I have always sewn with woven fabric until I recently got an overlocker.  I decided to try to make my first knit garment and successfully made a tee shirt for my husband.  I looked in his wardrobe and discovered that all his tee shirts are made of 100% cotton.  I was having difficulty finding similar fabric to buy but eventually bought an "Organic Cotton Interlock" fabric from Guthrie & Ghani.  The project went well, I'm happy to say, and so I'd like to make more.  The Interlock fabric is a bit thicker than normal tee shirt fabric but I'm having problems finding normal tee shirt fabric that isn't 95% cotton plus 5% spandex/elastane.  Has anyone any ideas about where to purchase 100% cotton jersey?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7383655/Keira-Knightley-steps-just-days-welcoming-second-child.html

I saw this photo the other day and fell in love with the dress fabric. I like the fact that the diamond sort of shaped dots are laid out in stripes - not your typical polka dot - and I wonder if any of you fellow sewers/sewists have seen anything similar anywhere?

 I took my aged, but much loved, Pfaff Creative 1471 to my nearest Pfaff dealer, about 40 minutes drive away from me, for a service.   I bought this machine about 1983 or 1984 and I love it.  I have heard that the motherboard can suddenly die and I live in dread of that happening. 

Anyway, the dealer/repair man checked my machine out when I left it in with him, while I was still there, and the first thing he said was that it was running very slow.  That may well be true and perhaps I have just got used to it over the years.  He rang me up after a couple of days to say that he had the machine “stripped down” but thought that the motor was probably on its last legs.  I asked what he could do about that and he said that it wouldn’t be worth doing anything about the motor on such an old machine, especially considering the wonderful new machines available nowadays.  I said for him to complete the service anyway as even if I might need to get a new machine I’d still want to be able to use my existing one while I would decide what to do.

When I went to collect the machine today he said, “Look, that’s as fast as I can get your machine to go.”  And he proceeded to demonstrate a Janome MC8200QCP.  I said I loved my Pfaff and would probably want to replace it with another Pfaff.  He said that the only thing I would miss about the Pfaff would be the IDT (which in the 1980s was called IDF – integrated dual feed) and that Janome have the equivalent in something called Accufeed (sp?).  He said that Pfaff are ‘on the way out’ and that they’re not getting any new customers – only old, loyal customers like me who’ve had a good, original, German made Pfaff for years and think they can get a newer version of the same thing if they stick with Pfaff, but according to him they won’t.   Although his shop is supposed to be a Singer and Pfaff stockist practically all the machines I saw there are Janomes. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Janome he showed me looked lovely and has some great touches which my old Pfaff certainly doesn’t have but Pfaff’s IDT is built in to the machine whereas, if I understood it correctly, the Accufeed is a separate foot that you have to put on – I’m not absolutely sure about that.

After he’d spoken to me when I left my machine in for its service I had begun to do a bit of research but only looked at Pfaffs.  I know there are some new models just out but I had discovered something called a Performance 5.2 which seems to be a sewing machine, with some embroidery stitches, rather than a super fancy embroidery machine, which I don’t really need since my sewing is mostly of the garment or home décor variety.  I can buy a Pfaff Performance 5.2 for £1169 online and get it posted to me from England to where I live in Northern Ireland.  I think perhaps this is a reduced price because of the new models that will be replacing it.   The dealer would sell me the Janome MC8200QCP for £1349.  I think, if I really pushed him, he would be able to get me a Pfaff but it would likely be much dearer than the online price, although I would actually have a shop to go back to if I had problems.  I’m not sure how customer service works if I buy a machine online and it gives me problems – I suppose I’d have to ask the store in England about that.

Anyway, to get to the real point of my question:  is it true that Pfaffs are “going nowhere” and that if you have trouble with a new Pfaff machine Pfaff are hard to deal with or get satisfaction from?  Or does the dealer just want me to buy a Janome since that’s mostly what he sells?  He did say that there has to be a reason why The Great British Sewing Bee uses Janome machines and not Pfaffs!

Advice and opinions welcome, please, and apologies for my longwindedness!