Village Sewing Center

I have a lovely white Singer Featherweight that I like to use for travel projects. After paying an ungodly $175 to get it serviced at Richmond Vacuum & Sewing, I struggled with a few things but thought it was something that I was doing wrong.

Since I only have used it about 8-10 times, I was pretty surprised that the motor seemed to be slowing down. I checked the manual and discovered: belt being too tight could be the problem. I got a screwdriver to give it more space but guess what? It was already at the closest position.

I took my sewing machine to Village Sewing Center in Santa Rosa where John, the owner, immediately identified several problems with my Featherweight:

1. First, the cost for the servicing of $175 - he was shocked and wanted to know "What did he DO to it?"

2. The belt is basically a rubber band - not the leather belt that allows proper adjustment and doesn't put inappropriate stress on the machine. This is a popular machine with widely available parts. There's no excuse for this failure.

2. Bobbin tension can be adjusted with a screw -- he showed me how to do this correctly.

3. Top thread tensioner should not be at "0" -- he took it apart, adjusted and reassembled it, fine tuning the tension on the bobbin tension.

4. Showed me the points for lubrication and demonstrated a couple of other items that were missed in Wilson's $175 Featherweight servicing.

My total cost? $9.86 for the actual Singer Featherweight belt and the machine runs like a dream.

Moral of the story: Do not go to a vacuum shop with your sewing machines. It's expensive to go to either Berkeley or Richmond Vacuum & Sewing Center and there really are options where people are more professional when it comes to sewing machines.

Very helpful to a newbie like me! Took time to show me some helpful settings to use on my own sewing machine! The thread I bought there is amazing quality so worth the extra pennies. Lived this place!

I love Village Sewing Center. I have needed service on my sewing machines over the years, and I always get wonderful service by the technicians here. I also have purchased a Juki sewing machine and Baby Lock serger here, and they always help me if I need help or run into snags. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and thorough. Truly a gem of a place.

This sewing shop has such a skilled machine repair person that my wife is willing to drive 4 hours to take her Viking Sapphire sewing machine here.

I decided to stop in here as a family member had indicated that they had moved to a new location and I wanted to check it out. I was very impressed with the lovely shop which is fairly close to a freeway exit. It's well laid out, and there's a large area for sewing classes. In fact while I was there they were just setting up for a beginning sewing class. They have a huge notions section, and I was able to pick up some high-quality Bobbins for a Singer 301, these Bobbins tend to be quite difficult to find and the ones sold online tend to be on the cheaper side.

Staff were extremely helpful. Their stock focus primarily on quilting cotton's, but they had a large section of batiks, a large section of bright and colorful Kaffe Fassett, and also a whole section on Australian aboriginal prints in multiple colors. They were very beautiful. This shop also carries a large array of Accu quilt mats and dies. This is tremendous! Additionally, dotted about the whole store are lots ofAntique and vintage sewing machines! They had a beautiful Treadle Pfaff, a large Siinger leatherworking treadle, and a number of different machines lining the tops of shelves.

This sewing store also has a repair shop inside of it. My mother just loves John who keeps her Viking machine in tiptop condition. I could see that there were various machines lined up ready to be serviced, even older Kenmore and other machines.

Finally, if you check in here, you will receive a discount. I was thrilled as I was buying fabrics for both a soft cotton dress and also a top. They feature the latest and the greatest! Primarily quilting cottons.

When you have a sewing needs, give them a holler you're sure to find something to delight with reasonable prices and great selection of notions and inspiration.

John is top notch in customer service and taking a quick look at my machine since I had started making masks (I'm such a newbie at sewing in general) he gave me a few pointers and showed me how to adjust my bottom stitch.

I absolutely LOVE their fat quarters selection and hit it first before browsing the rest of the fabrics.

All around best customer service and the few times I've popped in they have a drop off for masks made to hand out to front line workers, and will give mask makers *some* not a lot of elastic to continue to make masks.

They do have adjusted hours.

Always friendly and have their store and outside marked for social distancing to protect shoppers and themselves.

May just have replaced my other go to shop for fabrics, notions and the like.

Also was told about machine tune ups that should be done once a year or so depending how much it's used.

Try as you might you are not going to get a better product, better service, or a better price than at either of the Village Sewing Centers. People actually know what they are talking about and don't try to fast talk you. The customer service is superb but the machine service is incredible. The owner, John, has his finger on the pulse of everything that is going on in the stores and he is just a text away to his employees for fast, straight answers to complicated questions. It's in a field all its own.

I enjoyed my interactions with them, I'm now anxiously waiting to find out what they found about repairing my old, from the 50's singer, and when I can pick it up.

Kathy at The Village Sewing Center is the absolute best! I called to see about getting my sewing machine fixed. It was jammed and I needed it fixed ASAP in order to complete my projects for Christmas. She told me to bring it in the next morning when they opened at 10 AM. I did just that and Kathy went to work and got the problem fixed in short order. Bottom line....I was able to walk out of the store with my sewing machine working perfectly. Not only is their service department the very best BUT their fabric selection is absolutely gorgeous. I had to put on blinders not to walk out with a bunch of fabric!
Thank you, Kathy, for saving me!

Last year I came into Village to get my Grandmother's sewing machine serviced... fast forward to now and I've bought an amazing Janome Skyline S5, a million notions to make my quilting life better, and a metric ton of fabric! But I've also made friends with many of the wonderful people who work there! The ladies have helped me figure out quilting and the service dept crew is always smiling and helpful. Thank you Village for being my Little Quilt Shop