Sewing machine for a child
 

I am thinking of buying a new sewing machine for my 11 year old granddaughter. She has very little experience, just a little sewing with me, and a class on sewing a pillowcase I have an old Elna 1400 that I bought used a long time ago that I planned on using for her, but it not currently working. I am looking at the CS6000i Brother for her. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions.

I like the Janome 2212. Very simple machine with stretch stitches and it is very sturdy. I'm also looking at the Janome Mod 19. I need to replace my old worn out DSM and I tend to like simple mechanical intuitive stuff.

I think a Brother is perfect! I know most have a speed control nowadays, which I think is a great feature for kids. The CS6000i is a nice machine for sure.

I started teaching sewing to children after school over 6 years ago and was looking for machines to use. This brother 6000i was on my list. I ended up with janome 7330. These are awesome machines! I have eight! I've gone from one class of eight students to eight classes of five students. Currently I have four days/classes of 6 students. My machines are still going strong. Every year a couple of students get sewing machines for Christmas. A few years ago a student got the brother 6000i. I had the mom bring it in to help teach her daughter how to use it. Lets just say you get what you pay for. It looks great but it is a plastic-inside machine. It is very light weight, easily half the weight of my janomes. The problem with these kinds of machines is tension goddess wacko easily. I would not recommend it.
Anita

Auto correct on my post: should say 'goes wacko'

Regarding Brother machines - I can't speak to the one you mention but I have 4 basic Brother machines 2 at my house and one at each of my sons. They have never and I mean never had a tension issue. They sew right out of the box and sew through anything including fake fur. I am speaking from my own personal experience with these machines. And I'm talking low end. My oldest one is about 15 years old. Newest is about 4 years old.

I was thinking "No wonder I'm having trouble; I didn't pay homage to the "tension goddess"!

I have 3 Babylock. "Eliazabeths" . I bought 1 new and the others used for around $500.
The only problem I have had is with ,operator error.

we(my DDs and I) have several different Brother models from WM. They are good little machines, I have sewn thru layers of decorator fabric with a 6000i without issue. I would not hesitate to buy another-in fact I probably will be buying another soon cause oldest GD has taken an interest in sewing.

I do all my piecing and quilting on a Janome 7318, which is a step down from the 7330. Mine is mechanical, has fewer stitches, and is a little cheaper than the 7330, but I've been using it for 6 years now and it's still doing great. It has a 6.5in harp and was well worth the money ($250 on Amazon when I purchased). It takes any kind of thread I can throw at it, including cheap serger thread, and I've never had a problem with it. I've done over a dozen quilts from start to finish, of all sizes from lap size to king size on it, and I would highly recommend it. Generic feet (cheap) fit on this machine too.