Hopefully she will have better luck with it than I did. I bought a Brother from Walmart some years ago, took it home, and after a couple of days of sewing, the needle was hitting the bobbin case every stroke it made. I took it back and told my husband I was going to buy a "real" machine! I've worked at JoAnn's in the past and was told that machines are made for different markets - the machines at Walmart are not the same ones sold at JoAnn's and the ones at JoAnn's aren't the same as the ones at other venues. You can't really do anything about your mother-in-law! Maybe it will be okay....