Hello, I am a firefighter in a busy firehouse here in Michigan. You might think its strange that we would need help with sewing machine reviews but we do. One of the guys on my shift had an old sewing machine from his grandmother that he has been using to repair our uniforms and equipment here at the station. We often times tear our pants or sweatshirts while on calls and have found it to be much cheaper to try and repair our uniforms here at work rather than replace them. We also make our own straps with webbing material here at the station for carrying tools and hose.
Unfortunately the old machine finally gave out on us and we are looking at upgrading to a new machine. We have garnered a lot of attention at the other stations throughout the city with our sewing prowess and have begun to get a lot of requests for custom work from other houses.
Our question is this, are there any sewing machine review sites that would help us pick between a heavy duty home machine or would it be best to try and find a used commercial machine somewhere? Thanks for your help in advance as your response would help me decide upon an appropriate course of action.