My daughter is asking me where she could get an enexpensive but good reliable embroidery machine and what would be a good one for the money. She can't afford anything to pricey, but nothing to cheap where it won't hold up. I told her I have no idea but I bet I could find out who does! So, I come to you! Can anyone give some pointers, any advice is helpful.
Thank you! :-)

I am a babylock fan and own a pfaff as well but the babylock has the Sofia2 or Sofia for a great price. check with a local Babylock dealer www.babylock.com and ask for the price. It does only 4x4 area. Good luck!

I have the Brother SE270D it has a 4x4 hoop but love it . They have sense come out with the 400 but suppose to be just as good for under 400.00

:-D Thank you! I'll check it out. I never would had thought of Baby Lock!

Can't go wrong with a Babylock! The learning curve is so small. I love mine!

Recent Brother machines are really excellent - and the prices are great for the quality and features that you get. I love my little $200 Brother serger (1034D, from walmart.com) I am pretty sure that it is mechanically identical to a Babylock - and cosmetically, they're very similar, too. I think that either Babylock manufactures it for Brother or the same third party manufactures both of them.

The Brother SE400 embroidery machine is only $349 with a $30 rebate at walmart.com:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-Se...chine/14237607 - this machine has a really good reputation, even though it has only a 4X4" field.

The Brother with a 5X7" embroidery field is only $670:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-Co...-Size/12542647 This will be the next one that I buy.

I don't usually bad-mouth any machine, but after this Futura embroidery machine lemon, I doubt that I will ever buy a new Singer again.

I just bought a brother. So far, I am liking it. I wish it had a bigger hoop, though. I was thinking I would have to spend $1500 for the 5 x 7 hoop machine, but the Wal-Mart one looks like what I will go with when I "upgrade." I paid $700 for my 990 Innova (?) that sews and embroiders. I am thinking I should have just bought an embroidery machine, but I wanted a light-weight one to go to classes with.

the brother se400 has usb to download from computer. i bought the se350 and love it, but have to have ped basic to download new patterns.

They are very similar. The 400 is a newer model and wil conect to your computer so you can download to the machine.

Ooo wow! Thanks for the great info...I'll have to check out the sites!!