My sister bought this machine from Amazon about a year ago and she loves it. So far has had no problems with it and she is very hard on machines. It is a nice machine for the price.

You may want to try overstock.com and see what brother machines they have. They have good prices and offer good replacement at a reasonable price. That would be good for a beginner. My sister has bought from them and says they are really good and reasonable.

I used to have the Brother 6000i & I loved it. It is a great little machine. I think it would be great for your GD to learn on & sew with for many years. Very user friendly too. I miss mine for piecing but I lost it in a power surge of my entire house. I guess the wires outside my house were bare & rubbed together. I heard a big boom & then no lights. It fried everything electrical in my house. I was lucky it didn't burn my house down they said. Also it was on a surge protector but I was told with something like this the surge protectors don't work. I don't know. Anyways I don't think you will be sorry if you buy one.

I love that little machine! I've had mine for years and it's still my back up machine when I want to work on a 2nd project! It's never been serviced, I keep it clean by using a cheap soft paintbrush to get lint out. This would be a good machine for anyone starting out! It was my first! The only thing about it I don't like is the built in needle threaded!! It's not the best!!

On this machine she doesn't even have to use the foot pedal. There is a speed slide on this model. She can just "set" the speed she is comfortable with. It also has a stop/ start button. I have not used a foot pedal in 10 years and "not" chasing that pedal make sewing better for me.

I love my Brother. I take it to classes and workshops but it was my only machine for about 3 years. I bought a much more expensive machine as my primary machine but, except for the throat space, I like the Brother better.

I don't have one but my girlfriend does. I've heard only good things about them. I saw them at Wal*Mart.

I had that machine about 7 yrs. Then had a problem and gave it to my friend, she fixed it and then i asked for it back to give to my gd.....but it's sitting in my house right now till gd decides where she'll be living, etc......the problem was it was bunching up in the bobbin thread, it was a simple fix she said....i bought 2 new brothers last feb. & march and really like them, a few extra stitches to use. I did find out that wm also sells refurbished brother machines for less then $100 on line only but work just as good as new. Maybe a little slight problem but worth the price.
Replacing a brother machine after it wears out is cheaper then taking a different machine to be repaired at a shop......i had a babylock that i felt was worn out so that's why i bought 2 brothers last year. I use one at home and one for groups.

Mine doesn't have a start/stop button- just foot pedal controlled.

Thanks much everyone -- that sounds like a great machine for granddaughter.