.
6. Drop in bobbin with a clear case so I can SEE when my bobbin is about to empty. This.
There are about a million other reasons I love this machine and I hope it lasts me a lifetime. For a person who’s always maintained that all a sewing machine needs to do is go forwards and backwards quickly, I am completely converted. Now to think of a name for it.
i LOVE my janome! it has some of the same bells n whistles are your model. i like that it also have a button to drop the needle up n down.
Yes! The needle position button gets used a lot!
This really makes me want to buy a model like this. I have a pretty top of the line Singer but I’ve ALWAYS wished for a speed control for the foot. And a lock stitch is genius. I think I will be looking more into this machine.
I have some serious sewing machine envy right now! Oh what I wouldn’t do for some cruise control action on my foot pedal!
When I start sewing more complicated things, I would love to have a Janome with these features. Currently I went for the 1600, because it’s the fastest on the market. For me, the most used features are the foot-riser-with-my-knee-handle (no more putting my hand up and around to get the foot up!), the speed (SO FAST FOR MY RECTANGLES) and the thread snipper. I also like that my bobbin winder has a separate motor so I can multitask.
I’ve actually considered buying a separate bobbin winder but at the moment I’m really happy with the set up. I keep the speed at about 2/3 and feel comfortable there. I would use the presser foot knee raiser thing a lot, holy, that’s what I used at Malabar on the industrial Jukis where I first got my taste for speed. I’d still like a Juki, if someone was giving one away…haha.