Efemera have you decided yet about which possible new machine you are going to get?
I have typed out the following, it may help you make up your mind.
Yes the Bernina feet and accessories are expensive, but the feet are certainly good and solid unlike some makes. When I bought my Artista I requested that if my family wanted to know what to give me for Christmas and birthday presents then Bernina feet would fit the bill nicely – I actually did the buying of them, so that I made sure that they were for my particular machine. I was also pointed in the direction of the Bernina - Bogod’s Warehouse down in Cardiff, and now I always buy any feet or accessory direct from them. The service is so quick, sometimes the next day and the two ladies I have dealt with Rachel and Jackie are brilliant – they know what they are doing. Also on the Bernina UK website they have during the last year or so been offering an accessory or foot of the month, so quite a saving to be had, and of course they put up what they are offering.
Of course if you are going down the 700 series, I expect the feet and the bobbins are going to so different from certainly what I have, the machine probably comes with an accessory box – in other words what has become known as the Bernina ‘Wardrobe’, and the feet hang from racks, my machine a good few years ago now came with two wardrobes which I have filled up, so I got in touch with Rachel at Cardiff and bought another wardrobe and the appropriate rack which I needed to hang the feet with the larger sensors on the side on.
My Artista also came with its own special bag and trolley system called the Bernina Suitcase system. However I couldn’t store my embroidery unit where I wanted to and started looking for the matching bag for this (will sit on top of the machine in its bag on the trolley). Bernina had then changed the design of the then current bags and I thought mine was much nicer. I got in touch with the then Dawn in Bernina London – she has since retired, and asked her if she knew of any dealers that might have had an original embroidery bag. Well later that day she came back to me saying ‘you just knew I would find you one’. They just had the embroidery bag floating around the London offices for a while, and then Bogod moved premises in London, and the new premises were smaller. So during the move all surplus stuff was despatched to the Cardiff Warehouse into what was known as the ‘London Room’. Dawn got in touch with Rachel and asked her to go into the ‘London Room’ to find this bag. Dawn then spoke to her boss and got a decent price for this, and it was despatched to me in a huge box which arrived the next day – the box was big enough for my then young grandson to be able to get into. The embroidery unit bag is certainly not big enough for him to get into!!!
So ever since I have dealt with Rachel down in the Cardiff Warehouse and she certainly knows her stuff and always goes the extra mile for me. There was the time when I needed the bigger rack to hang my feet with sensors on, the one they sent me was too small and they couldn’t understand it, so Rachel whilst still on the phone to me walked into the stock room where a very knowledgeable man knew his stuff, and between the three of us eventually found the appropriate rack – whilst I do not have one of these super huge machines like the 800 or 700 series, some of the feet I have have these large square sensors on the side and the rack needed for them are the racks for the bigger feet for (they look totally different) the 800 or 700 series – so the Stockman, Rachel and her team all now know and have put a reference to this in their books/computer programme.
They also sent me free of charge a very useful book of all the attachments for the machines, and in the front they have listed in groups which category the machine number itself belongs to, so when going through and looking at the various feet etc. you can easily pick up the part number for your particular machine, and I prefer to phone them with my order – it is always nice to chat to Rachel or Jackie.
For those who are interested in Bernina’s (Bogod) UK warehouse/shop their address is:
Bogod Machine Company, Fortran Road, St. Mellons, Cardiff CF3 0WJ. Phone is: 029 2079 2079