Brother Sewing machines?? How do you like them?
 

Hi Everyone-

I am in the market for a new machine, and would like to check out all the local dealers. I have a Bernina Virtuosa for piecing and it does a great job, but to be honest, I am looking for more bells and whistles. Like a thread cutter might be nice! HA! This is really the only machine I have, in addition to my long arm and Babylock quilters pro choice which I got for FMQ and then moved on to the longarm.

I don't like the Bernina dealers..they are very different breed. There is a local dealer who is about 20 minutes from my house that sells Brother machines..what do you think of them?? I could afford $2-3k if they had a payment plan, which she often does.

I am looking for a machine that is versatile..I can embroider and sew on it, plus comes with a lot of advanced features. When comparing Brothers to Bernina, it seems that Brothers have more "bang for the buck" but I don't want to sacrifice quality.

Anyways, do you think I should go and test some out? I have break next week and really want to do some research before ramming around. I could also look at Janomes.

Thanks, JC

I have 2 Brothers that I love, the Innovis 1500D and the Innovis 2500D.They both embroider and sew.

I don't have a Brother, but have heard many great things about them. In your price range you should be able to get some good bells and whistles.

I am a big fan of Brother. My newest is the NX 2000. It has all kinds of great features for the price. They also have more recents models out since then too. it is definitely worth checking out. Check them out at the Brothers website; then go for a test drive! See if it has enough bells and whistles for you! Good luck and have fun!

Go test drive several different ones. Make a list of all the different features you want before you go then chart what each machine has. I felt the same thing that Brothers offer a lot for your money. A few years ago I purchased the Brother Innovis 2000 which I love. Also purchased a smaller Brother to carry to retreats and I love it.

I love my new Brother Dreamweaver machine.

I own 4 Brothers now. I love them all. My friend has three and loves them all.

I have a Baby Lock Ellageo Plus. Its a dream. I prefer the Nancy Zieman designs over the Disney designs on the Brothers

Hi JC,

I have the Brother 4000D and I love it. I also have a Bernina (Artista 630) and I love that too. You are very right though.... You will get many more bells, whistles and goodies for your money from Brother. Happy hunting and let us know when your new sweetie arrives!

hugs

caroline

I love my brother! I'm hoping to add a innovis 1250d to my machines soon!

I LOVE BROTHERS. My wife and I own 3 brothers that I use all the time. We also have 5 singers, a kenmore, a Bernina and a Toyota serger. I prefer my brothers over every machine we have.

I just got my 2nd Brother. I had the NX400 for about 8 years then upgraded to Innovis4000D. I love that I can switch from sewing to embroidery and back again without taking off the emb. Unit. I've only had this one for 2 weeks but love it so far. It is so much smarter than I am. I would go wherever you can get free lessons and have good support. That is one of the best ways to learn a new machine.

I'd go for a Baby Lock. Brother is more the poor country cousin to the Baby Lock. I have the Symphonie and wouldn't trade it.

Love mine you can get the laura ashley for 2k, very nice machine, if you can find a dreamweaver for 3k thats even better. The high end brothers are built great. I have had 4 brothers since 1994 and all still run, none have ever needed repair, even my cheapo one that i bought 8 years ago just ran it friday perfect stitching. You dont sacrifice quality, i just sewed on a bernina 550qe and it cost 5k it has less features than my babylock espire, now the laura ashley or symphony by babylock name. It cost twice as much, has less features, and my babylock sewed nicer. I was not impressed. My babylock espire was a workhorse before i traded her in, excellent stitching, tension. I never hesitate to recommend brothers or babylocks made by brother. If someone tells you they are plastic go lift one of their high ends my dreamweaver is like 40lbs not easy to tote but is by name a dream

Actually babylock buys their machines, they are identical. Brother is the company that comes up with the technology they are definitely not their poor cousin. Babylock just has a different low end line than brother

I am also a Brother machine lover. I just had mine in for service after 6 years of hard work. The store didn't try to up sell me, they said my machine was a good machine and to hold onto it. I appreciated the honesty. I have had a low end mechanical from walmart up to my PC-6500 which is an older TOL machine. I would by another Brother in a heartbeat. Dolphyngyrl is correct - Brother builds Babylock machines. Babylock offers a great warranty ( for a price ) but the machines are identical across the price ranges. Sergers are a diifferent thing. Brother does not build Babylock Sergers - I believe they are built by Tacony.

i have a brother dsm and a brother embroidery machine. i like them both.

I love my Brother sewing machine.

I love my Brother XR9500 :D I haven't had it for very long so it doesn't have that many hours on it but it comes with so many features that it makes piecing fun! I bought mine online for less than $200 with free shipping.

My sister has a Brother machine she bought at Costco many years ago and it is still going strong. She loved it. I was going to buy a Brother but wasn't carried by the LQS, they carry and services Janomes. When I looked at embroidery machines, my local repair shop carried Viking/Husqvarna, so ended up with the Topaz 20. If you have a local dealer - go for it.

I have two lower end Brother machines and I oove them. Very simple to use.

I have the original Duetta 4500D and I love this machine...
I also have the Pfaff Creative Vision 5.5....
I'd trade that in a heartbeat for a Quattro...or a newest Quattro....
I've had Vikings, Bernina, Singer and I just love the Brother machines....
k

I love my Brothers. No problems with them. Not fussy with type of thread, dull needles or lint in bobbin case.

I have just a basic intro brother, the prw2900. I think it is a project runway model. Any way, it is very BASIC and I have horribly abused it. So far though, it has been one of the best gifts I ever received. I guess I can't help with a higher end suggestion, but as far as the brand Brother works for me!

I have 3 Brother machines that I have sewn with for years...Last year I bought 4 more Brother machines for teaching sewing....Love them all.....also have Babylocke and 2 Singer machines.....I recommend Brother to everyone especially those new to sewing .....and also as well to anyone in the market for a new machine.

I only have one machine, which I got from Walmart for $99..It is a Brother, and I have beat the heck out of it and never serviced it..After 6 years it still runs great..If I ever get the money to get a bigger, better machine, it will be a Brother

I just received the Brother cs6000i for Christmas and LOVE it. I had a White that I received 20 years ago and was so frustrated using it because the fabric would bunch at the start of a seam and wouldn't go over thicknesses without stalling in one place. My new Brother never bunches at the beginning of a seam (even sewing on tailored clothing) and goes over thick seams without stalling. My husband ordered the machine from Amazon and I'm so totally loving it. He worries that I will wear it out - I hope so!!

I had a Singer and it froze up on me. Local repair guy was going to charge me more than I paid for the machine to fix it. This was the second one of this particular model that had done this. I decided to get a Brother and it has been the best machine I've ever used and I've been sewing for 42 of my 52 years on Singers. I am a Brother convert!

Three of my machines are Brother's and I love them all!! I have had no problems what so ever with any of them. I got mine all from www.allbrands.com They have FREE shipping, great prices and FAST delivery and are a authorized dealer for Brother machines.

I have 4 Bro and a Babylock. Used to sell both. At that time Bro made Babylock for a time and then Babylock branched off to their own. Both machines are superfantastic in that they can do so much. They are easy to learn and can last forever with your taking proper care in between visits for yearly checkups. I also have an old Berina 830 with all feet that I sewed many a mile on it before getting into the retail business. While I retired many years ago I did buy another Bro, the 4000D, that I am extemely happy to be the owner of. Frankly I suggest either a Brother, Babylock or the Janome altho I am not personally familiar with it. I do have several friends who are very happy with their Janomes.

I love my 2500D been looking at the new dreamweaver and have no doubt I would love it, if it wasen't for wanting a sit down fmqing machine I have it right now.you won't go wrong with a brother

I love the Brother machines. I got a Laura Ashley, NX-2000 machine for Christmas. It's not an embroidery machine, but has all sorts of bells & whistles! They have the new V series out now and one does have embroidery capability. By all means...go check them out, ask for a trial and see which one fits your needs the best! They are a real work horse of a machine!!

I have a Brother Innov-is 6000D (Quattro) and I love it. I wish I would have kept my Brother from 40 years ago but I sold it.

Brothers are good but so are Vikings. Right now there are a lot of Ruby machines slightly used but come with warranty and most get 0% financing. this is because Viking came out with a Ruby deluxe last yr and alot are trading in for a bigger machine. I would suggest checking out anymachine before buying it. I love all of my Vikings, I had the Ruby and traded to the top model after the Viking convention due to the deal I got. They are great; lots of bells and whistles, easy to use, not tempermental. They come with the initial software that allows you to organize and edit to a degree your designs. Check out mrpatience.com for more info for 4D or 5D organizer; that's the software that will be included with the machine and you can buy full versions late. I love being able to add the jump stitch command to all of my designs and saving me time in the end cleaning up threads. Good luck, I'm not sure where you are or I'd give you some good leads as to where to check. Please do try out different machines and shops; not all shops have great customer service and support. That's a must have in embroidery. I used a Brother in a class and even though there are features that I wish Viking had, there are so many that Viking has that it would drive me crazy because Brother doesn't have. Plus some of the features that Viking does't have they have things similar to it that takes care of the problem. Good luck

I've only used the basic Brother machines, but have been quite pleased with them and bought one for DD for Christmas. I too am considering one with more bells and whistles. Just haven't determined which features I want most and will really use as I've never had a fancy machine.

I have always had Singers....was raised on Singers. I bought a Brother SE 400 a year ago and love it! I would like a Dreamweaver though! :)

I purchased a Brother CS6000i after Christmas. It was one of the recommendations I got from this board. I checked them all out and did some comparisons. I found this one at Amazon for under $150.00 and free shipping. I have completed 3 quilts with it so far and haven't had a problem yet that wasn't 'user error'! LOL

Brother machines are really nice. I have 3 of them.

I'm very new to this but just got a brother sq9050 and love it already! A friend also just a brother and loves it as well.

I've had the Brother Duetta 4500 for almost two years and still love it. In fact I keep thinking about trading up to the Quattro!