Sewing Machine Recommendation?

Posted by lj on January 19, 2006, 7:48 pm

Looking for something to do normal mending and repair with - nothing
fancy. Is there a good used machine to get for this kind of purpose? I
am looking to do hemming, maybe sew simple things like a comforter
cover, etc. but nothing elaborate.

Posted by craftydragon1951 on January 22, 2006, 6:23 am

lj wrote:

> Looking for something to do normal mending and repair with - nothing

> fancy. Is there a good used machine to get for this kind of purpose? I

> am looking to do hemming, maybe sew simple things like a comforter

> cover, etc. but nothing elaborate.

I've used the same Singer since graduating from high school in 69.
Compared to today's machines it is pretty primative (straight and
zigzag were the only stitches) but it served me well for a long time.
It even survived being dropped on the floor by my teenage brother. I
only recently gave it to someone who just wanted to do mending while I
wanted to do more (quilting and embroidery). If all you want to do is
just basic sewing, most any machine will probably do. Look for a name
brand and a decent warranty. If you get it from a sewing shop as
opposed to a department store, they will probably include at least one
lesson.

One other thing to note is that at the lower end, there are two basic
types: mechanical and digital. The digital will probably have some
kind of display for stitch selection, stitch length, etc. The
mechanical will probably just have dials or switches to make
selections. You probably have a good idea which is right for you.
(The old joke used to be that you could tell if you were digitally
challenged by looking at your VCR. If the date was flashing 00:00 you
were digitally challenged.)

If you think you are going to use it for a long time, mechanical is
probably better. (How many people are still using the same computer
they had 10 years ago? On the other hand most typewriters are still
working after much longer.)

Have fun, Shana

Posted by Melinda Meahan - take out TRAS on January 22, 2006, 6:44 am

craftydragon1951 wrote:

> (The old joke used to be that you could tell if you were digitally

> challenged by looking at your VCR. If the date was flashing 00:00 you

> were digitally challenged.)

That must be REALLY old. My VCR doesn't have a way to manually set the
time, it picks up some signal over your television cable connection, and
since I don't do cable TV, I have no way to set the date.

Posted by on February 1, 2006, 6:43 pm

You are going to think I'm crazy, but I bought a Singer 1591. It was
practically free, and although it's older than heck, it works great!
The stitches are as straight as an arrow, there is never that clot of
thread under the fabric that I always seem to get with other machines,
and it's so heavy that it doesn't bounce all over the table. I guess
drawbacks would be that it won't do zig-zag, or buttons (I think).

I have noticed that there are always several for sale on ebay, and
sometimes free ones on www.craigslist,com.

I'm sure that you can tell from this that I am a total sewing neophyte.

Posted by Taria on February 1, 2006, 7:01 pm

A model 15 is one that many of the quilters enjoy working with.
You can get buttonhole, zig zag and blind stich attachments.
The are somewhat cumbersome but the buttonholer works really
nice. It is easy to use too.
Anyone interested in seeing what a 15 looks like can check
out a photo here:
http://home1.gte.net/res6mc9p/tlw/taria/pages/museum2.html
Taria

carolineblue@gmail.com wrote:

> You are going to think I'm crazy, but I bought a Singer 1591. It was

> practically free, and although it's older than heck, it works great!

> The stitches are as straight as an arrow, there is never that clot of

> thread under the fabric that I always seem to get with other machines,

> and it's so heavy that it doesn't bounce all over the table. I guess

> drawbacks would be that it won't do zig-zag, or buttons (I think).

> I have noticed that there are always several for sale on ebay, and

> sometimes free ones on www.craigslist,com.

> I'm sure that you can tell from this that I am a total sewing neophyte.

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