A featherweight is only a straight stitch. What does your wife want to do if its sewing clothes where she needs to do buttonholes, blindhem, and type of zigzag stitch than a featherweight might not be the choice you want to make. The are good piecing machines for straight stitches. There are a lot of good machines out there. I would ask what features she is looking for in a machine, decorative stitching, needle up/down, thread cutter, needle threader, drop feed, harp space, adjustable width/length, etc.), types of projects she is interested in sewing(will she need something more durable), how much time she will be sewing(is a lower end model suited for her). I have sewn on a featherweightas my aunt has 4 of them, and I find them personally limiting. I can piece for my quilts but not much else, not suitable for applique, too small for really FMQ. featherweights are great for piecing and taking to classes that only require straight piecing. Me personally I would rather have my brother SQ-9050 that is equally lightweight great for classes, and has more features, you can do so much more with it and it cost you around the same. I you are looking for a great overall starter machine that is more durable with highend features, but more reasonable price I would get the brother PC-420 project runway model off of amazon. I have had 3 low end, and 2 highend brothers, none gave me and problems. the pc-420 has almost all the features my babylock espire(brother QC-1000) had for a quarter of the price, however if you have a bigger budget I wouldn't hesitat to get the brother laura ashley(updated QC-1000). I have also heard excellent things about the juki exceed f-600 those run about 900 and are very similar to the espire. Juki has some of the most powerful motors, I would have one if I weren't a diehard brother fan