Poodles

My singer simple came from wal-mart years ago and it is still working fine. Have had no problems out of it.

CAS49OR

I bought a Brother XR4040 refurbished (listed like that because it wasn't new.). Great machine. Was selling on Amazon for $149, I bought it on ebay $69, plus shipping, spent $129.

It is computerized, but has no bells or whistles. A thing that annoys me about it... you have to crank the wheel to get the thread up top -- to finish the cycle. If I don't do that it is a tangled mess.

I bought it for a lightweight machine to take to classes I might subscribe to.

Milli

My my sister bought a machine from Walmart and had to return it, nothing but trouble.

CAS49OR

Digress, but, there is a return time frame. Used to be you could return stuff. Bought LG washing machine, defective, tried to return it to Best Buy, day 15. 14 day return policy. Anyhow, LG says they have a list of complaints and don't know what to do.

quiltingshorttimer

I've had a WallyMart $90 Brother machine for about 4 years now--bought to take to classes. My daughter has one too. While not a great machine, and definitely not made to hold up to lots of heavy-duty sewing, it is ok for what I bought it for. I'm giving it to my DIL for Christmas--she's a non-sewer and she's getting it with a gift card for sewing lessons at JoAnne's--or whatever class she chooses.

I have FMQ with the $90 Brother machine--you can lower feed dogs and with the hopping foot it came with, it worked ok on small items. Not sure I'd want to use it for a lap quilt or larger though.

I will also say that you can take it apart and clean/oil the parts--not too much metal in there! I imagine when it shoots craps it will be trashed. Not worth in fixing!

suzanprincess

You might want to try doing free motion with the machine you have. I have a 30+ years old Kenmore, and one of my free motion quilting feet works best with the feed dogs up, not down, while another works only with the feed dogs down.

I got the dogs-up one on Amazon; it has a small metal ring as the foot/needle guard/stitch guide so it's easy to see stitches while using it. The other I got first, from my local sewing machine repair shop; it has a solid plastic foot about an inch in diameter and is difficult to see through to know exactly where I'm stitching--very important for free motion!--which is why I got the second one.

DonnaFreak

I can't speak to what others are saying about the sewing machines being made cheaper so they can be sold cheaper. Personally, I would have to hear that directly from the company before I'd believe it 100% because it just doesn't make sense to me that a machine would have the same name and serial number as one in another store if wasn't the same exact machine. But what I CAN speak to is the fact that my very first machine that I started quilting with was the cheapest Brother machine they had at Wal-Mart. That was 4 1/2 years ago and it's still running just as good as it ever did. I've thrown everything at it, including making a dog bed out of denim fabric. That bed was big enough for a Husky to sleep on, and to make it durable I sewed each block of it rag quilt style, with a piece of denim on each side plus the batting in between. That means that to sew each block together, I had to go through four thicknesses of denim plus two thicknesses of batting. It never blinked an eye! And it never complains about the type of thread I use. It also holds up just fine to fast stitching, since I don't have the patience to go at it slowly. LOL! My fancy-schmancy machine that I paid $400 for (after a $200 discount) has given me NOTHING but trouble. It doesn't like going through more than two thicknesses of fabric, I'm constantly having to rip out seams that it makes bird's nest out of, and I now never use it for anything other than the blanket stitch when I'm doing applique. My next machine WILL be another Brother from Wal-Mart that has the fancier stitches AND the drop feed on it that sells every day for $139.99. Hope this helps! :c)

Donna

My time

Both my daughter and I have the CS6000i and we both love it. I only use mine for classes but she sews everything on hers.

shirleyd

I had a Brother CS6000 until recently that came from Wal-Mart, and was only about 5 years old. I had read very good reviews on this machine but are the machines made for Wal-Mart different than the same brand sold at a sewing machine store? I loved how it sewed, nice stitch, had walking foot and darning foot. Could drop the feed dog. I FMQ with it with no trouble except for the small throat size made it harder to maneuver. So about 2 yrs ago it stopped sewing, had it repaired for $100+, sewed until this summer, and again stopped, same symptoms! Paid $199 for it when I bought it. It would be interesting to know if it is due to inferior products at Wal-Mart.

Neesie

The Brother CS-6000i will be the same machine, regardless of where you buy it. Brother does not make different models of the same machine, for different stores.