PREVIOUS BLOG UPDATE

For many years I have been happily sewing with my older, vintage BERNINA machines. Then Nina the Pretty BERNINA B335 arrived just 2 months ago! With a new sewing machine, feelings of nervousness crept in, I felt uncomfortable and challenged at first, then I overcame my nerves with a few simple strategies and fell in love. If you have new sewing machine nerves, you are not alone, you can read my blog post here New Sewing Machine Nerves. It’s been a well received blog post, already helping people overcome their nerves and begin to build a creative relationships with their new sewing machines!

NEW BLOG POST

10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU

Recently I was ‘quirky quilting’ an out of print Tula Pink Nightshade fabric. As I sewed happily, my mind wandered and all of sudden I was pondering love. Love is a complex and mysterious thing that people love to sing about. But I was specifically thinking about sewing machine love. Is that weird? Sewing machine love is totally a thing right? Funnily enough, there are very few songs about sewing machine love-I know because I googled it! But I did find this awesome song from the 1947 by Betty Hutton The Sewing Machine Song. Isn’t it a classic! Don’t worry, I don’t have plans to releasing an album of sewing love songs yet, but I am going to sing the praises of ‘Nina the Pretty’ BERNINA 335 here today. See what I did there?!

Every love story has a beginning, mine is always when machine, needle, thread and fabric meet.

1 & 2. Bobbin Winder & Thread Cutter Combo

Can we just appreciate this bobbin winder/thread cutter combo for a moment! Stopping to wind a bobbin when you are in the sewing zone is a pain in the ‘you know what’. I love that this bobbin winder is engaged as soon as you click the bobbin winder axis into place. I also love that it fills the bobbin evenly and clicks off when the bobbin is filled. But the thoughtfully positioned thread cutter is my favourite. It cuts out wasted time ferreting around looking for scissors. It’s just the best!

Check out this short BERNINA video and you will see why I love winding bobbins on my B335.

Thread winder on the left and thread cutter on the right! I love this feature it’s like party on the left and business on the right hehe!

3. Needle Magic

I keep discovering new functions of the BERNINA 335 such as the up/down needle button. How do you prefer your needle? Up or down? If you are like me and do a lot of pivoting with the needle in the down position you will love this feature too. You can choose to have the needle return the the up position or the down position when you take your foot off the foot control. The needle position is clearly shown on the display screen, and you can change it at any time. I have fallen head over heels for this feature, you can see it in action here in this short video Needle Up or Down – wow!

The button on the bottom left is the needle up down button. It displays on the screen half way up on the right hand side. See the needle graphic and the up arrow? It is showing that the needle up position has been selected.

4. Round and Round We Go

Here is another handy feature that I love. When you unplug the foot control there is a spool on the underside of the pedal! Surprise! Just wind the cord around the spool and push the plug into the groove to keep it safe from damage. There will be no more playing ‘catch the evasive, slippery little spaghetti cord’ when taking to get a service, sewing classes or retreats!

This is the underside of the foot control. Just wind the cord around the spool. I love this idea!

5. Follow the Arrows

As a super practical person I tend to draw on my sewing machines! I do! Don’t freak out, just let me explain first. On my BERNINA 1530 (about 25 years old) I mark it to remember settings for my current project, or if I am teaching a student how thread a machine I will draw arrows on the machine for them to follow. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that current BERNINA machines, like Nina the Pretty BERNINA B335 have arrows to show how to thread them, and show which way to wind a bobbin! It’s got to be love if we are even thinking the same thoughts! Am I right?

I love that it is so easy to follow the arrows on this B335! No more threading confusion!

6. Slide On/Slide Off

Not sure what I would do without my slide-on table, it is on and off my machine constantly! It seems am very particular about how much sewing surface I need to complete a task, and I just love that I can put on and take it off with ease.

Looking down from the top, you can really see how much extra sewing surface you have with the slide on table. Check out the light too! Love!

7. Eyes Up

A display screen is great…but an easy to read display screen that is not cluttered is even better! The BERNINA B 335 display is simple and easy to read and just makes sense, I love it! At a glance I can see the needle position (L-R & up or down), stitch width & length stitch pattern number, presser foot number & satin stitch. It also shows the alphabet as letters are inputted, and also displays if the pattern end or the mirror image button has been pressed.

I love how easy it is to check on all of the settings on the display screen as I sew.

8. Handy Dandy Instruction Manual

Truth be told, for many years I avoided opening my sewing machine manuals. Technical jargon coupled and overly complex explanations are not my style at all! However, I eventually discovered that BERNINA Instruction Manuals are user friendly, practical and the pictures are easy to follow. I love feeling empowered by finding the answers easily. If you have only ever briefly opened your manual, it is worthwhile taking another look. You can find information relevant to your machine in it’s manual, it may include:-

Overview of Machine
Sewing Preparations
Functions Stitch Overview
Examples of Application
Buttonholes
Cleaning & Maintenance
Stitch Pattern Summary
Easy to read diagrams and pictures
Troubleshooting
& even has a handy Index!

It really is a fabulous resource.

9. Light Glorious Light

The long life LED light is a feature of the B335 that I can’t live without now, I really do love it. The reason is that I don’t have great eyesight (even with my glasses) but I am obsessed with sewing lots of tiny detail. I am so happy that I don’t need to drag my desktop lamp over to see my sewing projects anymore. The light illuminates just the right amount of my project with perfect brightness that doesn’t hurt my eyes. Love it!

Love that I can see what I am stitching! Just adding some texture in her hair here.

10. Keeping Promises

One last thing I love about the B335, well any BERNINA really, is that it is so easy to build a creative, enjoyable relationship and make all the beautiful things together. It’s sewing machine love for sure!

Almost done! Nina the pretty BERNINA 335 is awesome for free motion stitching!

So there you have it, they are the 10 things I love about Nina the Pretty BERNINA B335! The list constantly changes as I learn more about the modern range of BERNINA sewing machines and their capabilities. I am really impressed with how this machine handled the free motion stitching on this project, and I am in love with the final result!

…and she is complete! This is the back.

What do you love about your BERNINA machine/s? Is there are particular favourite function you just have to share with your sewing friends? Let me know in the comments below.

Gosh is that the time! I have some bags to make and patterns to test!

Until next time, happy sewing, make all the beautiful things!

Kirrilee 🙂

PS. Project Details for this blog post.

To boost the texture and add some detail to this OOP Nightshade fabric from Tula Pink I used my favourite #9 Darning Foot on Nina the Pretty BERNINA B335. Nina did a fabulous job with free motion stitching, and now I need to decide what to do with this glorious piece of sewing art…hmm.