Posted: 8/9/2014 2:02:11 PM EDT
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Wife wants to sew more, and I wouldn't mind doing a few things. 90% of the work will be light work like curtains and whatnot... the other 10% will be things like sewing velcro on patches, or fixing blown seams on some light weight nylon/Nomex cloth. Simple, woman friendly, and sturdy are musts.
My parents have a stout and maintained Husqvarna Viking 6570 that has sewn everything needed including light weight leather horse and welding gear at the farm. However, I don't want to get something like that for my wife, as the controls on the old 1970s Viking are to heavy handed for my mom (and likely my wife) to enjoy using. |
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I bought a $250 Janome for my wife well over a decade ago, and she has made a LOT of stuff, clothes, curtains, dogsled harness, quilts, etc. It is a very basic machine with few frills.
Every few years it will need to be cleaned, oiled, and have the timing set. You will notice a big difference in noise and smoothness when this is done. Do not buy an $80 machine from Wal Mart for this reason, go with something from a local sewing shop. There are lots of decent brands out there. It doesn't have to be fancy, but does need to be servicable. J. |
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Look for a old Singer 201 , or singer 221. they are solid machines, from when america made the best stuff. No programming for buttonholes and zigzags.
You can probably find them in goodwill shops, antique stoes, the 201 is heavier duty and should be able to sew leather. Lots of spare parts are available on ebay and elsewhere. There are many listed on ebay now. The 201 sells for a good bit more than the 221. |
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Are you looking for fancy stitch patterns or just strait stitching?
As the above poster said, it's tought to beat a good, old-fashioned, cast-iron Singer machine. There are TONS of them out there to be had for cheap. I picked mine up for less than $50. All I had to do was re-wire it (wires were old/nasty/crumbling). The old Singer's will punch through more/thicker/heavier stuff than a modern machine but they are still not a commercial machine. That being said, the controls are much easier to manipulate than a commercial machine. Some of them have forward/reverse, try for one of those, it will make your life much easier. OTOH, if you're looking for fancy stitches (zig-zags etc) I have no clue. My mom has a plastic machine from the 80's that does all the fancy stuff; no idea the maker but it's chugging along nicely even today... I've only ever run my mom's fancy one, all other machines I've run have been commercial straight-stitch machines. |
| Pfaff, one with a few years on it can be had for the price of a cheap POS. I got my 917 Hobbymatic off ebay for like $75 shipped. It's awesome. My wife has tiptronics and others with IDT feature. The IDT is almost mandatory if your sewing multiple layers of things. We used to have other brands, but they just didn't hold up. I think we now have about six machines in the house, and only one is not a pfaff, it's a viking grand quilter, as we do quilting on the side for folks..... |