He'p me! Sewing machine advice

[Navyguy]

Try Singer, Husqvarna or Viking. All excellent machines.

It was the closest smiley to "I agree"......Anyway I agree with Beuth Sim

[tomcherv]

I've been having very nice results (not on a kilt but with plenty of other projects) with a vintage Kenmore (from the mid 70's. Very heavy as well as heavy duty machines. (The numbers begin with 117 or 158, among others)

Ebay sometimes has good deals on these. Mine is all metal, no plastic, and heavy duty.

My other machine is a portable Kenmore (less than 10 years old) - it's plastic and not as heavy duty.

[sjrapid]

I'd agree on Singer and Husqvarna. Buying second hand was fine for me - I've got 2 2nd user Singer machines - and actually, the older one is the better of the two. It has solid metal rather than nylon gears on the main drive, and whilst noisier in operation, has far more torque, which is what you need when sewing thick things like denim at slow speed.

Look for a machine with zig-zag capability (useful in all sorts of places) and maybe overlock, rather than just basic straight stitch capability.

Best regards