Our daughter did her 4-H sewing on an old black head Singer that belonged to her great-grandmother and the judges would always want to know what brand of machine she had because her stitches were so straight. She still likes that machine, even thaough she has a newer one that has lots of options. The older machines are wonderful and 98% of the sewing we do is straight stitch. I like my old singer, too, for a lot of things, and I have a new, top of the line.