Pfaff Quilt Expression 2046

by Lauren
(Overland Park, KS, USA)

I have owned a Pfaff 2046 since 2006. I primarily use my machine for quilting, piecing, crafts, and home decor types of projects. Overall I am pleased with this sewing machine.

I love the Integrated Dual Feed (they call it the "IDT" system). As a quilter, this helps my piecing be as accurate as possible. In my review below, I discuss several features that exist on other Pfaff machines, so even if you're considering another Pfaff model, this review may help!

I have written sewing machine tutorials on my crafting blog that feature my Pfaff 2046. Lots of pictures! See: http://rikrax.blogspot.com.

Stitches:
This machine offers 83 stitches plus an eyelet stitch, three button holes, a darning stitch and 2 alphabets (in capital letters only). Among the stitches are 13 quilt and antique quilt stitches that simulate hand quilting and some traditional Crazy Quilt embroidery-like stitches.

I use a small number of these stitches in my every day sewing.

The machine allows you to resize the stitches by pushing button on the front, and the computer display shows you how the stitch changes (longer, wider, etc.).

This machine allows up to a 6 mm wide stitch.

You select the stitches with the numbered buttons on the base of the machine to the right. You can also select using the wheel, which is right next to these buttons. You see the selected stitch on the little screen n the upper front of the machine.

Integrated Dual Feed (IDT):
This is the distinct feature of Pfaff machines: there is a little "feed dog" like apparatus behind the needle that helps fed the top layer of fabric evenly with the feed dogs underneath the fabric. You can engaged the IDT or disengage it as needed. While most presser feet for the Pfaff are designed to utilize IDT, some specifically do not. You can put it on or off.

The nicest aspect of IDT is that it can be engaged with any number of presser feet, unlike a walking foot. I can use it with my open-toe embroidery foot, for example, which makes for better fancy stitching.

Presser Feet:
You get a basic assortment of presser feet with the Pfaff 2046. These are good to get you started, however I quickly realized I wanted some extra feet. I purchased these presser feet fairly quickly after getting the machine: the quarter-inch quilting foot with guide, the narrow edge foot with IDT (has a non-sharp blade/guide in the middle), the free-motion quilting foot, and the open toe applique foot.

Screen Display:
As a computerized model, it has a small LCD screen on the front. This screen tells you what stitch you are currently using and allows you to modify the stitch (as described above). It allows you to interact with memory feature, which allows you to save a sequence of stitches for repeated use.

There is an information button off the lower right corner of the screen. This button shows some "help" about the current stitch, information like what foot to use, recommended tension setting, whether you can use the IDT for the stitch, its maximum width, and needle recommendations. This is quite useful.

The screen is easy to understand, although you do need to get familiar with it - it's small, so the information is succinct and uses symbols.

Other Nice Features:
The machine senses when your bobbin is low and displays an icon on the screen. Note that you must have the bobbin in place with the bobbin door closed for the sensor to work properly.

It has an integrated needle threader. This is a tiny hook that pops through the eye of your needle with a little lever. Honestly, at first, I thought that feature was somewhat gratuitous. Now that I've used it for a while, I've come to like it a lot and I recognize as I get older and my eyesight and dexterity may decline, it could be very helpful.

You can lower the feed dogs for free motion quilting or darning. It's a small knob on the front of the machine - very easy to use.

The machine senses when there is too much pressure on the needle and stops before it breaks the needle (most of the time!) or damages the machine (always). This happens because sometimes, I forget to change the needle plate back to the zig-zag plate and attempt to do a decorative stitch with the straight-stitch plate. When the needle moves off center for the decorative stitch, it crashes into the plate. Uh, whoops.

Performance and Maintenance:
I have not had any problems with maintenance with this machine in my 4 years of owning it. At first I had trouble using invisible monofilament thread, and after one cleaning and adjustment, I had no further problems - I'm not sure if it was because I was doing something wrong with threading the machine, or if there was an actual problem. Ever since, no issues with it.

Quirks and Things I Wish Were Different:
I have never been able to wind a bobbin well automatically on this machine. The problem is that insufficient tension is placed on the thread to provide a tightly wound bobbin. The machine is sensitive to loose bobbins and it jams pretty quickly with a loose bobbin. I've worked around it by pinching the thread as it comes off the spool to be wound on the bobbin.

The lever to raise and lower the presser foot is sometimes annoying. Like I said, I am a quilter and I do free motion quilting on large projects. To do free-motion quilting, the presser foot is placed in the middle position (the lever allows three positions - up, middle, and down). When quilting a large project, there is a large roll of the project pushed through the arm of the machine. This roll can bump into the presser-foot lever and drop the presser foot while I'm working on the quilting. That's annoying.

The machine does provide needle-down mode with the simple push of a button. When it's on, the needle stops in the down position (i.e. through the fabric) whenever you stop sewing. I wish it had a function that would allow you to place the needle down with the simple tap of a button right by my work. Sometimes I forget to put it in needle-down-always mode and I want the needle down without having to move my hands from my project or break my gaze from my work.

I wish it had more room under the sewing arm for my large quilting projects.

I think the manual that comes with the machine is barely sufficient. It doesn't give enough detail for me. I have had to use other sewing books, sessions at the dealer's store, and experimentation, in addition to the manual, to learn more about how to use this machine optimally.

Conclusion:
Overall, I love my machine, even with its quirks. I've been able to accomplish just about everything I try to sew (not accounting for my own ability!). I haven't covered all of the features in this posting, of course. My recommendation is to think about how you sew and what you sew, and try out lots of machines before you invest. Talk to others in your guild or sewing club about their machines to learn about what they find helpful or troublesome about their machines.