I determined on talking to a lady at another Sears store that Mr. Kenmore, as nice as he is, will never do what I want it to do .. my fabric is heavy and tho when I bought it the lady said "oh yes it will go through all those layers" and it does IF it's just sewing straight .. it balks at the start of a seam if it's the least bit high, or going over a join .. (hump jumper could be an aid but why do I want a gadget to make it go over seams when I want a machine to do it without help?) .. it sits and just poke poke pokes in the same hole .. I have to practically pull it to get it to come along over the hump and then of course the threads knot up .. then I have the issue of the noise in the machine that sounds like the needle is hitting something .. it doesn't appear to be but the sound is annoying .. I have tried changing needles, rethreading, winding a new bobbin, cleaning out the lint that wasn't there ...
On talking it over with my good husband we agreed that I am going to be frustrated beyond with this machine ... I had such a poor relationship with Mrs. Singer that he doesn't want to see me with another machine that doesn't work for me ... if I were doing just cottons for the rest of my life, yes this would be terrific ... it has good power and good control ... but I've had a daughter who has balked her whole life, I don't need a machine that does the same. :))) So Mr. Kenmore is being returned.
I called someone in management at Sears about Mr. Kenmore and turns out they have a 20% restocking fee if you don't buy on your Sears account ... so on my $500. machine it was $100. ... quite a loss on their product that did not perform for me .. what about customer satisfaction and wanting you to come back? I guess they don't value my business ... oh well, the feeling is mutual .. I don't value their machine .. I also do not value their "cussoma serbus" lady who was sure I had a Sears account and also a TORO ... well my Kenmore sounds like a Toro, does that work? And if you are so sure I have a Sears account connected to my phone number, then why are you charging me a 20% restocking fee? Find my account and credit it.
I packed up Mr. Kenmore with all it's appendages and manuals, plastic bobbins and feet, the walking foot and edge stitch foot ... had it sitting in the downstairs hallway ... DH said "I guess you didn't like him" .. actually I did like him .. he stitched great, he just won't go over big seams ... so he said, I guess he didn't perform well ... no, he didn't ... kinda like my ex I said .. he laughed .. yeah he said, should have taken him back during the 30 day warranty ... yeah I said, they would have charged me a restocking fee to restock something that didn't even work ... he looked at the box in the hallway and went into his office still laughing about the image of the ex sitting on a shelf in some warehouse ...
Husband said "what will you get next?" ... I had been to see the Viking Mega Quilter .. nice but really only a normal sewing machine ... I'd seen the Babylock as well and that was much the same and both ladies said "they are still home sewing machines, you may want to look at industrial" ... he said "why don't you go and look at that Juki then while you are out" .. I had sent him pictures of the Juki, so proud of myself that I had found something heavy duty .. I went to the site and copied and pasted all the info including the picture ... I had found the only Juki dealer .. I wish I had known about them when I got my Singer but I thought Juki was only in Japanese factories, I didn't think they sold to little people like me .. ah what a sheltered sewing world I lived in thanks to my mother ... seen everything possible in my career as a PI but didn't know about Juki home sewing ... what a tragedy .. well I was going to press on ... deliver Mr. Kenmore back to it's rightful shelf and wend my way to Sewing and Embroidery Warehouse, the only dealer in the province for Juki machines.
The previous day I had called and spoken with a very nice man at Sewing and Embroidery Warehouse who did not sew but knew machines inside and out .. they are into the embroidery business .. like bulk embroidery .. they have an embroidery machine that will do 8 garments at a time ... all those colors made me almost go into shock ... the $10,000 one in the showroom with 25 colors was enough for me ... I said "what happens if the thread knots?" .. I could see the Japanese technician man go pale ... probably wasn't a good question to ask.
Kevin had told me that the Juki TL98Q would be more than suitable for my heavy fabric .. it was all metal .. had a metal side bobbin, it was industrial ... they have a real industrial single needle in the showroom .. it has a treadle but is electric .. he turned it on and said "you would not want this in your house. Your neighbors would complain" ... I said "it would be great. Then I couldn't hear my husband watching Tina Turner in the family room on surround sound" ... I nearly bought it thinking of my lining demise caused by UPS delivering Tina Turner ...
So he called in a little Japanese man who was the industrial machine repairman to set up this machine .. showed me all the parts and feet, it was rather humorous seeing this Japanese man threading the machine and telling me all about it ... just as good a demo as I have received from women, in fact better than some I've had ... so after he got it all set up he said here you try the needle threader ... it was a bit tricky so after a few tries I got it ... then I sewed on it ... what a great machine .. very fast at 1600 st/min... it goes through my fabric no problem .. he brought in some cut off seam material and it went over that hump ... it was heavy layers of denim .. there is a foot that they call a compensating foot, the 1/4" can be used as a guide but it's also on a spring so it will go up and over a heavy seam while the other side holds it in place ... it has a zipper foot so now I can do a boxy bag ... I like the fact that it only does straight stitching ... it cuts the thread either by a red button on the foot pedal (I thought that was to call 911 when I was speeding at 1600 st/min) or on the machine .. very neat ... has a knee lift for the presser foot (which I wouldn't put on because I have dogs under my table) .. the extended bed was a real bonus ... but the main thing I like is, it's simple .. it doesn't have any frills, it's manual, it has a job, to sew straight and does it well ...
Brought it home... I took it out of the box and set it up ... DH said "it's bland looking. It has no computer screen. Are you going to like that?" .. "yes", I said "its industrial. They are supposed to be bland. It's not computerized, it has tension, stitch length and it's all metal" .. he said "oh, that will be helpful. You won't be able to throw it far when you get frustrated" .. he being a builder knows quality and always buys quality tools citing "you get what you pay for" ...
He said "you look rather like a tailor sitting at that" ... "yes", I said "Elizabeth Tailor" ... he shook his head and left.
