Originally Posted by
miriam
There are MANY MANY good quality vintage machines other than the FW and 301 - those seem to be a status symbol of some sort. Plenty of other machines will be good sturdy last forever machines with out the expense. Some might weight a ton but they won't dance off the table either. You want something cheap and sews very nice try a Spartan or how about a Singer 404 - neither have that much status but good machines. SS only though. How about some of the Kenmore machines - well designed and sew about anything... I think I've posted time and again how to evaluate a used machine... if you can't find those posts here, there should be stuff if you google search how to buy a vintage sewing machine...
Hehehehehehehehe, the only reason I mentioned the FW and the 301 is because those machines are the ones that are doable to take to class! Of course, the Rocketeers (I do take mine when I want decorative stitches) the 401's, etc., are also not too heavy. BUT the 201's, 15's, even 99's, Spartans, weigh a ton - you need a caddy to take those machines to classes! I didn't mention those because, even though, I am pretty tough, - those machines are just too heavy to be carting around! No status symbol involved. In fact, most of my friends know that I have a Pfaff embroidery machine (very expensive), a long arm machine (also very expensive), a modern Janome (nice machine), but the people who do not know me must think I must be poor when I show up with my 301's or a Rocketeer! I have, as most of you know, about 50 vintage machines, but most of them stay at home when I go out to sew, although, I want to take one of my Wilcox and Gibbs one of these days just to see what everyone says about that! That would be a hoot!
Nancy