Janome MemoryCraft 11000 Sewing & Embroidery

...Husqvarna Designer SE and the Janome 11000. I then chose the Husqvarna designer SE as it had more features (I thought) even though it was more expensive. It soon became evident I had made a big mistake, as the SE had fault after fault, and ruined umpteen items, and even a replacement machine that I was sent did not work properly. I was an experienced user, having moved up from the Husqvarna Designer 1, having had embroidery machines for around 15 ...
..., I purchased an ex-demo Janome 11000, which had £1000 off the retail price.
I got the machine home, unpacked it, switched it on, read the instruction manual briefly, and plucked up courage to do a test embroidery. It was perfect. and so was the next, and the next. It is now around 6 months since I purchased it and the more I use it the more I like it. In fact I was sewing some faux suede which had a satin back and it was slipping all over ... more

I originally compared sewing/embroidery machines and came down to a choice between the Husqvarna Designer SE and the Janome 11000. I then chose the Husqvarna designer SE as it had more features (I thought) even though it was more expensive. It soon became evident I had made a big mistake, as the SE had fault after fault, and ruined umpteen items, and even a replacement machine that I was sent did not work properly. I was an experienced user, having moved up from the Husqvarna Designer 1, having had embroidery machines for around 15 years, and had never experienced these type of problems before. Still there were so many problems I did start to wonder if perhaps I was doing something wrong. It turns out I wasn't, the machines were just lemons.

I was eventually given a refund on the SE and despiteconsidering giving up mahcine embroidery completely , I purchased an ex-demo Janome 11000, which had £1000 off the retail price.
I got the machine home, unpacked it, switched it on, read the instruction manual briefly, and plucked up courage to do a test embroidery. It was perfect. and so was the next, and the next. It is now around 6 months since I purchased it and the more I use it the more I like it. In fact I was sewing some faux suede which had a satin back and it was slipping all over the place. I remembered that the machine had a walking foot , and thought I would try it, result - perfectly ststched faux suede that did not slip at all.

The embroidery is absolutely beautiful. Normal sewing is excellent and more importantly it works perfectly every time. No runied items. My confidence is now fully regained (to the point that I will actually do a short notice project again). It is also very straightforward to use, and the maual is easy to follow.

There are many attachments available, and the price of extra feet etc are quite reasonable compared to some other brands. The standard embroidery hoops are 8"x8" and 7"x5" which are perfect sizes for most things I havce wanted to embroider, optional hoops in other sizes are also available. Tha machine has also performed beautifully whe using pre-wound bobbins (which are not the recommended ones for the machine) but as I had a lot remaining from my Husqvarna days thought I would try one to see what happened. The performance was as good as ever.

The biggest plus point for me is that there is no bulky embroidery unit,
the embroideyr unit is built inot the machine and is ready to use at the flick of a switch. It is so easy to convert from sewing to embroidery and back again.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this machine if you are looking for a TOL embroidery and sewing machine. I am also a member of a forum for owners of this machine, and having been a member of a similar one for the Husqvarna designer SE must lso add that the problems encountered with this machine are far fewer than it's rival. 

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