Just ordered my Sailrite Ultrafeed Sewing Machine (LSZ-1 Plus). The house was too cold so I had sewn up some drapes with insulating fabric (Warm Windows R-7) using a Singer Featherweight. When the Featherweight bogged down I finished the job with my wife's old heavy Kenmore. The Kenmore was OK until the corners, where it had to be forced through the 8+ layers of fabric. The drapes are awesome - immediately making the cold room comfortable. So now I want to make about 20 more sets of drapes for all the windows, yet the corners are working loose in the first drapes I had sewn. So I figure the Sailrite machine will pay for itself several times over in energy savings - and I'll have a comfortable house. I think Sailrite should do a version of this video for insulating drapes. For those drapes you need a heavy duty machine, and the machine easily cost-justifies itself even for the average homeowner like me. (And for insulating drapes you should have a valence too. Otherwise cold air flows over the top. Just letting the sides overlap the wall more seems to prevent any cold air getting around the sides. Life changing.)
