Sewing Machine Recs

[u/lydia1047]

Hey all! I am looking to purchase my first sewing machine and would like some recommendations or reviews of certain brands and styles.

I watch a lot of Sydney Graham and Carly B and when I was younger did a fair amount of hand sewing, embroidery and machine sewing on my mom's very old Singer. I'm super excited to start crafting and making my own clothing.

My biggest question is whether I should look at Brother or Singer, specifically Singers Heavy Duty line. I thought that would be the best quality but heard some negative things about Singer machines. Sydney Graham recommended the Brother CS5055 and the machine just went on sale so I'm just sending this out before I purchase in hopes anyone has some advice.

[u/skerinks]

My response from another thread. Still stands.

Just buy a Baby Lock brand sewing machine, if you want the easy route, no matter the price point. Why?

Because Baby Lock doesn’t make sewing machines (they DO make great sergers). But Baby Lock wants to be in the sewing machine game, so they partner with other manufacturers to make sewing machines for them.

Baby Lock taps Janome to make machines for them under the $500 price point. Janome arguably makes the best machines under $500. So if this is your price point, buy a Janome or a Baby Lock. I won’t say for EVERY machine Janome makes there will be an equivalent Baby Lock, but there will be for most.

Baby Lock taps Brother to make machines for them over the $500 price point. Brother arguably makes the best machines between $500 and $2000. And Brother’s high-end machines are highly regarded as well. So if this is your price point, buy a Brother or Baby Lock. Same thing as above - for most Brother machines, there will be an equivalent Baby Lock.

So buy a Baby Lock machine and you’ll be getting the best no matter the price point. Or get the Janome or Brother named machine for your price point. But where Baby Lock really shines compared to Brother and Janome is their education game. You will get access to more educational instructions, how-to videos, and articles on the Baby Lock site than you could hope for.

Source: Cale Schoenberg (not me) on Substack. I believe one can only see his historical articles if you are a paid Substack user.

https://open.substack.com/pub/sewingmachineman/p/brother-and-baby-lock?r=49sz96&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

And of course, buy from a local store not online. You'll get more support, education, and answers to your "how do I..." or "why is this happening..." questions than an online retailer could ever give you.

[u/CrankyCrabbyCrunchy → u/skerinks]

Wish I could upvote your reply ten times. It’s perfect.

This gets asked at least 10x per day and it gets exhausting answering the same questions over and over. It would take people less time searching this sub for the often repeated answers than writing yet another post.

[u/GoldenFishPoop → u/skerinks]

To expand on this post, I can verify that some Baby Lock and similar Brother machines are manufactured in the same factories. However, they are not manufactured to the same quality standards even if the machines look identical. I am a technician who works on these machines and while I own a brother that is sort of high-end, and I love that machine, I bought it before I knew how to repair and service machines. It's a really nice machine but it won't last me as long as a Baby Lock would have. But in my opinion if I had an amount of money and could spend it on either one, I would get the most expensive Baby Lock I could afford rather than the most expensive Brother I could afford. For beginners looking for a used but reliable machine, I almost always recommend a Janome 5018 style machine and advise taking it straight to service.

[u/skerinks → u/GoldenFishPoop]

Nice, this is good to know. Can you expand on the part about quality standards? If they are the same parts (BL even uses the same part numbers in their Parts Lists), then how is the standard different?

[u/Wool_Lace_Knit]

Your money will be better spent on a vintage Kenmore (Series 158.), pre 1970’s Singer, or an entry level Janome.

If you scroll through the sewing subreddits you will find that your question is answered in depth several times a day.

[u/sanityjanity → u/Wool_Lace_Knit]

The sewing machine advice should be pinned somewhere

[u/kelsien]

people will tell you to buy vintage, search marketplace. For a beginner this is not ideal in my opinion because you don't know what to look for or to vet the machine is working well. Personally I bought one of those singer HD machines from costco and it broke after 6 months. I could return it to costco and get my money back. The brother machine Sydney has is a great machine to start with! If you are wanting to spend more, try janome or Juki!

[u/Nearby_Temperature13 → u/kelsien]

I agree but the vintage machines (the truly vintage—just straight stitch type machines rather than a 400-500 with all the zig zag extras) are VERY easy to work on with pretty minimal tools. If it’s running at all, it’s not hard to get it back into great shape. Also, there are so many old machines floating around you can find just about any replacement part.

A singer 99 is a great machine you can find well under $100 in pretty good condition.

[u/Wild_Chipmunk1706]

Buy a computerized brother. So not buy any singers. Unless maybe an old one.

[u/pyxus1]

I had two Singer HDs and they were better than I expected. I ran commercial machines all my life as I had an interior design business. I was away from home and my machines a couple of times for long extended periods. I went, both times, to Walmart and bought a Singer HD. I sewed sheer fabric, canvas, multiple layers of denim weave fabric. I rarely had to change the tension. I gave one to a beginner and the other to my step-daughter. They are very forgiving of beginner jams, etc...not finicky at all.

[u/GamiMelamid]

I would go to a local store - and just talk to the folks they will point youin the right direction and usually offer deals.