jenibeni

Hello all! So, I am a 110% sewing machine rookie and need advice on an important decision:

I have been DYING to get my own sewing machine, which I plan to use for the millions of projects that I've found on Pinterest; from hemming jeans & fixing clothing to making a T-shirt quilt and everything in between.

The dilemma: My fabulous Grandmother has very generously offered to give me her Pfaff 1222, which she has had now for FORTY YEARS! I was extremely touched and incredibly stoked to inherit her vintage machine, which I assumed I would turn into a family heirloom.

She took it to the repair shop to get it all cleaned and "tuned up," which has already cost her $150. The shop then notified her that there were further repairs that need to be done which would cost a minimum of $300, but could possibly go up to $1000 (EEK!) and they won't know until they get in there and start the work.

My Mother and Grandmother were devastated to tell me over Christmas as they too had been excited to give it to me. They said that, given the expense, they wanted to know if I want to go forward with the repair or, as technology as come so far since then, if I would rather put the money towards a brand new machine which would obviously have more features. (Gma mentioned several times that she wished her machine had a surger, but besides that, it has worked like a charm its entire life...)

Because my only experience with sewing was to surge a set of curtains, I have no idea which way to go on this. Could you please give me your opinions?

I am extremely sentimental and would love to have her machine, but is it really the best choice or should we invest in a new one? And which would you recommend if you were to go new? (Again, I want one to do jean-hemming, which I hear is tough on many machines, AND quilting.)

Help!

PS. I have a TON of awesome sewing project tutorials/ideas/patterns on Pinterest, so if you'd like to have access to them, just send me a private message with your email address and I'd be more than happy to share!