Originally Posted by
SusieQOH
I have a Juki TL2010Q. It has a large harp, needle down, auto thread cut. But it's straight stitch only. I bought it for FMQ but it pieces very well too.
I've never sewn on a Singer 201, but I do know that the old Singers are well regarded for their solid, beautiful, even stitching. One of the big factors that creates that stitching is that the feed dogs are narrow as these are straight stitch only machines. I believe that once you move to a machine with more stitch options you will have wider feed dogs, and a different stitch. That is why I bought a Juki 2010q. As noted above, it has a large throat space, needle down, knee lift and a thread cutter. I keep my more entry level Janome around for the rare occasions that I need a blanket stitch, button hole, or zig zag stitch. I definitely don't like straight stitch on my Janome as much as I do on my Featherweight or Juki.