Promised wife a sewing machine for her birthday. She likes to make blankets etc. and has been using an antiquated Singer 2210 given her by a friend. She likes the Janome MC9500 but its alot more than I expected. Is this a good machine for sewing layers of fabric or thicker fabrics like boat canvas? She likes the embroidery function but it seems like it would make the machine more vulnerable to damage on thick jobs but if we can only afford one machine is this the model? I'm clueless when it comes to sewing.

She will be able to do everything she wants with this one. Since it has an embroidery module, I would leave the boat canvases to be done in the old Singer.

What a nice thing to do for your wife!

My friend has 3 Janome machines and she loves them. I agree with Maride to leave the canvas sewing on the old Singer machine.

I loved my Janomes and the 9500 is a very nice machine.
It does have a 5x7 hoop which is nice.
My first Janome was a 350e which also has the 5x7 hoop.

The 9500 to my understanding does not transfer designs by usb thumb drive which to me is very important. I think the 9500 only does the cards?? That is a negative to me - and a deal breaker.

Some of the gals at work have janomes and they love their machines. As far as the price: It is negotiable. I treat sewing machine shopping very much like car shopping. I have never paid retail for a machine and sometimes it means driving a little further to get a better deal. Some sewing machine dealers are like used car salesmen and they think the consumers are stupid. Any savvy dealer knows the market and knows what the savvy consumer will do - that is go somewhere else. A little profit is still better than no profit. That argument has helped me in the past.

Hi James..
I would get her a janome 6600. It is an awesome machine..plus accufeed system. i have one and it is wonderful. i will never trade her in for anything else, not even an upgrade! lol! i paid $1,500 for her. (included soft cover and extension table.
go the janome website and compare them all side by side.
i had bought the janome 350e for Emb. and i didn't use it as much as i thought i would..so i sold it after a year.
The sewing machine dealer is just as important as the machine itself. IMHO
you can't go wrong with a janome no matter what you decide...

i think getting one that does both, is like getting a tv with a built in VCR,if one breaks, your out the other too,until you get it fixed!

This baby will do everything but make the coffee....guess you will be doing that for she will be busy sewing!!LOL Great gift and I love my janomes!! Never a problem w/anything for me!! Skeat

I have the 9500 and use it solely for embroidery. It's a fairly good sewing machine. Not the best, though.

In my opinion, it's much better to have seperate machines for embroidery and sewing.

For the same price, you could get the Janome 350e embroidery machine and a decent sewing machine.

Although, if you can only have 1, this would be a fairly solid choice.

Good luck!,
Lyn

I have a Janome 9000 it embroiderys but I never use it for that I just use it for quilting and sewing everything else I havn't tried canvas but I'm betting she could handle it.

I've been told multiple times to have different machines for sewing and embroidery.

The warranty is often based on machine time and, when quilting, you put a lot of time on the sewing machine. And, things are less likely to going wrong with straight sewing.

Then, when you have an problem with an embroidery function, your warranty may already be out because of the regular sewing.