I have a low-end brother that I bought at Wal-mart. It swims too. I always thought it was me until I got my Janome a few years ago. I was astounded to find that my Janome "wants" to sew straight and my Brother just doesn't. My stitching dramatically improved with the different sewing machine. Last year I got a used Viking Husqvarna and it is somewhere in between the two. Not steady like the Janome, but easy to get off-track if I am not paying close attention. And all the time with the Brother, I thought it was just me and my lack of skill.