Lightweight Machine...No Featherweights Please
 

Lightweight machine recommendations needed. My Janome Heart Truth weighs 18 lbs. (approximately) and I find it too hard to move. I no longer have a dedicated sewing room and have to sew on my kitchen table, so I am looking for a machine that is lighter. I will also be taking it to sewing group and in my camper, so it needs to be easy to move.

I know Featherweights weigh 11 lbs or so, but I am interested in a new (non vintage) machine.

Thanks for all suggestions.

I love my Juki Hzl HT710 . It weighs 13 lbs. Has all the features I want, even a locking stitch. Drop in bobbin, speed control, thread cutter, needle up/down, decorative stitches and feed dog drop. The LQS had a sale last summer and I bought it to take to retreats and sew days. One step above it is the 740. More decorative stitches and embroidery alphabet.

If you want to stay with Janome for familiarity, the 3160 is probably closest to what you have and is around 12.5 lbs. 60 stitches, 6 buttonholes. It's also going to have a similar look and feel with the stitch menu on the face. It's lighter than the Janome Travel Mate series. I played with one a couple of weeks ago. It's the model our local shop sells the most of for travel machines.

A step up is the 4120 and a bigger step up is the 5300, 120 and 300 stitches, respectively.

I love my Janome Jem Platinum. It's simple and lightweight, but has the features I want, including needle-down and speed control. Of my three machines, this is the one I use the most. It's too lightweight for machine quilting, but I do all my piecing on it.

BTW, the Juki HZL-LB5020 and HZL-LB5100 are also both made by Janome. The 5100 is probably closer, with 100 stitches, to your current Janome. They are 12.3 lbs.

When my reliable Elna was in the shop (not being reliable enough), I bought a Brother machine from Walmart for under $300. It has lots of feet, including a walking foot, and works pretty well. It's small and portable because it's all plastic. I wouldn't want to rely on it as my main machine, but it got me through the whole summer working on Dear Jane and a paper piecing project when my sewing room was taken over by a guest.

I found what is supposed to be all metal Brother machine online at Walmart. It's my go to machine for putting on wide borders, sashings and bindings right on my cutting table. I have a folding step chair that's just the right height to sit on. It also comes with a table to give you more level sewing space. Got it for under $300 also. The model is on my sign on name below.

I am really impressed by that machine Onebyone mentioned which is still readily available, or the current model which is about $100 more, when I looked pre-Black Friday the current model was about $650 on Amazon. I am seriously considering that as my portable machine replacing my current one... it has features I really like that usually aren't so available in the price point.

For a lower price point, I do like Brothers. You want a mid-level machine. They are light, very easy to learn/switch machines, have threading assists, can buy feet at Walmart even! For awhile during covid I made masks on a bottom of the line brother because it was working -- it was so light I ended up using blue tape to stick it to the table so I didn't have to run after the machine all the time.

When I bought my portable class machine I wanted an all mechanical machine because it was the fancy parts on my Bernina that kept failing and when the Brother's died it was typically a plastic gear or whatnot. I wanted a price point around $200, and bought an Eversewn Sparrow 15 about 2 years ago. It is light, it is mechanical, it does have some stitches. It is for me slow and louder than the other machines that go to class, I don't know if I would recommend that model to you but you might want to look at Eversewn for model/price comparisons.
https://www.eversewn.com/

Something for OP to be aware of, though, is that the Jem models are "3/4" machines - significantly smaller than the HT they own.

I thought she was looking for a smaller machine.