What should I look for when buying a sewing machine?What features & brands are best?

A basic sewing machine will probably do fine, most have a couple choices of stitches. Wal-mart has them for about $80, I recommend Sears Kenmore, or a Brother. I have both, and the Brother has lasted more than my lifetime.

The fancier the stitches available on it, the more the machine costs. If you will be doing embroidery, spend the money. If not, just something that sews a seam will work. Make sure you buy extra bobbins that fit, so you do not have to rewind a bobbin everytime you want to change thread colors, and make sure the machine comes with a zipper foot, or buy one that fits. If you are doing clothing repairs, or want zippered slipcovers, or pillow shams, you will need it.

Brother is an excellent brand with a good reputation, and they start at $89 at Walmart. The Singer is similarly priced, and carried at Walmart also.

Joanne's carries White sewing machines. Don't know anything about them.

HSN.com used to sell the Europro brand: sewing machines, sergers, irons, etc. For some reason, they have dropped them, and are now selling Singer. This makes me think the Europro brand was either bought out through a merger with another corporation, or maybe their products were garbage.

Probably the best thing you can do is talk to people at these stores, find out what machines they use to sew on, problems they've had, etc.

There are a couple of relatively risk-free machines in the marketplace. If you wish lasting first-rate, and competent to get bobbins or different constituents with no need to ship away to the corporation, Sears Kenmore has a extraordinary computing device that may do buttonholes, overcast sew (sort of like a serger sew however utilising two threads as a substitute of three to five), as good as a extensive variety of different stitches for not up to $250. Dollar for greenback, Singer is palms down on the subject of probably the most quality machines for newbie stitching. If you decide on a light-weight computing device that best does walking sew and zigzag sew and not anything else, Janome has a first-class litte computing device known as a Sew Mini for not up to $70. Most commencing sewers like this as it is a no-fuss computing device.

the hardest thing to get in a sewing machine is to make sure it is made of metal. the plastic machines just fall apart so much quicker. this is of course if u want a machine to last a life time. if u just want a quick fix. then go ahead and get a plastic machine.

u can go to walmart and get a machine for as little as a buck and a half. or u can pay as much as 6 or7 hundred dollars for a really good machine.. do urself a favor and go to a sewing machine store and talk to some knowledgeable people before u go to walmart and buy one for $100.

For basic apparel and home decor construction, I can reccomend the Singer brand to you. Many other brands (husqavarna, viking, europro) are excellent quality, but are also pricier because they are built for heavier use. A simple 5-stich Singer sewing machine with one year warranty is available at Meijer nationwide for $89.00 +tax. If you are looking to spend more, contact your local JoAnn Fabrics and inquire about EuroPro machines.