I'm in a frustrated mood today and started making a wish list.
Here's all I have so far (for sewing anyway, the list for my husband is a little longer...lol)

I wish they'd make a home sewing machine:

1. with a bobbin area that could hold a regular spool of thread

2. that never needed maintenance (I know that's impossible but I still wish for it)

What would you like in a sewing machine?

Those are my wishes also.. in fact, why is the bobbin so small on a long arm? I went to the sewing fstival here in Denver recently, saw someone demonstration a long arm for a couple, she just happened to be showing the bobbin... I asked why the bobbin wasn't the same size as the thread, makes sense to me.... she just looked at me, and said' it's the bobbin'. Seems that you should be able to use another cone of thread as a bobbin so you have the same amount on both sides...

Feed dogs about 6" long! Maybe then my seams would stay straight, especially at the end! :-)

Oh that's a good one too

Great idea!

Regular sewing machine with a lot larger opening so we can quilt bigger quilts without so much rolling, folding and praying it comes out ok. I can't afford a long arm - yet.

1] Better light-why do they assume we all have good eyes
2] wider sewing area w/o having to add a extention table

Wouldn't having a longarm be wonderful? I'm wanting one someday too.

Craftilady said--Better light-why do they assume we all have good eyes

YES!! I hear that Babylock has better lighting now although I haven't seen it for myself. I have a Pfaff.

My wishes for a standard sewing machine: Needle up or down feature, a bigger bobbin for sure as well as a loud beeper when the bobbin has a yard of thread left on it, a larger throat- about a foot would be nice, speed control for fmq, bobbin winding without unthreading the machine. I'm sure I could come up with more, but that's it for now.

A longarm machine that dosnt take up the whole room but you can still program quilting designs into. Also cheaper prices on all things quilting.

Definately a BIGGER bobbin. and a longer arm.

Small waist, thighs that don't rub together, arms that don't wave even when I'm not.......ohhhhh you meant what do we want in our sewing machines......hahaha

these are all good

:D :D :D :D

In addition to everything else mentioned, I'd like a computerized machine that *remembers* where my needle position was when I turned it off.

ditto

I'd wish for the machines to be lower to the table - so that you didn't NEED an extension table or a special table or a built up area around it. Like, why can't the machines be about 1/2 inch high instead of 3 inches or whatever they are?

You may not believe this, but I was just saying that same thing to my sister a few days ago. Who the heck invented the bobbin??!!

I've been saying this for years to every sewing machine dealer I meet - please tell your companies that we NEED A MACHINE THAT CAN UN-SEW!

Excellent idea....I'd get quilts finished so much quicker!

You may not believe this, but I was just saying that same thing to my sister a few days ago. Who the heck invented the bobbin??!![/quote]

And why can't someone invent a better bobbin? If we can send a man to the moon, heat food in seconds and have a phone with us 24/7 someone should be able to fix this measly old bobbin thing. We have been waiting long enough.

And why can't someone invent a better bobbin? If we can send a man to the moon, heat food in seconds and have a phone with us 24/7 someone should be able to fix this measly old bobbin thing. We have been waiting long enough.[/quote]

AMEN!!!

I would like a self threading machine from the spool all the way to the needle. and settings that would respond to voice commands. Hey, if I'm wishing I'm wishing big. :-D
Karen

I don't see why we should need a longarm. Why can't they extend the arm of regular sewing machines so it would be easy to quilt on them? I don't really want another machine around.

Voice commands - but what would they do when we start swearing at them!

so where would you put the gears and all to make the machine work....?

Well my thing is I have a lot of extra bobbins, and I am always trying to use up what thread is on them. So I have no complaint there. If I am starting a big job I just wind a few bobbins fo it so I do not have to stop to wind.
My machine beeps as the bobbin is getting low.
My machine never need to be oiled. Very low maintance. Never had two of my machines in ever. My 20 year old Viking has been in maybe 3 times. Never needs oil.
My machine also has the needle up / needle down
and a larger base? Well I already hater to carry my machine to and from sewing classes.
My sapce between the needle and the neck is plenty for rollong a quile so a ot of these subjestions are out there, just have to pay to get them. Quilting is not a poor mans hobby. I have the machine can't aford the fabric's LOL
We will alway's want more. I have dreamed of a long arm for years.... getting one will probably never happen. So I do fine on my home machine.
My machine also has a needle threader which is so nice when doing embroidery and having to change threads so often.
My friend got a table and measured her machine, then her husband cut the hole out and made a board under neith to hold her machine for quilting.... it works great.

Those are memories and my machines do remember where I was when I turn back on. A nice function.

[quote=IrishNY
I don't see why we should need a longarm. Why can't they extend the arm of regular sewing machines so it would be easy to quilt on them? I don't really want another machine around.[/quote]

What great ideas! To be able to slide the arm out to make the space larger for quilting AND if it had a stitch regulator like Bernina offers AND a spool instead of a bobbin PLUS the computerized extras already on high end machines.......A PERFECT MACHINE!
Really now, I'm sure it can be done. Someone mentioned the going to the moon thing. If they can do that, then....

Who has a handy husband who can build these?

I have LONG been saying this: If more men sewed or if women were the sewers and the engineers, sewing machines would have evolved decades ago into the machines that we need.

1. fix the stupid tiny bobbin problem.
2. Build the blasted things with 20" throats... after all it IS only a bit of metal and a few wires that have to be extended.
3. Extend the feed dogs so the first stitch catches each and every time
4. provide some kind of device so that the foot pedal will stay where you put it.
5. Illuminate the working area with lights that are bright enough so you can see your work area!!!
6. And while I am venting... why the heck should I have to pay extra for a stitch regulator? Isn't that what a sewing machine SHOULD do?

My friend just bought a cute little basic sewing machine and paid about 500.00 for the same machine that I bought 30 years ago. Oh there's more plastic and brighter dials, but it is identical in what it does to my machine from thirty years ago. Can you IMAGINE the uproar that would be created if you bought a computer THREE (not 30) years later that had the same capabilities as the one you had bought three years before!

I tell ya we are being shafted!

How about machine needles with bigger holes? My eyes
aren't what they used to be, and the metal threaders are
so cheap they break easily. I can't get how to use the threader that's on my machine.

I saw a machine the other day on a television shopping show,
and I can't remember which one or what the machine was,
but it had four or five LED lights under the area between the
needle and the base of the machine, plus the distance between
the needle and the base of the machine was twice as wide
as it normally is on most machines.

That's a start. If the companies would only listen to us.

They have already done that but it never caught on. Back in the early days of sewing machines they had a machine that used 2 spools. One for the bobbin and one for the top thread.

It was made by The National/Eldredge Sewing Machine Company.

Billy

You're kidding? Why didn't it catch on? Women back then did a heck of lot more sewing than we do today.
I can't believe it :?

You are a genius! What a wonderful suggestion!!! :thumbup:

Being an engineer, myself, I couldn't agree more with this comment! There are not enough of us in the engineering field. Ladies & gents, encourage your daughters to go into tech-related college majors and careers! If there are enough of us, we will be heard.

It was around 1906 or 08 when the idea came around and there were several companies making machine that were "Two Spool" machines but National/Eldredge was the most popular of them. They are still out there to be had you just have to look thats all.

As for why they didnt catch on I imagine it had a lot to do with the industrial revolution and patent rights.

I bet that you didnt know that the sewing machine was what set the patent laws in effect. Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, Davis, Standard and National/Elderedge were the companies that were leading the pack during that era.

Billy

Billy--
I love your history of sewing machines! Maybe you should have your own daily or weekly postings here of sewing history?

I would like to have had a sewing machine that had an odometer (like cars). With four girls I probably put a million miles on my 1965 Bernina.

Thanks for the complement but I am not that knowledgeable, I have lots of help! ;-)

When I am not on here I am either reading Carter Bays, on the NeedleBar, or the Smithsonians web site going through their documents.

I am also working with the NeedleBar in trying to be able to find out the origin and date of the Japanese 15's and the Japanese machines pre 1970.

I love history and the industrial revolution is one of my favorite times because of all that was going on and it incorporates my two favorite loves.......the Sewing Machine and the Automobiles!!
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Billy