The Sewing Machine Saga Ends… I hope.
Oh thank you, lovely and dear reader-friends, for weighing in on my sewing machine dilemma! I read and appreciated every comment. So many of you had wonderful ideas and suggestions!
Since this was so unexpected [and therefore, not in the budget], I really needed to go with something affordable. And by affordable, I really did mean affordable… practically nothing. Free would’ve been awesome, but I didn’t have any sewing machine companies knocking on my door and begging to give me a new Bernina or anything. My long-term goal is to have a super nice machine [hint hint, anyone who does want to give me one for free]. I may not end up with a new one – I’ll also be looking into older used ones. I’ve had lots of suggestions for this, and I totally agree.
I ended up going with the Brother XL2600I. A super simple machine that was super affordable and will hopefully work well until I can upgrade to a nicey-nice machine. The button-holer is not as easy or smooth as I wanted or expected, but I’ve been able to make it work [after some venting-my-frustration emails to several lovely and gracious bloggy friends].
Would I recommend it? Yes – it’s great affordable machine. If you or someone you know is learning how to sew and doesn’t want to invest a lot of money, it’s a great choice. However, if you plan on doing a lot of button holes [or any…], you might need to finagle it a bit to get it to work. So not five stars, but really good for the money you’re spending.
Now about that free machine someone out there wants to give me….
I had a lovely Frister Rossman machine for 25 years, when it finally gave up the ghost I could only afford a Brother, they are cheap & cheerful, mine is a real workhorse! Fortunately my old machine is still around for button holes!
I had many years of dependable service from a Brother machine, which my daughter now has. I find that machines work much more smoothly after you give them a lovely name. (My new-to-me machine is called Isabella. :)
I have this machine and have spent hours trying to do button holes – any tips on how to make it work?
oh yes, button holes are tricky on this machine! what i’ve found is that if you set the dial a couple of clicks toward 1 (from F). and i HAVE to use interfacing, or it doesn’t work for me at all. also, it tends to get stuck at the end when it’s supposed to turn the other way, so i just push the metal lever so that it turns back the other direction. i hope that makes sense. :) it’s definitely frustrating!