New sewing maching purchase for daughter - advice appreciated!

That's true, but one could be a cheap knockoff of the other one. You would have to ask a *reputable* dealer that question.

I wouldn't buy the Brother machine myself -- I don't particularly trust their low end or mid range machines.

OTOH, there is no law that says you are required to answer every question posted to the group. If you are busy, if you feel the questioner is asking to be spoon-fed, just ignore them. It will do wonders for your blood pressure and nerves. :)

I bet she will!

It's not an expensive toy. It's a tool. There's a difference. And I'm sure that machine will give her some room for growth.

Wow, that's really great!

No... But remember that in their day both the treadle and my electronic wizard were top of the line machines. The treadle will sew when the electricity is off! But the electric one will do fantastic buttonholes and blind hems far better than the gadgets you put on the treadle. For plain straight stitching, there's dam-all difference between the '30's

15-88 treadle, the 66 hand crank, the '50's Featherweight, the '70's Lotus, and the 90's Lily. Lily will do 240 stitch patterns, which can be mirror imaged and stuck together in strings (allowing you to write your name backwards and decorated with flowers, should you be so inclined!), but the treadle will still be sewing in another 100 years, long after the Lily had become landfill. The electronic whizz kid is faster than the others, but a more complex machine with more to go wrong... There are a whole lot of swings and roundabouts to take into account.

If all you ever want to do is straight stitching at no great speed, there's no need to get anything more complex than the treadle. If you want machines buttonholes, rows of decoration, rolled or scalloped edges, stretch stitches and blind hems, start looking at machines with built in patterns. You *can* get gadgets to do some of this stuff, but they never do it quite as well or as fast or as consistently as the electronic swing needle machines. The gadgets do it by picking the fabric up and waggling it from side to side! That is never going to give the same consistency and quality of result as the machine that has a swing needle controlled by computers. Take a look at the buttonholes done on the buttonhole gadgets, and compare them with the buttonholes in the blue jacket in the Romeo and Juliet project and you'll see what I mean.

s. Take a look at the buttonholes

About 6 months ago one of the Vintage groups did a comparison test using button hole attachments (they were Singer/Greist) against electronic/computerized machines with built in buttonhole programmes. The attachments did a better and more consistent job over the course of 3-4 dozen buttonholes. These were tested against Pfaff, Bernina, Singer, HV, B, & B machines and still the electric machines with the attachments did them much nicer, with more even bars/bar tacks and each and every buttonhole was exactly the same length and width. Its surprised us a bit, but after talking to several tech's they said it was because of the templates not allowing any deviation and being straight stitch machines the swing needle did not cause the slightly crooked stitch they are noted for. They really were prefect and in all types of fabrics. I used my 301 with the slant button hole attachment for most of my buttonholes and love the way they look, even though my electronic, computerized machines has about 40 built in automatic ones. The last time I used it was for a wedding dress at Christmas that had 60 buttonholes down the back and about 15 on each sleeve. They were all in lace. The computerized machine just did not want to do it but the Singer chugged along just fine.

Lucky girl!! It will wonderful to remember this day when she makes her first B-day or Christmas gift for either parent. Congratulations to you for being such a great Dad(and her Mom, too). Emily

Is that *my* you are using??? Enjoy! ;-) If it's "She Who Has Nothing Nice To Say...", good riddance.

In article , Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply of uttered

I agree - if you want a kid to learn a skill, give them the tools for the job.

With all due respect your original post

"Any advice on a sewing machine purchase would be greatly appreciated because her father - me - doesn't know much (I have learned the difference between a surger and a sewing machine though), and her mother is not domesticated in that area."

gave no indication that you had done any research before contacting this NG which was why your first advice was a link to a Google search.

Sewingsue

Have a great weekend all,

The very one on all accounts. I just didn't want to give her any more room on my computer in any way. Juno

Feel free to use it anytime. For getting rid of less obnoxious posters, you may use my , too. ;->

"BEI Design" wrote -> Feel free to use it anytime. For getting rid of less obnoxious

Thank you again. It is the only time I've used iton anyone other than spammers. It was a very good feeling. Juno

You're welcome. My file of blocked senders is limited to a very small but deserving group.

Hi Sewingsue. You quote my very first post and then say that my first advice was the google links. You are mistaken the google links post was a reply to a post I had made 10 days after my 1st post. Many helpful people (ladies I assume) have politely and friendly replied to me in this time. This lady was responding to a post I wrote on the differences/similarities between 2 different machines, You are bringing my very first post up. I had done much research between my 1st post (which she was not responding to) and the one she replied to. There was 10 days between my post you quote and the post I made that she was replying to. Even a fellow can do a LOT of sewing machine research in that time. Not sure why you are bringing up that old post but I hope that clears this up for you. I greatly dislike negative posting in newsgroups because I am a really friendly guy and took offence to her reply to my posts when so many have been so helpful here. Many have emailed me telling me to killfile her. Anyway we did make the right decision. It is hard to get my daughter to go to bed now that she has that machine.

Regards, Gary

"Sewingsue" wrote in message news:d4d9l9$gjq$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

Had to LOL

Guess what we didn't go out for her birthday supper. She begged and pleaded to stay home so she could try out her new machine.

We ended up ordering take out.

Reminded me of when I was growing up. At Christmas we would wake up open our presents and then have to go to church for 2 hours thinking about our toys sitting under the tree back home. Non the less it was hard to concentrate on the service.

My ex used to drag the kids to G'mas house and I know they resented it, so when they were about 6 and 2 I said enough and demanded that we stay home.....the old folks could come to our place. It actually worked out better as the MIL did not have to worry about the boys making a mess in her perfect house and the kids got to play with their stuff ALL day. Their Stepfather (whom they have called Dad since I met him) always insisted that we spend Christmas day at our house....Boxing day was visiting day.

Thanks for the update. I am sure most of us were wondering how your Daughter was doing. Try not to forget us and keep the news on her progress coming. Enjoy these days, they go by way to fast.

Glad to hear she enjoys it. I still get that excitement when a 'new' machine comes into the house, even temporarily! My son James liked one so much I have instructions to get another just like it for him to use... And I just bought a new Singer Featherweight II for my mum: had to have that out the box, tested, samples made, and everything, so I can teach her when we deliver it! :)

When I was growing up, we didn't do church on Christmas day. Dad usually worked part of the day (serving Christmas lunch to the 'other ranks' - he was an RAF officer), so we opened presents after breakfast, played with stuff and read while he was out, had a light lunch with just mum, and dinner in the evening after dad came home. I still follow this pattern.