A Brand New Sewing Machine

I’m very pleased to introduce my new baby. The Janome CXL301. I am one very happy crafter!

 

It was delivered the week after the Knitting & Stitching Show, and sadly I was out the day it came so it had to stay in the box for an extra 24 hours before I got home on the Friday afternoon to let it out. I was very good and took everything out carefully, and read the instruction manual first before plugging anything in. But oh the happiness of the lights coming on when I switched it on for the first time!

The sewing machine comes with quite a good selection of accessories included; a regular sewing foot, zip foot, satin stitch foot, and an automatic buttonhole foot (more on this later!), as well as bobbins, seam ripper, screwdriver, spare needles, extra spool holder and a soft cover. I’m already working on a shopping list for extras – concealed zip foot and twin needle for starters.

Threading up was really easy, there are guides on the machine to show you which direction to run the thread, and the drop in bobbin is so much simpler to deal with than the side-loading one on Mum’s old machine.

 

Time to get sewing then. I had a good play around with all the different stitch settings, the locking stitch, reverse, foot pedal vs auto speed control – this is my favourite button on the machine by the way – look, it’s a tortoise and a hare! In fact, I may never use a foot pedal ever again just so that I can use this slider!

 

 

Being able to adjust the stitch length and width for straight and zigzags is easy, and more precise than my old machine, and although there aren’t many decorative stitches they are pretty (love the trailing leaves), as well as some stretch and overlocking stitches (haven’t tried these on jersey yet).

 

But then, there really wasn’t any point putting it off longer, I had to have a go at a buttonhole. Now, given what I’ve told you about my/Mum’s old sewing machine I’m sure you can appreciate why I’ve never attempted a machined buttonhole before. However, I am very happy to announce, automatic buttonholes are my new favourite thing in the whole world! You just load the button in the back and away it goes! So easy! I’m going to put buttons on everything from now on just because I can!

OK, calm down.

So yes, very very happy with my new toy, and it will get its first real test soon as I’ve cut out and prepped the pieces from my gorgeous Liberty lawn to make a Mimi blouse. More on that next time.