Bernina Weekend

Bernina Records book-ended my weekend and I couldn't be happier. The fantastic Bernina 530 in an excellent cabinet finally found a good home on Saturday morning:

Bernina 530 in her stellar cabinet

The new owner could have brought it home a week earlier but she got cold feet and had to ask more questions and negotiate a better price before she was ready to pick it up. That's okay because it's a fairly large purchase in price and size and I want everyone to be happy with their new machine. My surprise came when she said she had never sewn on a Bernina before: usually buyers know they want this type of sewing machine because they have one in their past. She is in for a treat!

On Sunday afternoon I had a very pretty drive around the lakes to pick up a Bernina Record 830:

Bernina Record 830

The seller did not have the power cord/foot control so wasn't sure it even worked but I had one from my Bernina Minimatic 807 that would fit. She not only worked, she purred: this is one nice sewing machine! Only equipped with a handful of bobbins, two feet and an adapter, she's not ready yet. But she did come with the red carrying case and the styrofoam packing to keep her safe and the extension table was on the inside cover. Condition? Not a nick or scratch on her, excellent cosmetic condition. There was quite a bit of packed in lint inside and the usual cleaning but no cracked gears.

Here's the selection of stitches she has at her disposal:

Twenty stitches plus straight and zig zag

The 530 I just sold had 13 stitches but, really, isn't that enough? Here's how the stitches look:

I ran through selected stitches and they are of superb quality. The bobbin tension was way off but that was an easy fix. Did someone else try this sewing machine and said "It doesn't work right" when all it took was a tiny bit of know how? When you pulled on the bobbin thread you could tell it was way too lose so a tiny screw driver and successive turns got it working again. Their loss, my gain. Happy, happy, happy!

I continued to work on the hangers covers, remembering I had lace collars I could use:

Hanger covers with a little Downton Abbey flair

I keep learning new ways of assembly to make it quicker and better, using a serger and sewing machine, but I still think there is room for improvement. My daughter Kelly thought I could make more of the white model as possible bridal shower gifts so two more are ready for the decorative edge stitching. I think that's a nice alternative to lace and I'm using my Viking 1100 for the ones above and the Brother ES-2000 for the next two white ones. Since someone at the garage sale gave me a Brother ES-2000 with a loud complaint of "It doesn't work!" I'm going to need to actually sew on it to see if it does have a glitch or if it was user error. So far, so good!

Yup, a Bernina weekend with some satisfying projects wedged in-between. All is well in sewing machine land.