Ask Walmart store manager for a donation to your group. They will more then likely give you a gift card to help with the purchase of the machines. I have never had my request for a good non profit cause get turned down by Walmart. The low end Brothers are excellent beginner machines. We have guild members that use them for classes and workshops.

If you go to the brother site they often have refurbished machines for really good prices. And come with a warranty.

That is all fine and dandy but if your local GW or SA is anything like ours, it'll cost more for the parts because there is always something missing or broke.

I have a brother machine with 80 stitches I got through Overstock and while I paid $139 for it works great and sews great. But I will bet if you ask church members you will get donated some older all metal machines. Sounds like a fun time, let us know how it goes.

I would avoid using loaned machines - if something got broken - then what?

If a donated machine got unusable, then it would go on the "oh, well" pile.

I had two vintage machines on CL that I had refurbished and a wonderful lady contacted me about teaching home schoolers to sew. She bought two and I loaned her a cute little 3/4 iron lady for her students. Maybe someone on CL
will help you too when they find out what you need them for. The problem with the old ones is the weight. Not easy to schlepp around. If you were closer I would help you out, Good luck and best wishes to you! :thumbup:

While old machines can be found cheap, there is a tuneup and repair cost to most of them. I personally own a number of machines, some which have been fixed, some not. The newest one is a 40 YO Bernina 830. All of them need some help when aquired. They have cost me from free to 400 bucks. All need at least a 150 dollars to make them sew well.
Ask at your church for donations of machines. Many many people have machines sitting around that have not been used in years. These will need a cla (Clean Lube and Adjust). Now ask down at the local sewing shop about deals on maintenance. It seems weird but many sewing shops are powerfully into religion. Don't know why but it seems that way here in the valley and in previous places I lived like Montana. Perhaps after explaining what you are trying to accomplish, you can get several sewing machine techs to donate a half day into your project. Of course, give them all the advertisement for doing this service in mentions in the church newsletter. Make sure your congregation is on board to support your project and the people who support your project. Perhaps a news item in the local section of the local paper. Lots of ways to get interest in a project to get young men to learn to quilt. BTW, how big do you plan on making these Around the Worlds? That pattern can get tedious if too large. Ask me how I know.

tim in san jose

I like the suggestion of approaching the congregation. Some one may have a machine they are willing to loan or donate.

Our guild has a tea in the spring and each child (and adult who comes with them) do a make and take project home with them after the tea. We did go to Walmart and buy two inexpensive (under $100) sewing machines each year for a few years because even with members taking machines to be used we did not have enough. I would try to get members of the congregation to loan machines for the youth to use first, but the machines we got have held up, but are used very little. Good luck with this project! I wish you well and hope some of the youth get the sewing/quilting bug. Most of all have fun with them!!!

We bought a couple of inexpensive Janome's for our sewing group in our little community, and they have worked out very well. I think they were under $100. each. I know some might think teenagers will be extra hard on these machines, but I think they'll be grateful for what you're doing.

And, I think having new machines will be much better than a hodge-podge of old machines with, possibly, lost instruction books , that may need to be serviced before they can be used. Less headaches in the long run. imho