Author’s Note 4-9-25: So a week after the tariffs were announced, and the US stock market lost over $6 trillion, they were put on hold for 90 days in 75 countries. China, however, is now being tariffed at (checks minute by minute notes…) 125%. Our global trade policy now has the entire global economy jumping around like your drunk uncle doing the chicken dance at a family wedding. YOU do the math. I’m out.

Let’s chat for a hot minute about sewing machine manufacturing.

First, let’s all get on the same page.

No domestic sewing machines are manufactured in the United States. None, Not one.

You can read about where they come from here.

I had planned on writing soon about the cost of sewing machines. Bernina’s top of the line has a manufacturer’s suggested price of $22,999. That seems obscene to me. But when you look at other top of the line machines, they are all in the same range.

Now, a decent dealer will probably offer it at somewhere around $20,000 as a special deal or with financing.

Now let’s get to the tariffs. Switzerland (where the top of the line Bernina machines are made) now has a tariff of 31%. So for grins, let’s add the tariff price onto the manufacturer’s price.

22,999 x .31 = 7129.69

22,999 + 7129 = 30,128

So the new manufacturer’s price will likely be near $30,000. I assure you, your local dealership cannot eat the cost of that increase. Neither can Bernina. You will pay it.

Is a sewing machine worth that much to you? That might not be a fair question, because at the end of the day we don’t know how these tariffs will play out. Maybe some will be renegotiated. And, Bernina dealers have some units in stock. So if you want one BUY IT RIGHT NOW before new stock has to be brought in.

Now, the rest of Bernina machines are manufactured in a Bernina-owned plant in Thailand. That’s a 36% tariff. So let’s imagine a low- to mid-line machine that’s roughly about $2500.

2500 x .36 = 900

2500 + 900 = 3400

Author’s Note: Since publishing this page, I discovered that Switzerland already has tariffs that are 2-5%, and Thailand has 5-10% (before the new tariffs were announced). So we cannot accurately anticipate the exact price increase…likely a few percentage points lower than what’s shown above. But another note, the day after the tariffs were announced, they were revised, and now Thailand is up to 37% tariffs. So the situation is fluid…notably, no prices are going down and are likely going up very much.

Now you can do this math on all the machines, for all manufacturers. Because sewing machines are manufactured in many places: Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam, China. Price increases will vary, and the whole chain of distribution will be working through the supply that they already have. But I would guess that within the next few months, you can count on major increases.

Side note about the tariffs in general: They are apparently calculated by dividing a country’s trade surplus with the U.S. by its total exports, using 2024 data. Many, if not all countries, sell more to the US than we do to them….for obvious reasons. We’re big, we’re wealthier, we consume more, we like low prices.
But when it comes to services, we sell much more to other countries than they do to us.

The whole idea behind these tariffs is to spur manufacturing in the US.

But lets take a look at Bernina. It took them years to locate and build a facility in Thailand. Not to mention the expense of that investment. And that was while building materials such as steel were readily available in that country. The chances that they are suddenly going to determine that the US is a great place to manufacture are very slim. In all likelihood, because they are an international company, they will restructure their business to focus more on selling to other countries and to ride out the storm in the US for as long as they can.

If you are interested, here is the list of reciprocal tariffs in all countries.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/trump-reciprocal-tariffs-countries-chart-imports-united-states.html

I don’t know how this will all play out. No one does. But none of it so far looks good. It’s difficult to see how this becomes successful. Unless, of course, countries begin to offer other concessions in exchange for lower tariffs. I have no idea how that would be received, except to garner hatred from around the world rather than partnerships.

By the way, not much quilt fabric is manufactured in the US either. But I know that one is called American Made Brand. Here’s a link to some of their fabric at Missouri Star.

Hang onto your fatquarters, sewists, the ride is about to get bumpy.