Bernette 38 review

Last year I bought my first sewing machine: the Bernette 38. I’ve used it to make two button-up shirts now and I like it a lot. In this post I’ll talk about the process of buying it and give my review of the machine.

My background

A year ago, during a break between jobs, I decided to learn how to sew. Using my sister’s Pfaff Quilt Expression 2048, I jumped in the deep end and made the Fairfield button-up shirt as my first project. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it. I followed it up with another Fairfield before moving for my new job. At this point I wanted to get my own sewing machine. I already knew some things I liked and disliked about the Pfaff, and I felt invested enough to spend a decent amount of money on a mid-range machine.

Where to shop

I heard it’s advised to shop for machines in person so you can try them out before you buy one, and get a warranty directly from the seller. This sounds like a good idea, but it can be hard depending on where you live. I figured if anywhere had such places, New York City must. But apparently not! At least, I could not find any large stores with sewing machines I could try. However, I did find a couple places in the Garment District that were close enough.

First was The New York Sewing Center at 246 W 38th St. They offer many classes and workshops for all different skill levels, and you can also book open studio time for $10 an hour. They sell only two machines, which are the ones they use in classes: the Janome 725S, and a cheaper one that I forget. Both are mechanical. The person who helped me was very nice and clearly knew what she was talking about. Although I didn’t end up buying here, I had a good impression of them and might try their classes at some point.

Second was City Sewing Machine Shop at 300 W 38th St. It’s a tiny store, but they had a bigger selection of machines. The man I spoke to was friendly, but compared to the previous interaction, he felt much more like a salesman. He said machines were “very good” without any specifics or questions, maybe assuming I was a total beginner. Anyway, after doing more research I decided I wanted the Bernette 38, so I called and bought it for $600 plus tax. It had to be ordered in, which was supposed to take 2 or 3 days, but actually took 2 weeks. I wasn’t in a rush so I didn’t mind. When he realized I was going to carry it home he made a handle out of tape for the box, which was nice.

Choosing a model

The first big decision to make when choosing a home sewing machine is whether to go mechanical or computerized. At first I was leaning towards a mechanical machine. I liked the idea of something simple that would last a long time, as opposed to a fancy machine that might be unrepairable in a few years, like all home appliances seem to be nowadays. My main options here were the Janome 725S from The New York Sewing Center and the Janome HD3000 from City Sewing Machine Shop. I really liked the look of the 725S with its dials and big reverse stitch lever, and I almost got it.

But I decided to go computerized after all. I didn’t care about having hundreds of fancy stitches, but I’d gotten used to the automatic needle down function on the Pfaff and was worried I’d miss that. I was also tempted by some other features like adjustable speed and automatic thread cutting. City Sewing had the Bernette 37 in stock and it looked nice, but the 38 seemed significantly better and it was only $100 more. So that’s what I went with.

While making my decision, I read and watched a lot of reviews. I found these videos by Frank Nutt Sewing Machines particularly helpful:

• Lucy gets the Bernette B37 out of the box
• Bernette B37 and B38 compared

I also found the Bernette All Model Comparison useful. It compares the b33, b35, b37, b38, b70 DECO, b77, b79, and sew&go 1 in great detail.

The review

The Bernette 38 is the top model in the Bernette 30 series. Bernette itself is Bernina’s lower end brand, so you could say this is an upper-lower end machine. Confusingly, it is actually manufactured by Janome. So it turns out all the machines I considered are Janome machines.

Overall I’m very happy with the machine and I would give it a 9/10. There are only a few minor things I dislike, which I’ll get to later. I won’t list all of its features since you can read that yourself in the product description. Instead, I’ll share some photos and highlight what I care most about.

The b38 is sleek looking and fairly compact. It has a handle on top, and it comes with a hard case that lets the handle through. It has an LCD display and a touch panel for selecting stitches. There are physical controls for reverse stitch, lock stitch, needle up/down, cutting threads, adjusting speed, and actually sewing (you don’t have to use the pedal). I love the automatic thread cutting: it saves both time and thread, since it can cut so closely.

There’s a physical lever to raise and lower the presser foot which is easy to reach and can also be raised extra high by pushing harder. The presser foot pressure is also adjustable by a dial in the back. If you forget to lower the foot before sewing, the machine will beep at you. You can remove the accessory tray to access a switch in the back to raise or lower the feed dogs, and to sew with the free arm.

The machine also comes with a large extension table, which I like using most of the time to spread out my project. Its feet are adjustable to make it level, and they fold down for compact storage. This along with the hard case are extras you only get with the b38, not the b37.

It comes with a lot of presser feet, though I’ve only used two of them: the standard zigzag foot and the buttonholer. I’m really happy with how this machine does buttonholes. The foot itself sizes a button to set the ideal length, and you can adjust the width and density on the machine. It’s worked perfectly every time, except when I once ran out of bobbin thread.

On top of those, I decided to buy an add-on set of presser feet for $100. The most useful ones from it are the patchwork foot, which lets me stitch a perfect 1/4 or 3/8 inch from the edge, and the edgestitch foot, which makes a perfect edgestitch. I now use these more than the zigzag foot.

Of course, the most important thing is how the machine actually performs. I don’t have much to compare with, but so far I’m impressed. It’s handled everything I’ve tried so far and the stitches look good. I’ve never had problems with it chewing up fabric or struggling to get through too many layers. It runs fairly quietly and, very subjectively, it feels nice to use.

With all the positive out of the way, here are the things I don’t like:

• Bernette-specific presser feet are quite a bit more expensive than others. I haven’t tried generic low-shank feet, but given how they sell kits for very specific models (like b37 or b38 only), I’m worried they wouldn’t work.
• I miss the Pfaff integrated dual feed (IDT). I ended up buying a Bernette walking foot, but the great thing about IDT is it works with whatever foot you’re using. But I doubt any machine under $1,000 would have it.
• You can’t change the stitch length immediately in the middle of sewing. It will use the old length for one more stitch before using the new length. This is annoying when I’m trying to turn exactly at a corner.
• Although you can operate the machine with a button, this only works if you first unplug the pedal. This seems like a pointless restriction.
• The machine makes a very faint high pitched noise when it’s turned on and idle. Most of the time I don’t even notice it, but sometimes I do.

Conclusion

I think the Bernette 38 was a good choice for me, though admittedly I wasn’t choosing between that many options. I’m glad I went with a computerized machine because it’s so convenient to adjust the speed, keep the needle down, and automatically cut thread. Time will tell how long it will last; the one year warranty is already almost up. I’ve so far used it to make a linen shirt and a cotton shirt and plan to make lots more.