Sewing machine recommendation/upgrade for thicker fabrics

[Bathtime5]

Hi. I am looking to upgrade my basic Janome sewing machine. I would like something that can handle several layers of thicker fabric and fabric with wadding. I would like an automatic button hole function. I would prefer dials etc rather than computerised if possible. Not bothered about loads of fancy stitches. I have an overlocker if that's relevant.

Does anyone have a machine that they use and would recommend that meets the criteria? Budget would be in the hundreds, not thousands.

I see there are several singer heavy duty machines at a good price. Are they actually properly 'heavy duty' though?

I know a visit to my local sewing machine supplier would be a good idea but I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts before I make the trip so I can at least have an idea of where to start.

Many thanks if anyone has any advice.

I have the Janome 5060qdc. It's their quilting machine. Comes with loads of extras and is defo a good heavy duty option. It's the one they used in the Sewing Bee.

Only think is it's not dials it's digital. But it has automatic buttonholes about 4 I think. It has a needle threader and it can be used without a peddle. I love it.

I've made clothes and quilts with it and recently bags.

Thank you, I will take a look at it. It sounds good.

At my sewing class the teacher says the current singers aren’t a patch on old ones so avoid them. She recommends Janome too.

Current Singers I believe is a company that bought the name and not a patch on the vintage indestructible ones - I have a couple of vintage Singers that will just laugh at sewing through quilts and what-not and will keep going as long as you feed them regular drinks of sewing machine oil and the odd busted needle replaced. I think they do push social media influencers quite massively though as every single sewing tiktokker seems to have a ruddy Singer Heavy Duty these days in quite a suspicious manner.

Janome is a good shout - I have one that has literally survived being dropped from the height of 4 Kallax holes onto a tiled floor and the only scar it has is a slightly off-perpendicular bobbin winder (that still winds - just not a totally full bobbin).

To be fair - I also have a cheap computerised Hobbycraft machine that is surprisingly good going through chunky multiple layers making bags as well - you can hear it thinking through what setting it should be using to do it, but it manages incredibly well for a no-name basic machine - and I am NOT gentle to machines (apart from the cantankerous vintage ones - they get well-loved).

I was going to go with the Janome 5060qdc suggested above but ended up going with the Janome M50qdc as it seemed to be on sale everywhere and was a bit cheaper. The main differences seems to be the M50 has less button hole options and doesn't have the auto thread cutter. I did really like the idea of the auto thread cutter but couldn't justify the extra cost.

So far so good with the machine. I've not properly tested it yet in terms of sewing lots of layers but videos online showed it sewing 8 layers of denim so fingers crossed!

I am still using my (late) grandmother's Bernina sport801 which was made in the 1980s!

My Singer heavy duty is about 12 years old so I’m not sure if it qualifies as one of the better ‘older” models but she’s an absolute workhorse and powers through everything including layers of denim and pleather. You could always keep an eye out for a second hand one?

Janome do a machine I think based on a model used in schools, current version of it is the HD2200. I would have a look for one of those. They are always face lifting their range but you do sometimes see older versions of it for sale.