I’m looking to learn some basic sewing skills including using a sewing machine (right now I can put a button back on or fix a rip, by hand…not pretty but gets the job done) and I’m looking for recommendations for a good sewing machine.
Doesn’t have to be extremely fancy but something that is reliable, rugged and can handle slightly heavier fabrics (things like denim and cordura) would be good.
Any Sewing Dopers out there can aim me in the right direction? Checking online shows machines ranging from $100 to $5000…I was hoping to stay below maybe $300 tops.
The sort of stuff I’m looking at doing isn’t Fine Tailoring, but general sewing repairs, hemming curtains and making some basic clothing (camouflage pants and shirts, for example) are all on the horizon. I don’t see myself doing upholstery, quilting, fancy embroidery, stitching climbing harnesses, etc.
I recently took a Basic Sewing class. In preparation, I asked my mom’s friend, who is the sewing 4H advisor, which machine I could buy. She recommended a basic Brother model. When I got to the class, the teacher was delighted – said it was an excellent choice for a basic, versatile machine, and I’d probably be able to use it the rest of my life if I didn’t mistreat it. I paid $100 for it.
Forgot to mention this - make sure your machine has a zigzag stitch, free-arm capability, and a zipper foot. You should be able to do that for less than $200.
I too have a Brother from Wal-Mart, paid $99 for it, and after wrestling with a tank-like 1974 wedding-present Singer for 20 years, I’m in heaven. It’s lightweight enough that I can move it around myself, it’s simple enough that my teenage daughter could figure it out and use it to make herself a quickie skirt, and it’s cheap enough that if it ever does catastrophically break, I can throw it away and buy a new one with a clear conscience, instead of having to wait around for weeks for a repairman to get it fixed.
But one thing: if you think this “sewing thing” is going to “take” and you’re going to start making a lot of clothing that has buttonholes, invest in the next level up and get a machine that has a buttonholer. Making buttonholes for shirts and blouses by hand on the machine, although it’s certainly a step up from the Victorian era’s patiently whipping all those slots by hand with needle and thread, is a major PITA, all that moving the needle around and counting the zigs and the zags. I wish my machine had come with a buttonholer, I’d make more blouses if it did. But for $99, well…But it did come with a zigzag stitch, free-arm capability, and a zipper foot.
Thanks! I was checking out prices on some of the Brother machines online and it looks like for $200-$300 I can get a pretty heavy-duty home machine that will do everything you have recommended and more. Like with my woodworking tools I prefer to spend a little extra and have capacity that I’m pretty sure I’ll never need rather than find out I saved $5 and got something that doesn’t quite fit the bill…
I have a white jeans machine which is simple but pretty robust and can sew through several layers of denim or light canvas. It will do buttonholes and zigzag and has a wide variety of stitches. The only drawback a more serious sewer might find is that there is no pitch adjustment aside from the predefined selection of stitches.