sewing machine advice

[rusmum]

i am a complete novice and want an easy to use good quality machine . I uant to make household things (cushions etc, do repairs, alterations and prerhaps some dressmakinh dor my DD's. Any advice on which machine to buy??

I am also a bit of a novice and last year went to John Lewis to try out and get advice about what machine to get as I wanted to do similar things to you. WOuld love to make pretty dresses for my dd but that will need a lot more practice first I think

Anyway this is the one the lady in John Lewis thought was a good steady machine would last:

janome 4618

I got it from these people and delivery was so fast. I also got the free threads(every colour you can possibly imagine, and scissors)
There may be other sites that have it cheaper so might be worth a look around but the freebie package was great with this one so worth bearing in mind.

Its a great machine I think, never had any bother with it and had it just over a year now. Hope this helps.

Janome make great machines, I have one, it is the bees knees but, Carameli is right, you need to try some out. Find one that feels right to you.

John Lewis are great with this sort of thing and spent ages just chatting to me and finding out what I thought I would use the machine for so that I did not get one that would be too complicated and too expensive for what I needed. Well worth a trip if you can. If not a local sewing machine shop if there is one close to you.

I have the John Lewis entry level machine (£50) It was a Christmas present from the in Laws. Apart from not doing buttonholes, it's fabulous. I'm particularly impressed with its slow sewing speed, great for a novice and good for teaching DD to sew.