Well, here she is. My new baby — A Singer 5500 Fashion Mate. I’ll admit, I’m kind of surprised at myself, since I ended up not only shelling out more than I had planned to initially, but also went with a Singer instead of a Brother, and also wound up springing for the electronic when I had previously decided on a manual. There’s a story behind it.
I did all my my pre-shopping online, on Walmart’s website. I had already decided that I would be buying my new machine from Walmart, because I had a 50 dollar gift card for there. After running all the way to Salem (an hour-long drive) and checking their store, I find out that they do not carry the machine I had decided on. So, I pull out my phone, and use their website to locate the nearest store that DOES carry the one I had decided on (A little manual Brother priced at about 80 bucks) and find that the only store within 50 miles that carries it, is the one closest to my apartment. Talk about Irony. So, I finished my business in town, and then drove north, arriving at around 10-minutes-to-10PM. I wander into their sewing section, only to find the website has lied to me, and they do not carry this machine either. I was so mad! Now, I was faced with a dilemma; I could either order the machine online and wait for it to arrive, or, I could chose a different machine. After driving all over several county’s, I wasn’t in the mood to wait for a new machine to arrive in the mail; I elected to start my process over, and buy one of the machines they had in stock. This left me with the option of 2 machines of a lower grade than the one I already owned, the Brother ‘Project Runway’ machine from my previous post, the Singer Fashion Mate, and two other machines that I immediately ruled out due to price, and the fact that I didn’t want an embroidery machine, or a quilting machine. So really, it was down to two: the Project Runway, or the Fashion Mate. The Project Runway machine was 40 dollars cheaper, and I’ve heard good things about it… but I couldn’t help thinking “you get what you pay for”. In the end, it was the advertised ‘Heavy Duty Metal Frame’ that sold me, and I grabbed the only remaining Singer Fashion Mate, and took it home with me. I spent the better part of the day packing some more things in my office/craft room, and ultimately getting my space all cleared, before I set up the machine.
It went together very quickly and smoothly, and from what little I’d tested, runs like a dream. So quiet, and smooth! I don’t think I’ll end up using the decorative stitches on it, though I must admit that having them make me want to do decorative stitching for all my hems. Maybe someday, I’ll find a use for them.
So now begins the adventure of learning to use my new machine. Is it dumb that I want to name her? I think I’ll call her Patricia, after my Nana. <3 Only fitting, since I learned to sew on HER Singer, don’t ya think?
