Goodbye Singer, Hello Janome!

Guys, I'd like you to meet Magnolia.


Two years ago I purchased a store model Singer Professional 5, scoring myself a very powerful and complex $800 machine for just $300. It had five threads, could do overlock and coverstitch and a million other things. Best bargain ever, right?

But then it broke down. I got it fixed. I played around with it, testing out other stitches. It was so complicated to thread and switching over to coverstitch was not fun at all. But hey, I had an awesome serger for a great price. Still, I eyed some simpler machines and wished that I'd maybe gotten something a bit simpler. Especially when I figured out how to do a coverstitch with my regular machine and a twin needle!

It worked for another 18 months... and then broke down again. This time when I brought it into my sewing repair place (which ROCKS, btw. If you're in the Twin Cities, go to Gratz Sewing!), they did everything they could but finally had to admit they couldn't repair it. They were lovely and didn't charge me a penny, but said that even if an official Singer place could repair it, they might charge me $200.

I so did not want to put another $200 into this complicated machine when I could use the same money to purchase a simpler one I knew I'd be happier with. When Gratz offered me some store credit towards a new serger if I traded in my Singer, and when I found their price for the Janome (Jah - gnome - me) 7034D beat Amazon by $11... I was sold.

(I'd previously been looking at a Brother Serger, since I love my Brother SE400, but Gratz was highly rating the Janome and since they gave me a year's warranty with the purchase and they'll be doing the repairs, I figured it was best to go with what they were familiar and happy with).

Guys. Best decision ever. I grilled the store people about the machine and made sure I knew everything I should know and saw it in action before paying, and then I took it home and opened it up...

Ahhhhhh it was so beautiful and pre-threaded and SIMPLE.

Ugh, and it's so much smaller and lighter!

The inside is about a third as complicated as the Singer and there are only two needles and it sews beautiful seams. I am a happy happy happy lady.

I am now a very strong supporter of the separate coverstitch/overlock modal. If you are looking to get a serger, get the Magnolia or a similar overlocker. If you want to sew a coverstitch, use the twin needle on your regular machine. If your regular machine doesn't have this option (which would be weird), then you can look into a separate coverstitch machine, but trust me, you don't want one super complicated machine to do all the work that you have to constantly rethread. It's a nightmare.