I have a Singer 403-A, and it is a very powerful machine. I've sewed some pretty thick items with it, including quilting some table runners, etc. I also have a Singer 201-2, and it's a winner. I made a tote bag for my cousin, using cotton twill, plus batting, plus another cotton twill, quilted, and then lined it with quilting cotton. I put a zipper to close the bag, and then did a decorative stitch to set the zipper down about 3/4" from the top. I broke 3 needles doing that top stitching on my Singer 328, but that was more operator problem! LOL!
By the way, make sure you're not using ball point needles -- those don't work very well for cotton fabric, particularly heavy weight cotton fabrics.
Jeanette
Last edited by Jeanette Frantz; 09-11-2016 at 10:57 PM.
Reason: additional content