Bernette B05 Academy Sewing Machine

Description

A first machine that does not feel like a first machine

Most machines at this price are made to a budget and it shows the moment you sew anything heavier than cotton. The B05 Academy is built the way Bernina build things, with a stainless steel bed plate rather than plastic and a motor with real pull behind it. Your fabric glides over the plate instead of dragging, and the machine stays put on the table rather than walking about when you get up to speed.

It is mechanical, which some people read as basic. It is not. It means dials instead of a screen, nothing to go wrong electronically, and a machine that will still be sewing in twenty years. Plenty of our customers who own computerised machines keep one of these as a second machine for exactly that reason.

The Academy bundle is the point

This is where the Academy earns its name. You get twelve presser feet rather than the six that come with the standard version, including zigzag, buttonhole, zipper, invisible zipper, blind stitch and overlock. Buying those separately would cost you a fair chunk of the machine’s price.

You also get the large slide on extension table with guide lines marked on it, which gives you 165mm of supported surface to the right of the needle. For quilting that is the difference between fighting your project and enjoying it, and for dressmaking it means long seams stay flat instead of dropping off the edge of the bed.

30 stitches, chosen rather than padded out

Thirty stitches sounds modest next to machines advertising hundreds, but these are the thirty you use: utility stitches for construction, stretch stitches for jersey, blanket stitch, a super stretch stitch, and a handful of decorative options. You select them straight from the dial, no menus.

The one step automatic buttonhole is the headline. You drop your button into the foot, the machine measures it and sews the buttonhole to match, and every buttonhole on the garment comes out the same. Maximum stitch width is 6mm and maximum length is 4mm, and you can adjust the density on the buttonholes and stretch stitches to suit your fabric.

Free motion ready

The feed dog drops, so you can take over and move the fabric yourself for free motion quilting and thread painting. Combined with the extension table, that makes this a very capable little quilting machine for the money, which is not something you can say about most mechanical machines at this level.

The everyday things

• Adjustable presser foot pressure, so fine jersey feeds without stretching and canvas feeds without stalling
• Two LED lights over the work area, bright and cool
• Half speed limiter, dropping the machine from 1100 stitches per minute to 650, which is a real help when you are learning or working somewhere fiddly
• Drop in bobbin, quick to load and visible through the cover
• Free arm once you slide the bed plate off, for cuffs, sleeves and trouser hems
• Finger guard fitted, worth knowing if the machine is for a younger sewer

Specification

What’s included

• Twelve presser feet, including zigzag, buttonhole, zipper, invisible zipper, blind stitch and overlock
• Large slide on quilting and sewing extension table with guide lines
• Needle set 130/705 H
• Bobbins
• Finger guard
• Seam ripper and brush
• Right seam guide
• Height compensation tool
• Screwdriver
• Spool pins, holders and felt discs
• Spool net
• Oiler
• Instruction manual