Singers aren't what they used to be quality wise.............remember more features more $$$ and if you under buy you will soon outgrow it. If you sew frequently............maybe wait a while and save a little more Your dealer is an important factor too, will he stand behind it?

the brother looks like a nice machine, amazon has it on sale. Can you test drive it someplace?

I have to disagree quiltedsunshine my plastic bobbin case in my brother has sewed through 10 layers of denim flawlessly without jamming so I don't think that a plastic bobbin has anything to do with the quality of sewing

If you can try the machines out, that would be very helpful to you. Someone on this board said that buying a new machine is like buying a new car, and what one person likes, another might not. I would take some scraps and just sit down and sew...if that is possible.

Dina

When you've serviced over 500 machines, then you can say, yes, I know that the plastic bobbin case machines don't have as good stitch quality as the ones with metal bobbin cases. It's not just the bobbin case, it takes into consideration all of the other plastic parts in the machine, and the tolerance level of the factory that the machine was built in. If the needle bar has forward/backward wiggle, then you can't control the needle/hook distance, which is an important timing setting. Stuff like that makes a difference. Probably doesn't make much sense to anyone else -- but I'm a sewing machine mechanic and it's what I look at every day at work.

I have heard the mantra that machine with metal parts are better than those with plastic parts - by parts i mean internal parts.

I have a brother because I had no experience with embrodering so I didn't want to invest a lot of money in a machine that I wasn't sure how often I would use. It is extremely user friendly and IMO does a really nice job. Is it as good as a machine that cost several thousand dollars? No. But I'm very happy with my purchase and the quality is a lot better than I expected. Good luck and enjoy whatever machine you decide on!

I have not looked at embroidery machines, but I, myself, would NOT buy anything new from Singer. Burned a few years back.

I have 2 bother sewing machines one I payed 200 dollars for the other 1400 for they both work like a dream bother is all l've still got one I bought in 1983

All of my machines since 1972 use plastic bobbins, top load. Never had an issue. I found that "experience" interesting. Sounds like a maintenance or threading issue.

Sandy