My wife is a wizard with a sewing machine and I recognized early on that it would be worth dropping the $$ to buy her the real deal Sailrite machine for boat projects. After all, you get what you pay for, right?
I do not know why I tried to cheap out on the fabric cutter but let me tell you, a Harbor Freight hot knife will not work on Sunbrella. At least, it will not work like a knife-- to use it to cut Sunbrella and seal the edges, you need to push and hold the knife down on the fabric for a few seconds on each spot, making your "cuts" one short blade length at a time rather than by drawing the knife across the surface. This takes forever and makes it really hard to cut straight lines and impossible to cut clean curves. After hearing her explain this to me in absolute exasperation while trying to cut fabric for our new bimini cover, I quickly ordered the hot knife sold by Sailrite. It cost way more than I wanted to pay but it works perfectly and she enjoys using it so I consider it money well spent.
