I’ve worked with several old machines but this is my first vintage Bernina. It’s a Bernina 801 manufactured in 1980.
One of the things that fascinated me about is how fast it can sew. I’d say it’s close to 1,000 stitches per minute and comparable to my industrial Juki sewing machine. None of the other vintage machines I’ve seen can do that.
However, the downside to this is that it accelerates very quickly. It’s so hard to control the speed when you step on the foot pedal.
I wanted to use it for precision work (like quilt piecing and blanket stitching an applique). So I tinkered with it to see if I can fix it instead of sending it to the shop.
Here’s the YouTube video on how I adjusted the foot pedal of my Bernina 801 which allowed me to control the machine better.
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