Monday, August 27, 2012

Review of the Ikea SY Sewing Machine

As previously posted I used the Ikea Sy to make a slipcover and headboard for my daughter's apartment. I hope you scroll down and check the posts out. I have 2 other sewing machines that when I bought them they were the top of the line. I have been sewing for a good 35 years from home, factory to a drapery shop.
I had read some other reviews as I was a little worried about it sewing through the double sided quilted fabric.
 I had to hand turn the wheel over the thickest part.  I have a habit of doing that with every sewing machine as the tension adjusts when the pressure foot has been raised by the bulk of the fabric. This is the most common reason for a broken needle. That could upset the timing of your machine, so I avoid the near occasion.
 I was somewhat concerned that the needle position was close to the rear of the pressure foot but I had no issues. 
The 13 stitches are somewhat misleading as  3 of them are straight stitches, one of which is a basting stitch. You adjust the stitch length by setting between the stitches. 
I also  used the zigzag stitch and that worked fine also.
I was very happy to have the zipper foot. I didn't use it for a zipper, but the pillow covers I used for the headboard had piping on them and it would have been impossible to sew those as the seam allowance was quite thin so I had to stitch close to the the piping. The zipper foot worked a charm for that. 
I didn't use the buttonhole foot so I have nothing to report on that foot. 
The machine comes with 6 bobbins one of which was filled with pink thread that was loaded in the machine. I image they tested the machine before packaging it. I thought it was a generous amount of bobbins. 
They had a whole book about oiling the machine but did not provide even a small amount of  oil. Needless to say I assumed it had been oiled in the factory and would only needed to be oiled on a later use.
I didn't have any trouble with the speed of the machine but I am a fast sewer and they were mostly long straight seams. 
The price of $69 is a reasonable price. We saw it tagged for $59 upstairs in a display and asked for a price check but alas we paid $69. Still for what I had to get done it was still a good price.
All in all I was happy with the sewing machine and was happy that my daughter would be able to use it if she found a need to sew something while away at school.


11 comments:

useful.idiot. said...

Thanks for making this post/review!! I've been wanting to get a sewing machine for some time now (I'm a beginner, have never used a machine before) and wanted to find something affordable, and one of my coworkers mentioned she'd seen one in an IKEA catalog recently! I guess this is a really new offering by IKEA, so it's hard to find many reviews about the machine, so I'm glad to have stumbled upon yours! The other two reviews I found didn't have pictures of their projects, so I wasn't sure how their works turned out after they used the machine. Thanks for posting pictures! Your slipcover turned out lovely!!!

Deborah Strickland said...

I appreciate the review especially from a long time sewer. I too just purchased the Ikea machine and am a beginner. The last time I sewed was junior high school (many decades ago) but I surprised myself and remembered the basics. I practiced on scrap material for a few days then hemmed two Ikea curtains and they look perfectly fine. My stitch lines were a bit wobbly but it takes practice to sew a straight line. I took my time to measure, iron and pin so at least the bottom of the curtain is straight *ha* My sister is a big time sewer with $$$ machine and serger but we live 2000 miles apart so can't help me out. I like having something around to make those simple repairs. Maybe I'll try simple things like pillow cases. It's actually kind of fun -- and I'm someone with little patience so maybe it'll help me in that department.

Anonymous said...
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Speattle said...

There is nothing in my manual about oiling the machine! Where does the oil go? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

same here, i dont have any instructions about oiling

King Ku said...

you can actually see the guy open up the ikea sewing machine and you can see the machine is basically full of metal part, which means it's very durable and would last very long time, compare to some of the more expensive singer machine, which they were all plastic once you open it up. this ikea machine is definitely worth every penny, metal is more expensive then plastic, just think about a engine made out of plastic , how long you think that would last.. so this ikea machine is surprisingly well made and beats a lot of other more professional brand as well...

King Ku said...

just watch how they open up the ikea machine from youtube, then pretty much put oil at all the moving parts, except the belt, the wire and the plastic tumbler, you can actually find info about how to oil a machine online. it would tell you the same thing.

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emptynestegg said...

I haven't found this format on Blogger to be hard to use.
I have my etsy site, twiiter, and pinterest all under emptynestegg.
The few pointers I could pass on is to use links to the products and pictures you use .
That is a little tricky but not too bad if someone like me can figure it out.

Unknown said...

Hi. This has helped me a lot but do you know if this comes with a blind hem foot or a blind hem stitch symbol on it. If not, do you know how you could see a blind hem on the machine.

emptynestegg said...

The machine only came with basic pressure, zipper, and buttonhole feet. It does have a blind stitch setting and the instructions show how to use it by folding the fabric and using the basic foot.

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