My mom majored in Home Ec in college - her machine was a chain stitch machine - she can't remember what it was though. She says it was small. She said a lot of people laughed at her until they figured out her seams held as good as the rest of them. When she graduated her parents bought her a brand new FW. I think she had some Japanese machine with cams for a short time until we broke it. Then she recently got a new Singer. My sister and I cleaned up her old FW and she said if she knew the FW would run like new again she wouldn't have bothered with the new Singer.