Now, you want to figure out the answer to the question: Which are the best sewing machine brands and which are the worst?
Well, this question has definitely brought about a lot of sparks amongst the sewing enthusiasts. But in general, here are the 10 best sewing machine brands in the market: Bernina, Singer, Husqvarna Viking, Pfaff, Brother, Janome, Elna, Juki, Jaguar, Toyota.
However, this question is a subjective one, and also, you need to realize that each brand is good for different things. For each sewing enthusiast, they adapt to a different brand, so a particular brand becomes the best brand for them.
Similarly, a certain brand didn’t work out for a particular seamstress. So, that brand has got a negative rating and has become the worst brand by accumulating several such ratings over a period of time. A brand can become the best or the worst brand partly because of the user ratings and then partly because of the build and the quality it has.
Most brands, though different in certain ways, are still the same in many ways. You might also be surprised to know how many brands are owned by the same companies!
Read on our list of the best and the worst brands.
Table of Contents
10 Best Sewing Machine Brands
#1. Bernina
Bernina is one of the four big sewing machine companies built in Switzerland. This sewing machine brand has roots that date back to the 19th century. The name Bernina is taken from Piz Bernina—meaning mountain in the alps. It was founded in the year 1983.
This sewing machine definitely has a very reputed name for being one of the top sewing machine brands. Also, it produces very high-quality sewing machines. This is one of the very few sewing machine brands that still has a factory in its origin, i.e., Switzerland. It also has a factory in Thailand.
The top-quality sewing machines are produced in Switzerland, and the basic to mid-quality sewing machines are produced in Thailand.
The only downside of these sewing machines is that they tend to be a bit on the pricier side. However, you must be aware that you get what you pay for, and by investing in Bernina sewing machines, you get top-quality sewing machines.
The Bernina brand patented a presser foot lifter that can be activated by the knee in the year 1963. The brand is very innovative, and the innovativeness is being carried on to date.
An apt example of that would be when a person is sewing using this brand’s sewing machine can control the stitching speed without using his/ her hands.
BSR adjusts the sewing machine’s speed depending on how fast you feed the fabric to the machine. This feature, quite surprisingly, is available only in Bernina’s sewing machines.
#2. Singer
Singer is one of the bigger brands that was started in the United States. During the 1850s, it played a key role in the development of sewing machines.
Now, it is part of the SVP Worldwide, which also owns Pfaff and Husqvarna. It means the Singer-Viking-Pfaff Brand.
The Singer machines built during the older times were very well known for their quality and build. Moreover, even today, they have been well sought after.
There was a factory in Clydebank, near Glasgow, during the period of 1882 and 1980, but it had to be shut down due to financial difficulties in 1980. The train station which served the Singer still runs there.
Most Singer machines nowadays are produced in China. Sometimes, the production of a few of the machines is sub-contracted to third-party dealers.
Singer machines’ quality has gone downhill right from the time it has started its production in China. Most people believe that Singer sewing machines’ production has a lower quality than it used to be.
You will find that modern Singer machines will need more servicing and repairing than the other brand sewing machines.
However, Singer has many happy customers who are beginner sewers.
Singer has started producing more beginner-friendly sewing machines, which are budget-friendly, and has now stopped focusing a lot at the top of the sewing curve.
#3. Husqvarna Viking
This brand is most commonly known as the Viking in the United States and the Husqvarna in other parts outside the United States.
This brand started producing sewing machines in the year 1972. This brand was actually a producer of heavy machinery like motorbikes, chainsaws, and Swedish armaments.
The same knowledge they carried to creating sewing machines. They have strong and quality sewing machines. Their sewing machines are also known to be a little bit on the silent side.
From the year 2006, along with Pfaff and Singer, Husqvarna has been owned by SVP Worldwide.
#4. Pfaff
This sewing machine brand was found in Germany in the year 1862. It is, like Singer and Husqvarna, now owned by the brand SVP Worldwide.
Pfaff has some innovations, just like Bernina. It has the IDT( Integrated Dual Technology). It is basically a walking foot that is integrated into your sewing machine. With this, you can easily sew your zippers and other things very easily.
Due to the patent of IDT of Pfaff, most of the quilters like to purchase the Pfaff sewing machines as these machines can easily sew through multiple thick layers of fabrics extremely easily.
However, it is heard that the patent of IDT is expired, and so, Janome has made a similar sewing machine that has integrated the Acu Feed Technology system.
Pfaff sewing machines are a bit complicated to deal with, so they are not the best beginner-friendly sewing machines in town.
#5. Brother
Brother is a vast electronics company in Japan these days. It started as a sewing machine company in 1908. There was a Brother factory in the UK in 1968 when it purchased the Jones sewing factory in Manchester.
We believe that the factory site still is intact to this day.
The company’s sewing machines are produced in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and sadly, sometimes, they are manufactured by third-party manufacturers.
Though the Brother offers high-quality sewing machines, it put in a lot of effort to conquer the beginner-level sewing machine market.
You can invest in many models online, and they have a lot of features when you compare them to sewing machines from other brands within the same price range.
Most of the Brother sewing machines are quite similar, with just a little change in the designs.
The Brother ensures that they use more plastic in their sewing machine parts so that their sewing machines are portable and lightweight. However, this makes them a little less durable and robust.
#6. Janome
The Janome brand first started as the Pine sewing machine brand in 1921 and was later re-branded into Janome in 1954. The meaning of the word Janome is the snake’s eye in Japanese.
This name was given to the company based on its new design of the round bobbin.
The sewing machines of Janome are currently produced in Thailand, Japan, and Taiwan. It might be surprising for you to know that Janome makes sewing machines for even other brands.
The Janome brand actually makes the sewing machines by John Lewis, and they are pretty good.
You can check out the John Lewis Mini and the John Lewis JL110 sewing machines as the Brother brand makes them, and they are exceptional in quality and build.
Janome has a high-quality and excellent reputation. Janome’s sewing machines are cheaper, too, so customers tend to invest in them when they want high quality on a budget.
It also offers the Acu feed technology, though a little late. It offered the technology after the Pfaff brand offered the IDT.
The Janome brand had to wait for Pfaff’s patent license to expire, and then, they bought the Acu Feed technology into their sewing machines.
#7. Elna
Elna company was found in the year 1934, and in the year 2006, it was bought by Janome. It went through a lot of financial difficulties, like Singer, in the 1990s.
The Elna sewing machines are made of good quality and are durable. It is a Swiss design and has a top selection of sergers and embroidery machines.
The Elna brand was the first one to offer free arm sewing features in sewing machines, and this was a breakthrough as it helped a lot of sewers be able to sew cuffs and sleeves with ease.
The current machines are produced in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan.
#8. Juki
The Juki sewing machine brand started in Japan and only manufacturing sewing machines of industrial quality.
In the current day, however, they have a range of home and industrial sewing machines. This also includes sergers and electronic sewing machines.
Wikipedia says that they are the top sewing machine producers in the world. They do produce sewing machines that work on beast-mode and are extremely durable.
Their sewing machines are manufactured in Vietnam, Japan, and China.
#9. Jaguar
Jaguar is a brand name that is very well known and is usually associated with cars. However, did you know that it also produced top-quality sewing machines?
It does!
This sewing machine company started under Maruzen Sewing Machine Co. in the year 1949, and it has continually evolved and is at the current stage that it is now.
All the Jaguar brand’s sewing machines are made of metal, and they are made in Japan. The sewing machine lasts a long time, and you can vouch for its durability because of its metal parts.
#10. Toyota
Toyota is another brand that is usually associated with motorcars. However, it does have sewing machines under its branding.
It so happened that the first sewing machine that the Toyota brand ever made was so strictly under the supervision of Kiichiro Toyoda, the man who was the owner of the Toyota automobiles, that the sewing machine turned out to be extremely evaluated.
Later on only, they allowed the use of the Toyota branding on the sewing machines.
It produces computerized sewing machines and also electro-mechanical sewing machines.
Toyota’s sewing machines are built with great care, and the parts used are also perfect while also being durable and built to last.
Toyota sewing machines are so built that they are on par with their competitors and are, in no way, inferior to them.
4 Worst Sewing Machine Brands
We understand that you want to invest in a proper sewing machine. It is important to know which brands to stay away from when you want to do that.
The brands which we suggest that you stay away from are—
- Vof
- Toahine
- Oemer
- Jukky
These are cheap Chinese brands and those brands that do not have quality parts. The sewing machines from these brands might not even last you for a season!
Final Thoughts
We have compiled a list of the best brands and the worst brands of sewing machines, and now, after going through them, we know that you have a clear idea of which brands to invest in and which brands to avoid completely.
Before purchasing any sewing machine, you might want to take a long and hard look at the brand because if the sewing machine’s brand is a good one, it automatically means that its service and the customer support it has will be good. Therefore, look at the brand.
The other things you do need to consider are the price of the sewing machine and its features.
If both these factors are favorable to you, then you may go ahead and make the purchase.
Remember that taking an informed and wise decision before purchasing a sewing machine is extremely important because, with the right sewing machine, you will enjoy sewing to the fullest possible extent.
Happy Sewing!
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