Hi, I'm new to quilting. I'm trying to finish my first little quilt but the Singer featherweight that I have is now broken in a serious way (oops). My fault, but, I'm not going to have it fixed. I will have about $300 (tops $400) to spend on a new machine and I was wondering if anyone could give me recommendations as to the best machine for quilting that I could buy with that amount of money? I know it isn't much because these quilting machines cost over $1,000, but I did get that little Singer for $60 on Ebay. I would like a machine with enough space to the right of the needle for me to make large quilts. But I might also use the machine to make clothing and other stuff later on. Does anyone have any ideas or is that amount of money going to be insufficient for a decent machine?

Thank you to anyone who responds!!

Carla

You will have shop around and see what is out there for your money. I have a singer 9910 it is great and cost 499.00 . You can also go to some of the web sites to look at the machines. Ebay has used machines that might be nice. Also you can search the web by typing in sewing machines. Hope that helps.
hugs Linda B

I would do a search for sewing machines with your price range. Then you can find the best deal. Sew&Vac has great deals and super customer service..... :D

I would stick with a dealer. They will work with you to find the best one for your needs in your price range. A dealer will have both new and used machines to chose from. Another thing to think of is service for regular tune ups and or repairs. There again, a dealer is your best bet. Personally, I recomend Pfaff. They make a great machine.

Just an opinion, but if you featherweight is an old one you should still get it fixed. I have my Bernina and my featherweight.

Do you have a dealer close by ? Most say start there. I have Brothers and LOVE them. Got my last one from WalMart.com for $199.00 and it is GREAT :lol: It is the Brother CS6000i .
Another thing do a search here on the sight for new sewing machines and see what else has been mentioned

HI and Welcome!
...but you had better get your FeatherWeight fixed! I see them going on Craigslist for about 400$$
If you got it for 60, then you got a steal!
Can't help you with a machine but I like Brother (my first one) and Pfaff.
If you go to a dealer/sewing shop, I am sure that they have a gently used trade in on a great machine. Usually they include a 1 year warranty and lessons.
K

Funny, I've had the worst luck with buying sewing machines at WalMart. I bought 3 of them, two were Brothers and one was a Singer. All of them wore out quickly and broke within 6 months. It isn't me, honest! Finally DH put a Janome 6600 on layaway for me. Thankfully it was on sale and with a trade-in they took off another $300 so it wasn't too bad. It has sewn like a dream for over 2 years now and is an amazing machine. Maybe you could pick up something like that off of Ebay or Etsy.

I have a large throat machine and it was not cheap. I only wish that I had gotten the even more expensive model with embroidery. You can embroidery designs on your quilt samdwich that way.
For a beginner machine I recommend a Brother with all the quilting attachments and table. They are very cheap, mine was only 129 dollars and it is a work horse. A great backup machnine when the expensive one is in for service. Also the expensive machine is computerized and the Brother is not, that is also nice to have for a backup machine when you finally can afford a more expensive machine with all the bells and whistles.

you may be surprised at how inexpensive it may be to get your featherweight fixed. Also to get a machine with a much larger throat is pretty expensive...
A suggestion is to find out how much it will cost to fix your featherweight and if it is reasonable, save the difference and add to it to get a bigger throated machine at a later date.