Blessing in disguise

I am utterly and completely in love with the new toy that I've recently acquired. It happened like this: it was last Wednesday; I was working really hard to finish off a birthday present for a dear friend on the sewing machine, and I could see the end coming near. Then my sewing machine had other plans and decided to stop working! Needless to say, I was feeling absolutely frustrated by it!!! So I rang up the company I bought it from just to be told that the whole of their service department is shut till end of June!! Alas! One whole month without sewing? So, being the way I am, I've decided that the solution to my problem, is to get another machine while I wait till the end of the month to send my machine to be repaired. Drastic but absolutely necessary.

It was almost love at first sight. Although being sensible, I did originally purchase a much, much cheaper reconditioned New Home sewing machine just to find that I was struggling with it every five minutes so I had to take it back the next day. It was destined, the union between me and my beloved.

Although I did make an effort to start looking at other new machines that were a lot cheaper than my beloved, my mind and attention kept drifting back to 'the one'.

To be honest, even if the salesman had been speaking Russian, I would have bought it, regardless. Steve calls me 'every salesman's wet dream'. But to be fair, just so you don't think that I'm a complete loony, the salesman made his sales with two things - all original packaging, manuals and accessories that came with the machine were still there, even with the free thread that came with it. Pretty amazing! Also, if it turns out that I wasn't coping well with the machine, I can take it back to the shop(when I made that request, the salesman said confidently - Trust me, you wont bring this back to us!) So away we went, 15 minutes later, me lugging the big brick of the machine back to my car and i was grinning from ear to ear. When I said all original packaging, I really meant all ORIGINAL packaging. Check this out!


Can you see the label? I find it so fascinating! So out comes the machine in its hard case.


The first glimpse of my beloved. By now, you can probably see that it's the famous Bernina. But this is not just any Bernina! Let's see more pictures.


Side view of the case. Are you as excited as I am?


I read up extensively about this range and knew that this 'cord' that keeps the box shut is most commonly missing so I made sure that it was there.



Tada!! Open sesame! I love how the power cable coils around the back. And you can just about see the extension table clipped on the inside of the case.


Yup, it's a Bernina 900 Nova from the 80's! And I L.O.V.E it!


I especially love this. See the flower symbol? How cute is that?


Handy drawer at the bottom of the case.


How cute is that?! I just had to have it! And this vintage baby, is a solid metal beauty!!


All original accessories in tact. The gap is of course the presser foot that's attached to the machine.


I'm already thinking about expending this. The best thing is, although the machine's no longer being manufactured, I can still get the parts online.


Full set of tools. Including even the tube of oil at the end slot.

For a spare and reconditioned machine, it wasn't cheap. And I've probably paid over the odds too. That night, I didn't get to 'testdrive' it as we were heading to Taunton for a wedding, so I had to wait an agonising two days before I could get my hands on it. And when I finally had chance to try it, I knew then, that I had made the right decision... It was a dream, sewing on it. I mean my Husqvarna Viking 203 isn't bad at all, but this vintage Bernina Nova 900 was, different.

So I managed to finish the project in no time at all. The stitch quality was superb; and it was in every way, perfect! Although the machine was almost 30 years old, it didn't feel like that at all.

Upon seeing how excited I was by the Bernina, Steve planted an evil seed in my mind - get my Husqvarna Viking fixed, and then trade that in for a new, modern Bernina! To that I replied, but the new ones are so expensive!! But deep down, I'm mulling over the possibility...

Dangerous! I think i'll let me bank account recover first, and then i'll probably think about it. For the time being, I'm still smitten with my new love...(forgive my disloyalty my dear Husqvarna Viking)...