Cheap sewing machine for beginners?

[Ilovecoleslaw]

Hello,

I've been gifted a £50 Amazon voucher for Christmas and for a while now, I've been really interested in starting to sew.
I don't really want to spend more than £50 on a machind but all of the ones I've seen have been a fair bit more than this.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

I would save up and add another 100 quid to the 50. It will make a big difference to what kind of machine you can get, and your experience as a beginner will be so much better.

Sewing machines are one area where price really does matter. Cheap machines can be finicky and unpleasant to use, and so light that they move around too much while you're trying to sew ... not great for beginners.

Buy the best machine you can afford.

I would second the idea of adding £100 to your budget...or try and find a place local to you that does lessons and supplies a machine for you to use during the lesson (and all the other things that you'll need).

Sewing is great and can be a really enjoyable hobby but it's not just the machine you need to buy, and like anything having the right kit makes it posdible and more enjoyable.

Some of, but not all of, the things I couldn't do without are:
Really good fabric scissors (Fiskars quality at least)
Good pins
Loads of thread
Hand sew needles
Pattern paper
Tailors chalk
Tape measures
Metre rule
Quick unpick
A really good steam iron
A dry iron for ironing paper patterns
Decent paper scissors

Some of the other things like spare bobbins, mini screw driver and other bits to look after your machine should come with it.

Not helpful for Amazon, but I started with the £50 John Lewis sewing machine and it was good for the basic stitches, although I've heard that the next one up is heaps better but doesn't cost much more. I'd never sewed before and didn't want to waste too much money on it- I've since upgraded!

Could you sell your voucher and spend £50 on a secondhand machine?