My Baby Revealed

じゃじゃ～んっ。豪華すぎて泣けてくるよ。

Tada~. My baby, Janome Memory Craft 6600P.

Let me give you a story of how I decided to buy this baby.
Over the 4th of July weekend, I had to drive MOTH's truck to get the tires rotated and balanced.
It is a 1996 Geo Tracker. It is amazingly in very good condition despite its age. MOTH swapped the motor so it has less than 50,000 miles on it.

The tire shop is about 3 miles down the road: 1 mile to get to the highway, 2 miles on the highway, then the shop is right off of the exit. Well, I did not want to get on the highway with this truck, so I stayed on the frontage road.

I had driven this truck a few times before, and I totally hated driving it. Once, I had to drive it to my office, which is 17 miles away (half of it on highway), and I wanted to cry.
The clutch is very jerky, the car doesn't brake right, it is slow, and it just feels very exhausting to drive.
Just driving 3 miles to the tire shop totally drained my energy.

MOTH has no problem driving it. He sees no problem with it.

My car is nothing fancy; 2006 model little Toyota econo box. Other than the power window, everything else is manual, like moving seat position and what not, including transmission.
But the driving experience differs so much between my car and his truck.
(And I'm sure if I drove a Lexus or something, I would feel the same way about my car)

Then I had to wonder.
My Kenmore sewing machine is 38 years old. It is solid and in great condition, but newer machines must provide much better sewing experience... Maybe I am missing a much more pleasant, quality sewing experience...

The more I compared the sewing machines to cars, the more it made sense.
Non-computerized machine and computerized machine is kind of like stick shift car and automatic car.
MOTH likes stick shift cars because he can repair pretty much everything on his own, but once you start having sensors and computers, you have to pay big bucks to the dealer.
Same goes to the sewing machine.

I can open my Kenmore and see the motor and screws and everything, and obviously, it has lasted 38 years and working just fine.
I don't know how durable the computerized machines are and I will have to take it for service instead of oiling it myself.

Then comes all those creature comforts. Power windows, heated seats, rear camera, touch screen navigation system, bluetooth, etc, etc.
Once you get used to them, it's hard to go without, right?

So I thought: hmmm, my Kenmore must be like Dutsun pickup truck. Solid, Japan made, and still works fine, but it's all metal with no creature comforts.
Then what kind of car do I want?

I briefly considered getting an industrial machine since most of my sewing I do on the sewing machine is straight stitch.
But it's like buying a Formula 1 car. It would do the most spectacular job on straight stitch, but no creature comforts whatsoever.

So I began my research on the machine.
I always thought Bernina is the most sought-after brand, kind of like being in a clique, but they are way too expensive for a tiny machine. Janome seems to have better "bang" for the buck. (and look how big this baby is)
After considering the features I wanted, I decided on this baby.
Of course, I have a sweet spot and pride for Japanese products.

I shall see if my decision was right as I get used to this baby in the coming months. I hope it was right. I hope I made a good investment.