You will never find a finer machine than an old Necchi. Have it serviced and keep sewing. Those are tanks! But if you need to haul a machine around there is a lot of advice for something light weight, new and expensive. A great machine is a 1980s Kenmore 12 stitcher. The 10, 6 and 6 etc from that era are nice and some are light weight. They do a variety of utility stitches. I've not seen one beyond repair and if I did, I would love to have one for parts when I do repairs. On any machine, decorative machine stitches look like they were done by machine. You can never get them to look as sweet as hand done. 99% of sewing is straight stitch. A nice treat might well be a featherweight if you have the money but that Necchi should be your prized possession. I do not love sewing on the computerized machines. I want much more control over where the needle starts and stops. I suggest you take something somewhat complicated to actually sew when you go looking. Can you make the needle go where you want and not just only where the machine wants to go when you stop. See how the machine handles with complicated project. That was when I reverted to vintage machines. The computerized start and stop drove me up the walls especially trying to turn precise corners. I couldn't make the machine stop and start as exact as on my vintage. Then I couldn't make two corners match. I can do it in a heart beat on my vintage machines. I suppose there is some setting to do that but I could not control it to suit myself. For me it is much quicker not to have to look in the manual just to do something. Much quicker to do it the old fashioned way.
Last edited by miriam; 10-08-2016 at 02:50 AM.