14 April 2011

Meet Jane: A Brief Review of the Janome New Home 1860

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I've been holding out on you all. The six of you who read this blog being "you all", minus the three who are uninterested in the art/craft side of the blog since they're our family members only looking for new pictures of the Sprout. So technically "you all" refers to three people who read this blog and are wondering why Deb doesn't write about art and craft projects anymore.

So now that we're down to those of you who care, here's a little secret I've been holding out on. My very generous husband gave me a new sewing machine for Christmas! Yes, a new sewing machine! A Janome New Home 1860. The Wise and Bearded One buying me a new sewing machine is the equivalent of me buying him a new flat-panel 1080P 60HC LCD Television (I have no idea what that means but he would probably love it). He claims stepping into a fabric store gives him hives. Which means going to a sewing machine dealer and talking with a sewing machine salesman was probably a life-threatening situation for him. Which means love, true love.

A new sewing machine requires new fabric, I am sure we can all agree, so I promptly went out and bought a pile of fabrics at Fabric Depot for myself . (You do that too, right? Buy yourself your own "Christmas" presents? I hope I’m not the only one.)

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Here's the Fabric Depot haul (top to bottom): Scandi Chirp from Michael Miller patterned knit, moss green and mustard cotton velveteen (the moss green already became pillowcases in my bedroom), and then four beautifully soft knits from Liesl Gibson's Oliver + S line from Moda.

And then the new machine and the pile of freshly-laundered fabric sat there for January and February as we weathered a death in the family, a home improvement project and two months solid of sickness. I swear I didn’t even crack the machine out until March.

She’s a nice solid machine. She has all the basic stitches, a few fancy ones, and a decent buttonhole option. Not a lot of bells and whistles but certainly an upgrade from my skip-every-third-stitch, ball-up-bobbin-thread-underneath, make-me-swear-under-my-breath old Singer. I really like the steady, even stitching. My only complaint, and it is minor, is that I like to sew fast and I feel like Jane the Janome doesn’t quite know how to keep up with my petal-to-the-metal ways. There are three speed settings and when I'm on a nice straight seam the highest speed still feels like I'm in the slow lane.

But Jane is great and as we've been getting acquainted over the last couple of weeks we've been cranking out a few new projects. This weekend we got just enough sunshine to take a couple of photos so expect some actual sewing posts coming in the next couple of days.

6 comments:

w said...

Hooray! Can't wait to see what you make!

Sarah said...

yay! so exciting!

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the new Lisette patterns by Liesl? You probably have, but if not, I think "Jane" would really like them. I totally get your speed issues! I'm the same way, but my singer can go really fast, so I guess I won't complain that it's the cheap model and makes a lot of noise. Fast is good. And dangerous.

Enjoy your new machine.

Mary A. Miller said...

I read this blog for both the chance to read/see anything about the Sprout and to see what you're crafting! Do I count as two readers? :)
I also have speed issues with Ken (whom I have just named since reading about Jane), especially since the machines at work go 100 mph! I tend to put the stitch length as long as I dare/that looks good, making for a bit more speed.

emily* said...

Ooh! Fun! And what a sweet hubs to brave the purchase on his own! I got a new machine right after Christmas too, but I was sent to the store to pick it out myself, which does have its perks too! :) I love the prints you picked up!

Deb said...

Mary, You definitely count as two readers...mom-in-law, crafter...maybe three since you can add Grandma to the list too.

Emily, I'm just a teeny bit jealous that you got to pick your own machine but also relieved that I didn't have to. Sometimes I am paralyzed by those kinds of decisions.

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