Knowing how to repair a sewing machine is an excellent skill if you are interested in sewing. Sewing machines are a complicated type of equipment. When they break down, finding a sewing machine repair person can be pretty challenging and expensive.
Therefore, gaining those skills yourself could be a good idea. It will provide you with some independence every time your sewing machine stops working. Becoming a sewing machine repair person could be a fruitful second career for someone with a passion for the field.
In this Guide
What To Expect From A Career In Sewing Machine Repair
Becoming a sewing machine repair person is an exciting option for people interested in the field. It doesn't matter if you want to focus your career solely on sewing machine repair. There are a lot of different opportunities for you to find work if you learn to repair sewing machines.
Benefits
Knowing how to repair your machines yourself will be extremely helpful and cost-saving if you own a sewing business. Perhaps you could add sewing machine repair as an additional service you offer to clients. This will allow you to increase your business’ annual income.
Other people focus on sewing machine repair as their primary career. Repair people can work for companies or be self-employed. Since people and businesses still use sewing machines, the demand for repair technicians is always there.
Salary
Generally, sewing machine repair people make around $30,000 per year. This can differ from case to case, but this career can offer you a relatively modest lifestyle. However, it can certainly increase your household income as a second career.
What you can charge your clients depends on several factors. The average cost of an electronic device (regardless of type) is between $50 to $100. However, what you would charge as a sewing machine repair person is based on a case-by-case system. Some issues might be easier and quicker to fix, while others might be challenging. Therefore, how you charge for each job will vary.
Other factors
Other factors that will affect your prices are experience and training. If you have expertise in a field, it would make sense that you would charge more. You would be able to solve complex sewing machine issues faster and more efficiently. You would also be able to take on more time-consuming and difficult projects than your competitors.
Making a name as an experienced repair person can establish a stable client list. People will prefer to go to you due to your expertise. Moreover, obtaining a training certification makes you more trustworthy as it guarantees quality service to customers. Clients would be more willing to pay a higher price, knowing that you can provide effective and fast results. All these factors can determine how high you can get your prices.
Therefore, gaining training, certification, and more experience can allow you to make more income and improve your lifestyle.
Demand
Factors like location and competition determine the demand for sewing machine repair. If you live in a highly-populated area, you would probably have more customers than in a smaller community. However, if there are many other sewing machine repair people in the area, this increase your competition.
On the other hand, a smaller area with little to no competition will create a monopoly for you.
Generally, seamsters prefer paying to repair their existing sewing machines rather than buying new ones. This is because a new sewing machine costs a lot more than an older one. Some people would also pay you to provide some maintenance on them to prevent future issues from resurfacing.
Many people in the sewing field, even professionals, do not have the skills to repair their machines. A repair person will always be a service they will require.
How To Become A Sewing Machine Repair Technician
There are several ways to become a certified sewing machine mechanic. However, as mentioned earlier, getting proper training is an important option to consider. Pursuing industrial sewing machine repair training will open many doors for you.
If you want to work for a company as a sewing machine technician, they will ask to see your training qualifications. If you do not have any qualifications, it might be a reason for them not to hire you.
Going through the necessary training shows that you have made an effort to invest in your professional skills. For an employer, it shows that they can trust you to complete the tasks assigned to you effectively.
Let’s look at the available options for someone to get trained in this field.
Sewing Machine Repair Training
While many people learn new skills online, completing a sewing machine repair course online can only get you so far. It won’t teach you how to become a sewing machine mechanic. To get the extensive skill set required in this profession, you will have to undergo sewing machine mechanic training.
The first thing to look into is to start taking sewing machine repair classes. Unfortunately, not a lot of schools specialize in sewing machine repair training. Usually, colleges offer courses in such trades, so your local college may provide you with the training you need. You just have to make sure that you have your high school diploma.
Of course, you need to be thorough when you research to find the courses you are interested in. Sewing machine repair classes might be taught under programs that focus on something entirely different. Often, special courses are included in the curriculum of unrelated courses, aiming to provide a more well-rounded education to students. Therefore, you need to do your research before signing up or dismissing a college program/course.
Cost
Depending on the course, the program, and the institution, these classes vary in cost and duration. Classes can cost from $500 to over $1,000 and last from weeks to a few months. That means that you will also have to consider in advance what your budget is. Location is also a factor. You might find a sewing machine repair course in a different location that is more budget-friendly than your local college.
Other considerations
Taking classes can also be hard on your schedule since many people try to work while going to school to pay for their tuition. Besides the location, you might also have to look if the time you have to commit to agrees with your work schedule. Thankfully, there are a lot of schools that also offer online courses, such as an online sewing machine repair course, which makes it easier for people to attend them.
You should also look into workshops in the community. Many local organizations offer training opportunities through in-person seminars and webinars. The easiest way to find this opportunity is to search online for “sewing machine repair training near me.” This will allow you to see all available training offerings locally.
Perhaps you can begin your training through something like that before you commit to something more demanding, as these workshops can give you a taste of what you should expect from the training. The significant advantage of these workshops is that they are free of charge or have a much lower entry fee than regular courses.
Workshops can also be very informative because you can find out more information about other more formal training programs. Instructors can guide you and give you an idea of your next steps.
Certification
Earning a sewing machine repair training certification is an important goal. In most cases, you do not need to get certified as a sewing machine repair person. Many competent professionals today could build their careers without obtaining a certificate.
However, a certification is a significant advantage that can distinguish you from the competition. Moreover, depending on where you live, if you want to open your own sewing machine repair business, you might be required to go through the appropriate training and certification.
You must be aware that not all training programs offer certifications, so you need to be careful about the institution and program you choose. If you are investing your money to earn a certificate, first do thorough research to determine if the industry recognizes the certification. This is also particularly important if you reside in a location requiring you to earn a certificate to qualify to open a sewing machine repair business.
A good thing to also look into is who is performing the training. Research the sewing machine repair course instructors and make sure that they are professionals that know their craft. Researching the course instructors will give you an idea about the sewing machine repair course's quality and the validity and recognition of the sewing machine repair training certification. Only certified experts can teach courses that provide recognized certifications in most fields.
Hands-On Experience
Getting hands-on experience as soon as possible is an essential element that adds to your ability to get hired. Sometimes experience is valued even more than training, so having both put you on top of the candidates' list for a job.
Many people choose to contact experienced professionals already working in the field that can take them under their wing and teach them everything they need to know about the work. Getting hands-on experience early on is something that prospective employers value a lot.
Finding someone to mentor you allows you to work with sewing machines intimately while also learning the trick of the trade from your experienced mentor. Mentors can also advise you on the technical elements of the job and other aspects that might turn out to be extremely important for your career.
Factors to consider
You might not get a certificate from something like this, but you will learn many crucial techniques that will give you expertise in sewing machine repair through your first step in this career. While having a certificate is important, choosing this option can be very fruitful for many future sewing machine repair people.
Of course, what discourages many people from pursuing an apprenticeship is that they usually have no pay. While this element makes professionals more eager to take on an apprentice, it makes it harder on the individual, who might have to cover their regular expenses.
Many people do apprenticeships, working part-time, so they can have a side job that could cover their costs (i.e. rent, groceries, gas, etc.). However, depending on where you live, some government funding programs might cover some of your expenses while doing your apprenticeship.
Moreover, gaining experience early on could allow you to make your first steps in the business. For example, suppose you already have learned how to repair multiple sewing machines thanks to your apprenticeship. In that case, you could perhaps attempt to buy old and broken machines, fix them on your own and then resell them in much better quality. This would not only give you more experience, but you would also make some profit.
Brand-Specific Specialized Sewing Machine Repair Training
Of course, if you are still interested in getting the proper training to become a sewing machine repair person, perhaps it would be better to learn directly from the source. Many sewing machine manufacturers provide repair training for interested individuals either looking to expand their skill set or become professional sewing machine repair technicians.
This option is especially important because by attending a company-offered factory training, you will get a certificate from the company to prove that the actual manufacturer has specifically trained you.
A certification like this allows you to present yourself as a more highly esteemed technician with proven qualifications. Moreover, the more training you receive from different companies, the more diverse your skill set becomes.
Another important asset you gain from this option is that the company’s trainers can teach you several tricks that only people with long experience in the field would know. An example of that is how to repair older models, which you would typically have to research.
Several companies offer this type of training. The Bernina sewing machine repair training promises to provide you with knowledge and skills to help you make more money rather than waste your valuable time researching how to fix the company’s sewing machines.
To obtain a Brother sewing machine repair certification, you will have to go through the company’s partner program and apply to a Brother authorized service provider. Brother also indicates that some dealers can provide you with Brother training classes.
You can get Juki sewing machine repair training through the company’s basic sewing machine knowledge technical seminar. While the seminar provides interested individuals with basic knowledge, the company can also offer more advanced training. Check the Juki Training page for details on the next Juki machine mechanic course.
Opening Your Own Sewing Machine Repair Business
Starting your own sewing machine repair business can sound like an overwhelming idea, but it might be quite fruitful if you decide to go through with it. Opening your own business can allow you to increase your revenue as a technician and place it much higher than $30,000 per year. Most importantly, you need to first check the rules in your area as you might need to get certified before you open your business, though this is not always the case.
Much like with every other business, you need to account for your business expenses (rent, bills, taxes, employee salaries, etc.) Of course, not all expenses might apply to you, but you should still know these things before starting this process.
Your biggest challenge as a new business owner will be to build your clientele. As mentioned earlier, a good thing to do at first is to start buying older sewing machine models and repair them so you can resell them. This will allow you to make some income before you get more customers. You can continue this practice as you get more clients as it will provide you with some extra money in your pocket.
Finally, promotion will be an essential element to implement as it will be the one that will get you your first customers. People will keep coming back to you for repairs once you provide quality service to them, but those unfamiliar with your work will need to be convinced. If you have certification, then make sure to display it because this is how you will be able to win them over.
Conclusion
So, why become a sewing machine repair person? As we mentioned above, there are a lot of benefits to this profession, but the essential element you need to have is a genuine passion for sewing and sewing machines.
There are many ways to pursue a career in this field, like training classes, earning certifications, or getting hands-on experience through apprenticeships. No matter what you choose, it is up to you to find exactly how you can turn your passion into a career that can support you.