I'm so glad to have found this forum! I've been sewing leather garments (primarily jackets/coats and pants) for a long while now, on a home sewing machine - a mid range Juki. And it does fairly well, but not the best - it's really only able to handle a couple layers of 2-3oz garment leather, and it struggles with any joined seam areas - slipped stitches, feed ripping up the finish, etc. So I think I'm ready to move into a heavier machine, but I'm honestly at a loss. I've read the -excellent- thread here about what sort of machine one wants for sewing leather, and got some great theoretical info, but now I'm down to the "pick an actual machine" part, and struggling to choose.
There seem to be a couple of major brands/makers - Cobra and Sailriite being the ones I came across the most, and Cowboy? But I'm hoping someone might have a good run down of "this brand is good for this" or even more specific "this machine from this brand...." or just a good breakdown of pros/cons of each.
I'm in the SoCal Los Angeles metro, so access to places in general isn't an issue, but with everything going on right now, a lot of in person places are closed, including my local Tandy, which is where I would usually go for a recommendation here I am looking to only do garments - no bags/belts/holsters/etc. Space is moderately an issue, I already have several machines up and running for non leather work, but provided it's not.....gigantic, it's probably not a big deal. I do like having my table to work with, because coats get heavy to hold onto. Budget isn't super an issue, but obviously, I'd love to spend less money, rather than more. I know all the brands I've looked at seem to have very helpful "please contact us to decide which machine you'd like!" which is great, but I'm hoping for outside/less biased input before I take that step.
Given all that, any particular resources I'm missing that could help me make a choice, or your personal recommendations? Thanks in advance
