elnan

Patti, or Kooklabell,
I have not seen the Eversewn machines in action, but have read many reviews of them, and everything I have read has been positive.

Last week I looked at that Brother at Costco, and was not favorably impressed. My sister-in-law has one of those and said she had a lot of trouble with it when crossing a seam on pillowcases. Remember when groups of people were making pillowcases for worthy causes?
I have a friend who is very compulsive and will buy a WalMart Brother, then get bored with it and let it go, saying she is no longer interested in sewing.. Later she will buy another WalMart special. I have worked on several of her sewing machines and noticed the tension is not forgiving.

I am sure you will want to test drive whatever you buy, so please let us know what machine you settle on.

Prism99

The Brother CS6000i is a machine that's been around a long time and has been useful to many QB members. You can read reviews of it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Quilt...dp/B000JQM1DE/

I don't know if it's still sold at Walmart, but it used to be. With both Amazon and Walmart, you can try out the machine and easily return it if you don't like it. Most dealerships will not take back a machine on a return, although they will do a trade-in. If you decide on Amazon, just be sure the machine is both "ships by and sold by Amazon" as that makes returns very easy. If it is sold by someone else, returns are more complicated.

cathyvv

I'd take her to Walmart and have her look over the selection of sewing machines. She may like a computerized machine with some decorative stitches. Kids like to experiment with the decorative stitches.

I have several of the Brother mechanical machines; one is at my sisters in NJ; the other is used on the rare occasion that I take a sewing machine to a guild meeting. Both work well.

I also have two computerized Brother machines, the SQ9185 and the CE1100PRW. I think, but haven't measured so not certain, that the throats of these machines are a bit larger than the throats of the mechanicals. Bottom line, I am happy with them as well.

Thread balling up under the needle: When I begin to sew seems to be caused by positioning fabric such that they are in front of the needle (closer to you ), not under it. Moving the fabric so that the needle is 1/4" in from the edge of the fabrics (farther from you) seems to prevents that. But you probably already know that...

One feature to consider that most of us don't think about before we buy a sewing machine:

Brother sewing machine manuals are among the best that I have used. I used to write system requirements and user manuals/guides for billing systems, so I know a good one when I see one.

Chris Denno

You can't go wrong with a Janome (And Bernette is made by Janome), and I have heard nothing but good things about the Eversewn.

toverly

I'd opt for a Janome also. I have a 3050 and it's a great little machine.

coopah

Look at the Eversewn. I have the Sparrow 30, but there are models that aren't as expensive. It's (to my understanding) that it is being manufactured by the son of the Bernina folks. Janome is another very solid machine.

maviskw

She needs something on which it will be a pleasure to sew. I bought IKEA's little machine. I gave it away. I think the only use for such a machine would be to patch an occasional open seam in garments and such. Then I bought the $50.00 Janome. Same thing. That thing weighs only 5 pounds, but is not fun to use. An old Featherweight in good condition would be ideal. No zig-zag, but they sew so nicely and are so quiet. And soooo cute!

Stitchnripper

The problem with a featherweight is that if you don’t already have one they can be hard to come by at a decent price. It isn’t as easy as I want one. I got one.

QuiltE

Totally agree ... plus for a young girl, she may not be too thrilled with old and black,
but might prefer something more modern in appearance.

Kooklabell ... get in touch with a local dealer.
They often have great deals on used, but like-new machines.

klswift

You can buy many, many machines for under $200. For a beginner machine, she only needs forward, reverse and a zigzag. As she progresses, she will figure out what bells and whistles she wants and this will still be a good basic fallback machine. When on sale, you can get a very good basic machine for $150 or less. I am not a fan of the brother machines, but there are many singers and whites that are great starter sewing machines. Also, check out a local sewing machine repair shop. They often have truly wonderful refurbished machines (good old metal ones!) really, really cheap.