Light weight sewing machine
 

I have been looking for a light weight sewing machine that has more than 8 decorative stitches on it so when we travel i can still do my quilting with and use the decorative stitches. Does anyone have information that i can use to look for this special sewing machine. What is everyone using when going to classes..
Thank you
Jean

I have a Janome 3160 that I really like. What price range are you looking at?

The Bernina 300 series machines are lightweight. They seem to be the portable machine of choice for my sew group. Excellent back up machines too.

Baby Lock Ellure Plus - fairly light weight, loads of different stitches, embroidery unit and has loads of bells and whistles.

You might wonder about the embroidery unit and taking it to retreats, etc. When not stitching but visiting, it is nice to be able to get something done in addition to the chatter.

I have a Janome Jem Platinum (about $500) that has tons of stitches, needle up/down, needle threader, plus... It weighs only 12 pounds. Great little machine. I know there are less expensive Jem models too.

I had a very inexpensive Brother CS6000i that is a good machine with 60 different stitches. My niece and nephew own it now, and despite their youthful enthusiasm and experimental tendencies the machine is going strong after being in their "care" for over a year. Periodically they abuse it enough that it errors out and stops but they've discovered if they turn it off for a few hours it'll self-correct when they turn it back on. My sister tells me they've even sewn through cardboard with it. Amazing. For an inexpensive modern plastic machine it's a pretty good workhorse!

My only gripe with it was its size (too small to quilt large quilts) and that it's so light it tends to scoot away unless you have some grippy mat stuff underneath. But other than that it served me well as my primary quilting machine, I quilted an oversized twin in it, no problem, and for piecing it was great. I'd still have it except that I wanted to encourage my niece and nephew to sew.

They sell on Amazon for around $140-150. It comes with an extension table and a quarter-inch foot (and a bunch of other feet), and it has a needle up/down button. The case is the kind that's just a cover, but it is a hard shell and the built-in handle on the machine itself makes it very easy to port around.

I second the idea of the Brother. I have 3 different mechanical Brothers and they are all easy to operate and not fussy about anything.

I have a viking husqvana h100 model. A small machine easy to transport a number of fancy stitches, up down needle plus I got a walking foot and other feet. It cost £200 not sure amount in $ .

I have two of these machines and I love them. Bought the second one when Amazon had an amazing sale for a back up machine. Very portable.

Thank you everyone you have given me ideas and i am going to look at them all thanks for the input.
Jean

My Babylock Audrey is great!! It is the smallest Babylock, only weighs about 8 pounds. I have pieced and quilted up to twin size quilt on it. Has about 20 decorative stitches built in too.

I saw a machine at Costco yesterday when I was walking thru the aisle looking for something. It was a Brother (I think) and noticed that it had a lot of stitches. It was under $200. Didn't look closely at it, just glanced enough as I went by.

I have a Janome 7130 that I use for piecing and regular sewing. It has several decorative stitches but what I love about it is the ability to move the needle over easily and it doesn't pull to the left when piecing like my brother does; everything stays straight as you stitch. It was in the $300 range and so far I'm really happy with it.

I have one of the Brother Project Runway machines which is very light weight. It has the features needed for quilting, the feed dogs can be raise and lower and it came with several attachments. It also has 50 built in stitches and 87 stitch functions. It has the drop in bobbin and the self threading needle function. I have had it for 5+ years and love it. I bought it to take with me in our motor home but I liked it so well it soon became my go to machine for all of quilting/sewing projects. I bought it at Walmart and I paid around $100 for it.

As an FYI, if you purchase a machine from Walmart and after using it , you are not happy with it , you can always return it as long as you do so within the return period stated by their store policy.

Good luck and happy sewing.

My brother SQ-9050 from walmart has quite a bit of stitches and is quite a workhorse. I think it weighs 12lbs

I love my Janome Platinum Gem. It is a real little crackerjack machine.

Pfaff Passport 2.0 - 70 decorative stitches and IDT.

I have the same machine and love it. Great for bringing to classes and travel!

I learned i really miss needle up/down and the ability to move the needle right for a travel machine. I think most of the machines suggested here do have those 2 features and most have many more. Let us know what you choose!

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/janome-s...escription-tab This is the favourite of many of my class mates, good little machine for classes and even better price. The selection of stitches is adequate and one of my class managed to sew through 7 layers of fabric, albeit slowly :)

Unfortunately for me I have to have one with all the gizmos so I splurged out on this one http://www.nuttsewingshop.co.uk/Janome-TXL607.aspx lovely machine but not cheap!

I have 2 of these machines - one at my summer place and one I use heavily the rest of the year. I also recommended this machine to 2 friends who wanted a lightweight machine for classes/home use. Great little machine that serves me well. I bought the first one that I use most the of the year in February 2009 when my lifetime Kenmore 'died' and could not be repaired when I was in the middle of my first official quilting class. Never a complaint about my 'little brother.'

Janome Jem 760 is a great machine and very lightweight. That is what I use for classes now, I think it has 50 or 60 stitches and only weighs about 11-12 pounds. Love it!
I used to have a Brother cs6000i that I loved except for the fact the needle was left homing and I kept breaking needles when I forgot I had a straight stitch foot on. I understand the next model up was center homing. If the cs6000i had been center homing, I would never had gotten rid of it, because it had tons of stitches and weighed 11 pounds.

I'm with sewnoma.....

I have a Brother QC9050 from Walmart, it's on the RV as we speak. Getting ready to leave tomorrow for a few months.

The Pfaff Passport is ideal for all of your requirements you mentioned. Has 70 design stitches. Has IDT, a built in walking foot, a Pfaff trademark that even Bernina tried to copy. Check out this link:
http://www.pfaff.com/en-US/Machines/passport-2-0

I have a brother that has the walking foot and other feet you need for quilting and a large number of stitches. I bought it at Walmart for around 170,00 and I love it. It is very light and easy to carry around.

I have a Brother too, bought at Walmart and it has the embroidery unit. Really like the machine, don't use the embroidery unit like I thought I would so could have saved me some money. Brothers rock!!

I have the Pfaff Passport 2.0 and I love it. You will love the built in walking foot. :)

I have the,
Brother CS6000i it sews a nice stitch, very lightweight so it can be taken anywhere.. also can be used with out the foot pedal..

I have the babylock Grace. it is light weight and I like the way it sews. Use it for most of my piecing as it has a needle placement for 1/4 inch. The only drawback I found is that it doesn't sew over heavy materials very good.

I, too, have the Brother CS6000i and it is great! Very lightweight but works well in a cabinet. Without the cabinet you need some rubber under it to keep it from sliding around.

I third the recommendation of the Brother 6000i. It is a very nice machine, and can't be beat for the price. You can order it from Wal-Mart online for $146.xx with free shipping to the store if you want. I LOVE mine.

I love my Pfaff Passport for taking to classes and sewing groups. It has the built in walking foot, needle down, tie off stitch, numerous needle positions and over 70 stitches. Fifty of them are decorative. It sews like a dream.

The Elna Lotus is a wonderful machine.

I saw an ad foe a Bernini--$140. It is supposed to be very light weight. Any one have more info about it?

I have the Pfaff Passport 2.0. It weighs about 13 pounds, has 70 stitches. It also the IDT (Pfaff's built in walking foot). Several the women in my quilting group have them. Its about $500-600 depending on where you buy it. Some dealers include the slide on extension table, it comes with quite a few feet. I really like it. I have a full size Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, too.
Sharon in Texas

I have a Brother 9000 SQ that I got from Wal*Mart. It is lightweight with lots of stitch patterns and costs about $200.