At Sylvia, we pay attention to detail and quality.  Period.  So if we plan on spending quite a bit of time and money on the hardware we use, the dowels necessary to hold tight the joints of the cabinets, and even the lift for the sewing machine, it only makes sense to use quality construction boards for our products.

We are very selective when it comes to the board we use for our cabinets.   We examine for imperfections and defects in every single sheet of material we receive.  We have no reservations about returning goods that do not

stand up to our high expectations.

Our board material is a melamine resin saturated paper thermally fused to particleboard or medium density fiberboard (MDF). What is thermally fused melamine?  Quite simply it is a decorative overlay applied by heat to the surface of particleboard – in our case – furniture grade.  This decorative surface consists of a decorative paper saturated with melamine resins.  This is partially bonded with heat to allow for storage and handling.  The final step is done at the time of hot-press gluing when the resins form a hard, permanent bond between the paper and the board.  There is no separate gluing required.  The resulting product is a panel with a very durable,

hard-wearing surface.  These panels are resistant to scuffs, stains, moisture, light, and heat.

We finish the cabinets in a variety of 6 distinctly different colors.  As I can see, we offer the most choices among all the other manufacturers.  We have solid white which is not wood-toned (and not pictured

here) and the following finishes that are: castle oak, teak, grand cherry, mahogany and of course maple.  Maple is the lightest of the wood grains and is used in the open/top portion of all the wood-grained finished cabinets. 

The light color allows for light reflection thereby making working on this light surface easy on the eyes.  It is also used on the inside of the cabinet.  Again, it makes for better light reflection and it’s easier to see when you are sewin

g or crafting.  For white cabinets, we use the white finish inside and out.  Given the variety of finishes and colors, there should be one that will fit in perfectly with any sewing room.

Much of what we do and use is also used by better furniture manufacturers worldwide.  We want only the best in our products and for our customers.

Until next time!
Horst

Until now, I’ve talked about the things we use in our furniture such as the hardware, the sewing machine lift, and even the dowels and glue we use to put it all together.  But that comes after the cabinet comes off the drawing board and proceeds to construction.

Other than things that set us apart from other cabinet makers, it’s our design that sets us apart as well.

We design our cabinets so most sewers and quilters are able to sit in front of the needle.  This is an ergonomic necessity for anyone that sits at a sewing machine for any length of time.

When we designed our quilting cabinets such as the 1520, we made sure that the area behind the machine extends out to support those bulky fabrics or quilts that are being quilted.   This extension can fold down, out of the way if desired.  Some other brands of cabinets are designed so this extension folds on top of the sewing surface when not used.  Not Sylvia.  We designed these cabinets so they are able to be used, or folded away and still used. 

Cabinets fold away to protect the machine.  Lower the machine into the cabinet and close the doors.  The gate leg (on those models that have it) and all leaves and supports fold away neat and tidy.  It really does look like a nice piece of handsome furniture.

As a woodworker, not a sewer or quilter, I depend on customers to offer suggestions as to how to improve our design.  One of those suggestions came from a quilter who noted that while quilting there was much bulk at her left elbow that needed support at the height of the cabinet surface.  We then designed what we now call the #1570 Quilter’s Extension.  This collapsible extension to the 1520, the 810 or the 810Q is sturdy enough to support quilts and keep them out of the lap or off the shoulder of the quilter. 

Most of our furniture is designed to be modular.  Adding other pieces over time is an easy and affordable way to make your furniture “larger”.  By adding the 490 Drawer Stack to the 1600, for example, you add more storage, drawers and surface area.  When you add the 490 to a cabinet like this, you need to also order a Connecting Top.  This secures to the cabinet with cam locks and makes the 490 flush with the top of the cabinet.

Look at the photos of the cabinets.  You see the original 1600, but look at how much stuff can be stored and organized by adding more drawer stacks!  By adding one stack to the left front of the cabinet, you have a “Quilters Extension” of sorts.  Support you need where you need it.  And storage to boot!

As you can see, we try and design specifically for sewers and quilters’ needs and wants.  By doing this, I think it makes Sylvia the best there is.  And don’t you deserve the best?

Until next time,

Horst

Quality Made Sylvia Sewing Furniture

Our commitment to quality extends to, what some might consider, even the most mundane items.  I’m talking about the hardware we use in all of Sylvia’s sewing furniture.  In the past few blog posts, I’ve talked about how we assemble our furniture and the sewing machine lift we use in those cabinets that the machine is lowered when you fold up the cabinet.  So when we designed some of the cabinets with drawers, we knew we wanted the quality to extend here as well.

Our early design of the drawers in our sewing cabinets were merely drawer glides on the side of a wooden “box-type” design.  Very basic.  While the drawer opened and closed fine, it was just “acceptable”.  At Sylvia, we strive to be the best so we redesigned the drawers.  Gone were wooden “boxes” and “in” are metal drawer sides that are very strong and have a fluid sliding movement.  The fluidity of motion is due to the use of a roller slide system.  Further, the epoxy paint on the drawer slides make for quiet operation.  The drawers are designed to handle the load of almost anything you want to put inside of it.  Even when the drawer is open the overall appearance of the drawer is improved by these sleek metal drawer sides.

On every drawer we have gone through a number of handle designs.  Why?  We simply want best quality on our furniture.  The handles we use now are a glossy black metal.  We don’t use plastic and believe that the color black best compliments all the color finishes we use.  Except of course those cabinets that are finished in white - those drawer handles are glossy white metal.  On our older models we used a utilitarian-type of handle.  Functional? Yes.  Attractive?  Questionable.  The ones we use now are more stylish and more fitting to the overall look of Sylvia. 

Flush mounted hinges are used by Sylvia.  Why?  Simply, they are better.  When this type hinge is used, fabric or large quilts will never snag.  Nothing sticks up or protrudes with this hinge.   The way these hinges are designed, they are attached to the face of the wood, not the end.  Why does this matter?  Because when a screw is attached to the face or surface, it is stronger and more secure.  Putting screws in the end of a piece of wood, especially particle board, is weaker and with use will loosen the screws securing the hinge to the wood.  This is precisely why we don’t use this type of hinge.  What we use costs us a bit more and requires a bit more work, but it goes to the Sylvia overall commitment to quality.

We have a specialty hinge on the door of our model 1520.  This cabinet has a door that opens from right to left and it is the support provided by the door that allows the handy little shelf on the right.  But listening to customers’ comments, we improved this hinge and now use one that allows the door to swing almost all the way to the back.  This provides better support and takes up less room.

It’s this type of commitment to quality that makes Sylvia different.  Quality, right down literally to the very nuts and bolts we use.

Until next time,
Horst

In the early 1980’s I was approached by local sewing machine retailer about building a good quality sewing cabinet. At the time none were available in Canada. When the first cabinets were in development, great care was taken to find the best possible hardware for managing the changing of machine positions. Through research and conversations with people in the sewing industry, various European devices were brought to our attention. After examining the different choices, we determined that the German-built Rudersburg lift was the best of all the products available - and still available.

We’ve always kept in close contact with the factory in Germany and the lift has undergone many improvements over the years to keep up to changes in sewers needs.  However, it is still a family-run factory in Rudersburg, Germany with the same quality-conscious principles as Sylvia Design.  They continue to build their lifts using German precision and quality materials.  It’s an ingenious labor saver and an easy lift to use.  Its smooth movement makes for a gentle lift for even the most expensive sewing machine.  It allows you to go from stored-away to ready-to-use in seconds.  No need to be strong to press the platform to unlatch the lock.   The lift is designed to use the weight of the machine to assist even the most “strength-challenged” person!

Since 1984, Sylvia Design has been putting the Rudersburg lift in sewing cabinets and we continue to do so today.

If you own a serger, and purchase our 620 (opens to the right) or the 620L (opens to the left) cabinet, you benefit too.  We use the Rudersburg lift in all of our cabinets and the serger cabinet is no exception.  Our only cabinet not equipped with the lift is the 100W – School Desk.  This cabinet is a back-to-basics style that is perfect for the budget-minded.

The lift itself has 3 positions: The upper position for free-arm sewing, the middle position for flatbed-sewing, and the lower position for stowing the machine inside the cabinet. The lift’s middle position can be adjusted to accommodate the varying heights of different machine.  Once the height is determined for the machine in the cabinet and the lift stop adjusted, it is suggested that an insert be used to fill in the space around the machine to make the entire surface flush and usable.

Inserts for the machine can be purchased in either clear, maple, or white.  The maple color matches the maple wood-tone of the interior of the cabinet.  If you have purchased a 1600 or white cabinet, order a white insert.  We even offer blanks.  When the machine is lowered, the blank is used to cover the hole.  This now gives you more surface area on your Sylvia cabinet.  When purchasing a cabinet, please make sure you know the make and model of your sewing machine so the insert fits your machine perfectly.  There are no inserts for the serger cabinet 620.

Until next time!

Horst

Furniture makers agree on this – spend the extra effort to do things right the first time and you won’t have to go back to fix or repair later.  Glued and doweled joints instead of staples or screws is an example.  A wood dowel joint is well suited to the panel products used in the sewing cabinet industry as it adds significant structural strength to our Sylvia Sewing Furniture cabinets.

Let me explain it like this: when two pieces of wood are crafted to be secured at their ends, the craftsman can choose to secure these joints in a number of ways.  One of the very best ways to do this is by glue and dowels.  We first drill a hole in the end of the wood.  Drilling provides a smooth hole that is just a smidge smaller than the diameter of the dowel to be used.  This ensures a tight fit for the dowel.  The dowel is a wooden pin that is also textured and it’s this texture that allows it to hold more of the glue needed to secure the seam.  The dowel then fits into the hole drilled in the wood.  Dowels used in the construction of Sylvia furniture are made from quality hardwood.

Why does Sylvia glue?  Since ancient times, glue has been used to assemble furniture and it's not difficult to see glued pieces that are hundreds of years old.  When applying the glue to two porous surfaces and placing together, it creates a sealed, solid and secure bond.  When using a dowel as I described previously, you have the advantage of surface area and strength.  Basically, joints that will not fail. 

A significant advantage of using dowels as opposed to screws is that once the cabinet is assembled, the dowels are invisible at the end of the process. The end result is very clean and unblemished cabinet panels.   When done properly (as by Sylvia), a wood dowel joint also helps to ensure that the cabinet pieces are aligned in the correct position when assembled.

Staples can literally work loose and result in wobbly furniture.  Screws placed in the end of the wood such as particle board, movement of the furniture or cabinet will make cause movement in the screw holes making the screwed joint less secure.  Stripped holes and loose joints can be the result.  Because both of these methods are fast and cheap to use, these are found in furniture of lesser quality than Sylvia. 

We use modern CNC (Computer Numerical Control) technology to machine our cabinet parts, ensuring accuracy throughout the entire process and consistency over the long run.

At Sylvia, we’ve taken care to determine where stresses will be put on the cabinet during regular use. Using this information we’ve designed the cabinet parts to fit together in such a manner that once the cabinet is glued together it is remarkably solid and resistant to these stresses. This makes for a structurally sound cabinet that will hold up for many years.  As you can see, Sylvia is committed to quality construction for a quality product.

Until next time,
Horst

A long time ago in a land far, far away there lived a man named Horst Kunow.  Horst was young and strong and enjoyed working with his hands and constructing furniture.  Being born and raised in Germany, his heritage was from a long line of quality craftsman.  As an apprentice he learned how to design and build furniture to last a lifetime.  Use and discard was not an option – build with an eye for detail and use quality materials to last forever – that was the philosophy.

That man was me, and though times have changed, the philosophy remains the same. Immigrating to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I met my wife Wendy and began a new life building kitchen cabinets and sewing tables.  Things had to be done right, or it wasn’t done at all.   Sylvia cabinets weren’t ordinary, everyday cabinets and sewing tables - these were something that no one had ever seen before.  They were actually pieces of furniture that served a function for sewers and quilters.  Over the years, I met with sewers and quilters to get their input about what they wanted.  What was it that they needed in a cabinet?  (This is something that I still continue today.)    After 14 years of selling my cabinet line in Canada, my best friend and I loaded up a truck and headed south with a small sampling of cabinets to sell to other quality-seeking sewers.  After a few stops along the way, he stopped in Medford, Oregon.

VDC saw this man with a truckload of cabinets in his truck, asking if they thought that sewers and quilters would be interested in quality, well-made sewing cabinets.  Being in the sewing machine business itself, VDC knows what quilters and sewers want – and they want quality and function.  Both were evident in our Sylvia Sewing Cabinets.  Since then, VDC has been the exclusive distributer in the United States for Sylvia.

The quality that I was taught in Germany is still evident and continues to be paramount in my work.  Glued and doweled wood instead of pins or staples makes for better construction.  Furniture-grade rather than economy-grade wood makes for a quality cabinet.  2mm rounded banding on the edges rather than sharp edges makes for a nicer feel and safer edge.  Flush-mounted hinges on the surface of the sewing cabinets rather than standard or piano hinges makes for stronger support and no snags on the fabric.  Quality furniture-grade Melamine ensures the surfaces remain scratch-free no matter how many pins, scissors or rotary cutters happen to fall on it. 

If that isn’t enough, the Rudersburg lift from Germany is the best made and easiest to use lift on the market. All cabinets are designed to allow the sewer to sit in front of the needle making sewing more comfortable – a request from sewers that I incorporated into the design.   All cabinets come with a lifetime warranty for materials and workmanship.  What more could I have done?  These cabinets come fully assembled in the box – just attach the wheels and you are good to go. I'm pleased to announce that these cabinets, cabinet combinations, and accessories will be available shortly (with free shipping!) through Annthegran.com. 

When looking for sewing and quilting cabinets, become informed and educated about your purchase.  In future posts, I will address features found on cabinets that you should look for or be aware of before you buy your cabinet.

Stay tuned!

Horst