Viking Sewing Machine Center

I recently took my embroidery machine in for repair, they were quick and very professional. The repair charge was very reasonable but when I went back in to pick up my machine I started asking questions about the new embroidery machines with the very knowledgable owner. There was no pressure at all but I did end up purchasing a new machine, and signed up for a free class that came with the purchase.
They have many great machines and accessories ready for purchase. Was a great experience !
Debbie

Before the Viking Sew Center, I didn’t have any sewing experience using a machine whatsoever. Hand sewing on a button or two, or fixing minor rips or tears was the most I could do. For as far as I could remember, I’ve always been curious about sewing. My grandma used to sew clothes for me and my siblings when we were kids. Well, I decided it was time.
I had been looking for sewing classes on and off for almost a year and and finally decided on this place. For one thing, I couldn’t find any other place that beat the student teacher ratio which is 1 instructor per a max of 6 students. I called and spoke with Gordon who was super friendly. He kindly took the time to explain to me what I would learn here and how the classes work. The best part? I liked the idea that they don’t offer just specific classes for making particular things. (for example at joann fabric you take one class to make a pillow case, or one class to make another piece of garment, and so on). I learned that with these classes you work on any project you desire. Cool! Here as a beginner, everyone will start off learning sewing basics with making a tote. From there on you can work on any project you’d like.
Upon signing up, you’ll take a two part class thats two Sundays a month. Ivy the instructor is extremely skilled, knowledgable, and sweet. She is personable and also super patient which is very important to me as a beginner without any experience. She makes you feel comfortable and confident in using these intimidating machines. I was worried she would get annoyed with the questions I continue to ask but she loves to teach and share what she knows.
I’m excited that at the end of my first two part class I finished up my very first tote. Its amazing what I’ve learned so far and can’t wait to learn so much more. Hopefully one day soon I will have my very own sewing machine! I’m already signed up for the next class, and my next project will be PJ pants for my kids.
Thanks Ivy!!! I’m so grateful to have found a wonderful teacher. I highly recommend this place for anyone of all levels!!!
Tip: make sure you sign up early. because she only takes a max of 6, spots sure do fill up fast.

In fairness, the owner responded very promptly to my review. He was courteous and explained the difficulty he had in repeatedly attempting to update the store’s hours on Unilocal.His response got me to return to the store (while they were open) and he was very helpful even though I wasn’t making a purchase that day.
The store is clean and well organized. The hours do appear to have been updated on Unilocal now as well.
This appears to be the kind of neighborhood small business I really like, so I didn’t want to leave my negative review hanging out there when it was clearly a fluke and not generally deserved.

My Viking 1050 hadn’t worked well for several years after getting it serviced at a different local shop.
Recently I had 13 hula skirts to make in a hurry. I told my story to the Viking Center and they had my machine tuned up in 1 day (not the 2 – 3 days they originally stated). I was so glad to get it in a hurry and then tested it for several hours of sewing on the hula skirts.
They even carried my very heavy machine out to my car for me :-) That was an unexpected kindness.
Thanks! I’m enjoying my machine again.

Sewing is not an inexpensive hobby by any means. So if you are going to invest in it… get the good stuff.
I love these guys. Ivy is fantastic, and Gordon, while matter of fact, he is probably one of the best guys out there. I got my Viking machine through them, and am looking to get my serger machine from them as well.
They offer classes with their machines, which is incredibly helpful, and carry hard to find Viking supplies as well.
5 stars all the way around for these guys!

I came into Viking Sewing Center completely new to sewing. Gordon showed me around the many machines and helped me find the perfect fit for my beginner’s needs. He did not do any kind of hard sell, just gave me lots of information. A month later, I was back in his store ready to buy. I was offered an excellent series of free classes including an all day class that better explained how to used my computerised machine. In addition, I signed up for a sewing class with Ivy which was excellent and calmed all of my hesitations about pattern sewing. Ivy is a great teacher. I hope to take more classes soon. Gordon always greets me with a pleasant smile and always has the right answer to every question. His staff is always polite and courteous and I always feel at home in the store. I recently upgraded to a machine that I adore and I am so appreciative of the time Gordon spent with me figuring out exactly what I wanted. Gordon took my machine trade in at full value, even though the machine had recently been discontinued.
As a side note, I am glad that the staff has the integrity to not pass out hard candy to infants as was described in a critique below, it just seems like good common sense to protect young babies from choking hazards and tooth decay. Wish I could give them one more star for having integrity.

I have an electronic Viking Designer II that was probably damaged because it wasn’t boxed up properly before being shipped from the East Coast. I took it to Viking Sewing Center for repair of the feed dog mechanism which cost upwards of $ 300 in November 2012. In May 2013, the feed dogs wouldn’t raise. It has only sat on my sewing table for the past several months, and I have used it to make a couple of quilts but nothing excessive and it has not been moved or dropped. Anyway, I thought the first repair should have held better and that this repair should have been at no charge, but instead I was quote $ 50, then arrived to pick up the machine and was told it was $ 60. When I asked if they warrant their work, I was told only 30 days. I think a smaller and independent shop like this should have been more responsive to my concern that the first repair didn’t take care of this problem. I won’t be taking my machines here any more.

I bought my Viking sewing machine here at Viking Sewing Center in 2006. I been limping along, taking a beginning quilting class at another quilt shop, made a cosmetic bag at yet another shop, and so on. It’s hard to get it together to properly learn how to sew with my Silicon Valley sit at a computer all day kind of job of mine… The classes in the other shops are fine, but I need more individual attention when I’m in the learning process. The Adult Sew class every month is great! I think there is room for 6 and it’s a perfect size. Ivy is a wonderful teacher. She wants us to do well and has a knack for communicating and teaching. I have always wanted to find a small class with a good teacher, and this is the place.
I no longer moan and groan and feel overwhelmed about learning and getting to a class. It doesn’t hurt that I just bought another Viking with more bells and whistles. Needle down feature, and the pressure foot adjust automatically keeps my hands on the project. No more fiddling with tapping the foot control to keep the needle down, and no more flipping the pressure foot lever up and down. Anyway, I digress… I want to take this thing on vacation with me.
OK, they offer a lot of free classes when you purchase a machine, and… they have many used machines in good working order at the fraction of the cost of a new one.

The store is filled with nothing but grumpy old women. They participated in the willow glen Halloween festivities and then denied my daughter and her friend candy while trick or treating. The woman passing out candy told them that they were reserving the candy for kids that can eat it. How can they determine who should and shouldn’t be able to trick or treat. This business has tarnished the memory of my daughter’s first Halloween.

I’ve been learning to sew over the past few years, mainly from trial and error and UTube videos. The more I learn, the more I enjoy sewing. For Christmas, my husband gave me a nice Brother machine, however it could only do straight-​stitching, so I sent it back and took a morning to go sewing machine shopping. I knew I wanted to do in-​the-​hoop embroidery as well as decorative stitches, so I started out at my favorite quilt shop (The Granary) and asked them where they like to shop for sewing machines. They told me the Viking Sewing Center on Lincoln. I knew Viking was top-​end and very expensive, but they mentioned Viking Sewing Center often has used machines, and it was convincing to hear that the ladies at the Granary love their Viking machines, so I went to take a look.
It was definitely fun going in and talking with Ivy and Gordon. They were very friendly and helpful. Ivy asked me some questions about what I was looking for and asked me how much assistance I wanted my sewing machine to provide. Huh? Then she told me about the Sewing Advisor which is included with the software on some of the computerized machines. When you select the fabric type and stitch, the machine shows you which foot to use, which needle, automatically adjusts the stitch length and width. She showed me that the machines have no presser foot lifting lever, it’s done automatically when you sew. And the machines are solid and quiet.
When I heard about all this, I said I couldn’t possibly afford one of these machines, and that’s when she called back to Gordon to ask if the Designer 1 was ready and available. The Designer 1 was a used machine that was being sold for a quarter of the original price. It included the Sewing Advisor and an entire embroidery hoop attachment set. Both the sewing machine and embroidery hoop set came packaged in hard cases. And to top it off, the purchase of the machine included nine sewing classes which are taught at the store. They were adamant about the fact that they really want customers to enjoy using their machines and they’re there to answer all your questions. It wasn’t hard to make the decision to buy the machine, especially considering all the support, included classes and the great price.
I definitely recommend going to this shop if you’re in the market for a nice machine. My love of sewing has increased 10-​fold just since purchasing this machine, so I’m sure I’ll be trying lots of new things, and I appreciate that Viking Sewing Center will be there for me when I need support.

I took the Adults Get Started Sewing class this Sunday with Ivy. The class was great. 4 hours went by so quickly and Ivy is a very thorough instructor who is always open to questions.
My 3 stars is because of the older gentleman who signed me up for the class and told me I «probably wouldn’t even sew in the class» and told to me to get only half of what I needed for the class. I had most of it at home, so I was really frustrated when I had to purchase a bunch of stuff the day of the class that I could have just brought from home, had the gentleman not given me incorrect information. Ivy was really nice about it but I felt it took away from the time that I could have been focused on learning and sewing.
They push buying their machines, but that’s to be expected.
I may be taking my future sewing classes elsewhere.

Gordon helped my wife find te right serger for her needs and gave her an hour tutorial on how to use it for free. Very profesional and courteous man. Great store which taked you back in time to the old time ‘mom and pop’ stores that I remember from my childhood.

My machine stopped working a few months after I purchased it from Viking Sewing Center in 2007. It had major tension issues so I brought it back here right when I experienced problems. They did a test in front of me and showed me it was working fine. They also told me that I had messed with the tension too much and that since it was working in their office, I should just make sure not to mess with it anymore. However, my machine was NOT FINE. I had so many problems with my machine and became so frustrated with it that I stopped sewing for several years. Fast forward to December 2011 – I decided to sell the machine on Craigslist and I wanted to make sure it was working first. Without looking at my machine, they told me I was doomed to live with the tension problems as long as I used a mechanical machine. They tried to sell me a fancy computerized one at what I thought was a great sale price with trade-​in, but I went home and found that their sale price was actually the normal selling price in the area. I didn’t like feeling pressured to buy a new machine, so I went to another place to get my sewing machine fixed. Low and behold the second repair center told me I had tension disk problems and it was not normal. Now my machine works great! I wish I went to the other repair center to begin with. I may have not put off sewing for four years!

Went to take in my serger because I couldn’t get it to work properly and then, saw a metal piece snap off from inside. Brought it to Viking to fix’er up. What I ended up getting was a great mini-​education on my machine and her suggestion that my machine didn’t appear to be broken. She sent me on my way with specific instructions to test the machine myself (super helpful since i really don’t know what i’m doing at all). If I still couldn’t figure it out, she said to bring it back but she didn’t want me to spend the money for a full repair/​tune up if it was a simple user-​error situation. VERY APPRECIATIVE for her direct, friendly and considerate approach to my new business. I’ll be bringing all my sewing machine issues to them from here out.

I really like this place. Great atmosphere when you walk in — the staff are super friendly and helpful. They offer classes, which I plan to take in the near future. Gordon is really helpful. I have a Singer Fashionmate 360 and was able to get a quote on the phone for fixing. Very friendly and knowledgeable. Seems like they’ve been around a long time, which is a very good thing in the world of sewing machines.

i was refered to gordon, the machine tech, or i should say, «magician» for help with my viking designer machine. mike at ralph’s in redwood city
honestly stated he wasn’t qualified to work on that machine…
gorden has my machine working like new… i had an update done on the
embroidery arm at the store i purchased the machine from that was not done correctly and that was the start of my problems. (not bought in the bay area). as i am finding with my «advanced» sewing machines, good techs are hard to find…

I have purchased a serger and 3 Viking sewing machines from this business over the years. I have always received the utmost in customer service. Their classes are excellent, offered in their Cuperinto store. The machines are beyond good. I highly recommend them. There is no pressure to the purchase. They do an excellent job of demonstrating the equipment, and allow you to make or not make a purchase.