Sewing machine for blanket repair

[SonnysMom]

I have had an old Baby Lock sewing machine that I got cheap from the local high school Home Eq department. I have had it serviced once. It is time to get it serviced again. About $200 to service. It is a little undersized. Thick blankets are tough. It can be difficult to do repairs in the middle of a medium weight blanket as it doesn’t really fit well through the machine.
I am not doing this professionally. Just doing quick repairs for friends and in-barn horses to get a minor repair back in service quickly. Replacing straps, fixing the tail flap, replacing hardware. Maybe a small patch. No extensive repairs.8
I saw the Baby Lock accomplish at the sewing store. It is a discontinued model and $800. Thinking of buying it instead of repairing the existing one.

I am also considering maybe a cobbler type sewing machine.

What machines do people use to repair horse blankets? Brand and model name would be helpful

[Mallard]

I have an 1950’s Singer, in a cabinet. Inherited from my Granny.
It is metal and only goes forward and reverse. No Zig. No Zag.
I’ve used it for blanket repairs for 30+ years. I vacuum it off often and keep it well oiled. It is getting difficult to find belts for it.

[Knubbsy]

I think the Accomplish could work - it’s supposed to handle a high range of fabric weights and that throat is big enough it could probably handle it. I would consider buying a walking foot it doesn’t come with it. My trainer’s MIL does some repairs with an industrial straight stitch machine (Sailrite) and I know someone who uses a Juki, but not sure about the model number/name.

[atlatl]

I have a heavy Duty Singer, maybe 10 years old, but as you mention there is limited clearance.

Because I have time on my hands and am relatively thrifty, last year I bought a Chinese cobbler shoe repair machine to change out the zippers on my tall boots. Didn’t want to pay the shoe repair guy almost $100 a boot and didn’t want to wait over a month.

I was able to do the job, but it wasn’t easy so now I’m thinking the cobbler machine will be used for blanket repair. Just know that you still have to figure out how to install the thing on a bench and still have sufficient clearance.

[usernameTaken]

as someone also mentioned, sailrite. I have the LSZ (blue color) which does zig zag. The LS model (red/orangish color) is straight stitch. Both of those are portable. They also have other machines. Not cheap and you have to be prepared to oil it etc but the customer service is excellent and it’s a great machine. I ruined my circa 80s singer trying to do things it couldn’t handle. Have tried other machines, domestic type models, that were supposed to handle heavier duty sewing but they only handled blankets until they didn’t. So they will work if you are lucky or maybe don’t expect to do a lot of really thick or heavy duty sewing. I wasn’t lucky and spent a lot of money on repairs. My research was either buy industrial or find a really solid older singer - pre 60s I think my machine repair guy said - most importantly: one with NO plastic parts. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any like this while looking. I have heard juki recommended too but it seemed like the customer service was iffy so I bit the bullet and went with sailrite. It probably isn’t great for delicate sewing, but it can handle most regular sewing projects as well as the heavy-duty ones. Need to use the right needle and thread and play with tension but so far, I’ve sewn all kinds of things other than blankets and have been very happy with it. I tried to buy used and learned quickly that the used sailrites usually sell very quickly, none were for sale near me, and they usually hold their value so buying new wasn’t a huge jump from the used price.

[red_mares]

You reminded me I need to finish some blankets.

I’ve got a Janome HD3000 Heavy Duty. It’s a beast and less new than the used Babylock you’re looking at. Besides horse blankets, I’ve done the shaft leathers for carts. Getting the right presser feet makes life easier. I considered a Sailrite machine when I got this, but I couldn’t justify the expense. It is almost impossible to find a used or rebuilt Sailrite.

I actually fixed blankets with my old Walmart special Brother mechanical machine. I did finally retire it, but it’s plastic gears held up to a lot more than it should have. I did do maintenance on it over the years. I had some wicked home dec projects besides the horse blankets.

I’ve got an old Singer that I picked up to do heavy work and I hate it. It runs fine, I just dislike how it runs. Hopefully someone else will find it under their Christmas tree this year.