MStone

Thanks everyone for the input! I really appreciate you all taking the time to help a newbie out.

Hello! I desperately need a leather sewing machine and I've done a lot of research and simply cannot decide what's best. I mostly make handbags with leather and heavy canvas, and I've been doing a combination of sewing what I can on my Janome HD 3000 (great for apparel sewing but can only handle about 1/4" of leather at most) and then hand sewing like crazy. I'm fairly convinced that a cylinder bed would be best for my needs. I've read great things about the Cobra Class 4 and the Cowboy 4500, but I worry that they won't sew well with lighter weight applications. For instance, I read that the Cobra Class 4 uses thread sizes #138 - #415, but I often need to sew with thread as small as #69 with a 18/110 needle. So then I looked at the Cowboy 3200 and the Cobra Class 3 and Class 26. They seem more reasonable in terms of sewing lighter weight leathers but the fact that they all have only about a 10" arm seems like a ridiculously small amount of clearance. I was tempted to buy a Singer Cobbler Patcher 29 found near me on craigslist, but I do occasionally need to sew through 3/8" or even 1/2" and it apparently can't handle that on a regular basis. I'm also having trouble finding dealers on the east coast. I live in Maine, so if someone could direct me toward a good dealer in the Northeast, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much! Michaela