OK I went to the sewing machine sale. The man was trying to demonstrate three machines......yup, he had three. He did not use the student model, #1507 and said that you would only use it for woven material, not material that stretches. He did not use the Curvy Singer, #8763, saying he sold the last one he had yesterday. So all he showed me was the Teacher model, #2662. He said you could sew leather and other think materials on it, I checked his stitches and they looked just a little off to me. He said this machine had the button-holler attachment and had a serge and cutting attachment (which would be shipped separately). He had some trouble getting the surge attachment to work. He finished his demonstration before he showed appliqué, monograms, double seams, zippers, pin tucking, darning, blind hems, and buttons. I asked him about the quilting and he showed me that the presser foot would adjust to the thickness of a quilt. I asked about darning foot and walking foot and he faced me and told me that they don't come with the machine, but he would give me one if I bought the machine. Ok, now I asked him where the machine was made and he said China. I asked him if the machine had plastic parts and he gave me a mad look and said it wasn't plastic, it was a stronger space-age product. I asked him how many machines were returned because of breakage......he said it was not true that these machines break and if I bought the machine I could return it within 3 days for my money back, but if I needed a repair, they would send me a new machine. Then he turned around and addressed someone else in the crowd and wouldn't look at me.
I looked those three machines up. He wanted $149. for the student model and you can get it on line for $99. The Curvy Electronic # 8763 was tricky. The web site showed Martha Stewart demonstrating one, but she did not show which version of #8763 she was using (there are two). He wanted $349., while the internet said I could buy it at any of 5 local stores. I went to those 5 internet addresses and they don't list them for sale. I checked back at the internet sales site and found that you could order it on line for $299. Now here's the deal with the Teacher Model # 8763. I did not find any stores that carry it and I did not find any internet site that sells the new machines, but you can buy factory refurbished machines of this number for $149.....remember, he wanted $269. He sold a lot of those machines, even with me standing there asking him all these questions. Oh well, I didn't buy one. :)