Audrey (aka Skipper) has sewn for decades, and she has five different sewing machines that she uses for various projects. A few years back, when we decided to sew our own sails and boat covers, she knew she would need a machine suited for working with thicker fabric and heavier thread. On the recommendation of a sailor friend, we bought a Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1 walking-foot sewing machine and have ever since been very pleased with its performance. The LSZ-1 does both straight stitching and zigzag, which is used in sailmaking and repair; the Ultrafeed also comes in a straight-stitch-only model, the LS-1.Both models have a walking foot, which pulls the top of the fabric at the same time as the feed dog pulls the bottom, ensuring even stitching and fabric alignment. This is a marked advantage over an ordinary sewing machine where only the bottom layer of fabric is pulled by the teeth of the feed dog. That may be fine for sewing a few layers of common fabrics, but not for sewing sails or boat covers where the fabrics are slippery or so thick that the top layers don’t keep up with those on the bottom. The walking foot also reduces the amount of seam tape or the number of fabric clips or pins required to hold the fabric together but gum up machines and slow sewing. The walking foot maintains pressure on the work at all times. Here the inner presser foot is holding two layers of leather down to keep them from lifting as the needle rises. When the needle is clear, the outer presser foot works in tandem with the feed dog below to advance the material being sewn.
Photographs by the authors
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Yes, the LSZ-1 is a great machine, I love it, but it is good to understand that it is not a general purpose sewing machine. It is rugged and will take a beating – sailmaking, covers and upholstery are its strengths – but it’ll make mincemeat of softer fabrics. On the other hand, my wife’s Bernina, definitely a more refined machine, goes to pieces when pushed to handle heavy jobs. She has exacted a promise that from now on I will only use it for light work, that is, sewing and repairing her clothes.
Had an LSZ-1 for many years. The one drawback I’ve found is that none of the sewing-machine mechanics in my neck of the woods will work on it.
I have a Sailrite LSZ-1 and a Sailrite Big and Tall machine. Sailrite has some great instructional videos on servicing and timing their machines, so I have never had need of an outside mechanic. The LSZ-1 has better throat space than household machines. This is important for large rolls of fabric to pass through the machine. You still need to plan your order of operations carefully on large pieces, like sails and boat covers. The Big and Tall has about 18.5″ of throat space, about double the capacity of other machines. A recent project was joining very wide pieces of wrestling-mat cover (12′ x 16′ pieces of vinyl-coated canvas fabric) for a martial-arts club. We had about 285 pounds of fabric on four tables with three helpers to wrangle that job through the machine.
Having “been there and done that,” I can tell you that you should stay away from the exact look-alike clones of the Sailrite. It’s not that they don’t work. They do and will often take excellent Sailrite accessories like the “Monster Fly wheel,” but the clones don’t last. If you get into maintenance you will see lots of terrible small castings made of crumbling pot metal. I have one clone that I can barely keep running by using real Sailrite replacement parts. It’s not worth it. Don’t go there.
The article and following comments helped me decide if I should try fixing zippers on our Bimini with my Bernina. I already struggle with my Bernina with some projects with multiple layers (even with the walking foot), so I wasn’t confident that it could handle the multiple layers of Sunbrella fabric and I didn’t want to break the machine. I love my Bernina! I’m waiting for the Sailrite to arrive to fix the Bimini- the first of many projects to come. Thanks for the commentary. Happy Boating!
Nice comments.
Have had my Sailrites, LSZ 1 and Fabricator for around 7 yrs.
Great company, great machines, great work horses!
Do you have this Sailrite machine that has many stitches? How can I get this machine in my country, South Africa
Middleburg Mpumalanga? I will be happy for the help for me.