I took a friend to get her machine fixed... in Queens! (about home machines)

A product that intrigues me. Find it at Sew Right

Even the best machines break, get jammed, die... we have to accept that.  But when they do, we need to know where to go, right?

If you have a home sewing machine (not industrial), and are looking to get it repaired, I have only heard of one resource in Manhattan with lots of happy home sewing customers, and, actually, nope, they aren't in the garment district.  Gizmo Notion has some great Yelp reviews, but I have never been there myself.  While it is worth trying City Sewing to repair certain brands, they primarily serve industry clients, using professional equipment.

In my experience, the best, fastest, and highest quality repair service at the best price is offered by Sew Right.  Yeah, you'd have to go to Queens for this one, but it would be worth the time and travel if you needed the services they provide.  They repair all makes and models.  And they do it well.  They also offer lots of sewing classes for home sewers.

Now... If you are a Pfaff owner, you gotta go to Sewtime (conveniently located across the street from Sew Right).  Sewtime offers lots of sewing classes, and there are some pretty awesome ones at the Westbury location (inside a JoAnn's fabric store), like the parent/child class, where you learn as a team.

Personally, I have a wonderful Pfaff, as well as some other non-Pfaff machinery, so I have been to both places, and received excellent service at each one.

On Friday, I drove my professional dressmaker, Manhattan-dwelling friend to Queens to get two of her beloved home machines repaired. While my friend explained the problems with her serger and sewing machine to the staff member there, I looked around at all of the stuff for sale in the store.  I drooled over a few machines, appreciated some quilting fabrics and embroidery samples, noticed their sewing class offerings, and found the "tape" photographed above. I am so intrigued by it, and am thinking of creative uses for it. I was shown one great use for it in the store - you can wrap a thread spool with it, and the tape keeps the thread secure on the spool. I'm sure you can keep things closed with it, secure things that you are working on that are not finished yet... I like the idea of securing loose strands of beads and things like that when you aren't done... I don't know what else to do, but I think I'll buy some, and find a million uses.  Somehow, I've become obsessed with the idea of this tape!

But I digress... We were talking about machine repair, right?

The thing about taking a machine to Queens... you're gonna have to have a friend with a car, rent a Zipcar, take a taxi, and wait a while (think maybe a week or two), but you'll get your machine back, at a fair price for the problem, working like a dream, or a thorough explanation for why it can't/isn't!

City Sewing - industrial machine rental... and more!

I'm not going to bury the lead of this story.  They repair machines.

They repair lots of kinds of machines.

Yes, they repair machines.

Parts, needles, tools, shears?  No problem.

Okay, on with the story.

"Let's say you are a designer getting ready for fashion week.  Everyone is frantically sewing.  A sewing person gets sick or can't come in.  what does that mean?  Someone else is gonna have to sit at that machine and get it done, even if that person is the designer him/herself."

I nodded.

"But... let's say a machine goes down.  The work comes to a screeching halt.  Doesn't matter who sits there.  During fashion week especially, we are all working 24 hour days.."

- Robin Rosado, Manager City Sewing Machine Corp.

If you've been in the garment district and strolled along 38th Street between 7th and 8th, you may have seen a "City Sewing" sign, pointing into what looks like an industrial loading space, full of machines.  You might have wondered about it, but likely never wandered in.

After some recent conversations with sewing professionals I know from my freelancing design and sewing life, we started to wonder about renting machines.  I mentioned that I once worked with a designer who rented the machines we were using, so I knew one could do it, but I really didn't know the logistics and cost. So... in question asking mode, I called City Sewing to ask about renting industrial machines.  I was greeted on the phone by the friendliest voice, who, after a brief discussion, enthusiastically invited me to come in and visit. And what makes him particularly wonderful, was that he was willing to patiently answer all of my questions, whether I intended to rent a machine or not.

So I went.  Turns out, what I had been wandering past, was just the service center.  The sales office is an organized, tidy, welcoming space just west of 8th Avenue.  Robin Rosado, the manager and certified repair technician, stopped frantically answering phones and emails to explain just how it all works.

For pictures of the showroom/meeting space, click here.

He has got a vast supply of fully up-to-date, well-maintained machines.  About 70 or so of them are currently on loan to various clients. Many of these clients are among the biggest names in the industry. He has complete knowledge of these machines, and how to fix them.  For example, you know how when you take your car to be inspected, they hook it up to a machine that diagnoses the problem?  That's what they do with the sewing machine.  Robin showed me how the computer gives him an incredibly detailed picture of the machine's health and indicates exactly where the problem is.

And it gets even better.  They are currently working on a new website that they plan to have up and running within the next few weeks, complete with demonstration videos. Robin's enthusiasm about his job is contagious.  He is a strong advocate of renting out the straight stitch workhorse machines, without all of the bells and whistles and complicated features. "You can sew leather on these.  You can use thick thread, thin thread, you won't need to keep changing needles - we've got all the supplies right here. Easy"

Not only can you rent machines, you can rent dress forms.  And by you, I mean YOU, ME, ANYONE.  About $200/month, generally speaking, which, for the right project(s) can make complete financial sense. It certainly makes sense for new designers and especially the well-established ones, who routinely rent 40-50 machines per company at various times during the course of a year.  Even with so many machines out on loan right now, he has plenty more.  This is particularly great for big interior design or fashion show jobs that need to be done on-site.  Makes the undoable... doable!

Licensed and insured, they pick up and deliver the equipment within the garment district. Any questions, you'll find them here:

City Sewing Machine Corp.

300 West 38th Street

NY, NY 10018

212-268-0408 or 0409