Sewing machines

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Is anyone here in the know about sewing machines?

I am really getting into sewing but everything is hand stitched at the moment.

I cannot afford one of the proper sewing machines as they are all ££££, I have one of the little £30 jobbies that I opened once and decided it was rubbish, although I suspect it may have been down to the fact that I dont' know how to use it

Are they ever any good the cheapy little ones or do you have to pay hundreds to get something decent?

Im a real novice and only want it for little jobs.

I'm with you Titsalinabumsquash! I'll be watching this thread for the same advise!

I don't know how good it is but Aldi were advertising a singer one for £79.99 the other week here

I have a little Janome one which was only £25 online but is brilliant for hemming and little jobs, small crafty projects etc very basic however. If you have any haberdashery shops nearby they might run classes.

Would love one of those super dooper computerised ones but as you say ££££

I'm not an expert, but it really depends what you want to do with it.

I got a brother machine similar to this which is at the cheap end of the scale, about 20 years ago, it doesn't do stuff like embroidery but it does a range of stitches and hemming etc, really everything you'd need for home dress making, it's still going strong and I use it a lot.

If you want to be able to do things like overlocking (I think it's called), and get a really professional result, you will need to pay a lot.

look in your local yellow pages, you're bound to find a small independent sewing machine shop somewhere near, they are often just out of town (well ours here are) .....look out for a good basic OLD style reconditioned machine, makes such as Singer, Brother, Pfaff etc can often be picked up cheaply & will come with a guarantee

IME you really don't need all the fancy stitches, just basic flat stitch, zig-zag & maybe button hole (though that can be done with B/H) ...if you are lucky you will probably find something around the £50-£60 mark

the old heavy machines are IMO FAR better than the newer lightweight plastic things, they are work horses,

you could also try putting an add on your local Greencycle, or Freecycle, its the sort of thing that people often buy with good intent, & then want to get rid of a few years down the line, so you might well get lucky

done with zig-zag

Yes Kurri it IS an overlocker, but I think for a novice, you'd need to get used to handling a basic flat stitch sewing machine before moving on to 1 of those...you'd be wasting your money otherwise....you can do a mock overlock with a zig-zag stitch though

you can get a Janome one for around £100 that will do a good job, and make sure you get one where you can lower the feed-dog, so if you do get into free machine embroidery, you have a machine that can do it.
I can't tell you the exact model - I used to teach textiles and fashion in colleges until last July ( and I'm a textile designer-maker), and these machines were sturdy enough to cope with lots of students using them.
They are also a good starter one, and then should you eventually want to upgrade, you could get a Bernina or a Pfaff - these are brilliant machines!

Happy sewing......

you could have a look on Gumtree for a 2nd hand one? or ebay collection only?

I really don't think a new one at £30 will be much cop to be honest.

erm, what is... overlocking?

have a look at the siching inside your shop bought clothes, that nice dging and seam in one - thats overlocking.

tbh i would ask on freecycle for a machine, if your lucky they might show you how to use it when you go to pick it up if you ask.