New Machine advice sought

Ok, you've all convinced me! I'll go for the $600 to $750 European machine, used.

Now I have some homework to do, researching the various makes and models that all of you have mentioned.

Thanks for all of your input [BTW, the Juki consumer machine sells for $1100 around here, a bit more than I want to spend] and patience!

It's not the same thing. Sewing machines are not used as heavily as cars, especially as sports cars. What you want to look for is the equivalent of a car that truly was owned by a little old lady who only drove to church on Sundays and kept maintained by the local mechanic, and trust me, there are lots of them out there.

I bought a 70s or 80s era New Home machine with 30 stitches for $130 at a local dealer.

There's a guy in northern California who reconditions and sells vintage Singer Featherweights and 301s, 400s, and 500/501s, and he sells them for $200. They don't have a free arm, but they can be passed down to your grandchildren or even great-grandchildren if you are old enough providing you keep it in good condition, which is just not that hard to do.

Before you do that, see if you can find a Singer 301, 400, or 500 in decent condition. If you don't need the free arm, you will get equal quality for far less money.

Well that depends. As you would know, not all old sports cars have a reputation for being good machines. And not all men can look after their own cars or like to keep them well maintained.

Most old machines seen to be able to cope with a bit of neglect so long as that neglect does not involve rust or excess heat or cold. Look for that genuine one little old lady owner, like my 1952 Morris Minor sedan - goes beautifully and still smells new (I can't explain that at all).

And just like old cars, you don't buy one that you can't physically cope with or have not driven or do not understand sufficiently to do everyday maintenance.

Have a vintage Elna "Plana" all mechanical machine, and a quasi electronic Pfaff 1209, between the two there isn't much that one cannot do. However as most have already stated, it all depends upon your needs.

The Elna has all sorts of cams to do everything from various straight and zig-zag stitches, to fancy embroidery, to several hemstitches, and even "sideward" darning (which for the life of me have not figured out). The only machine one really would "lust" after is a vintage Pfaff 1400 series or 7500 series.

While have looked at and even considered newer computer driven machines, with their fancy stitching and features, really when one looks at them with a jaded eye, the machines aren't half that spectacular. Again, one is not running a serious home sewing/embroidery business, nor stitching for children or grands, so that may be another thing. Even so, machine embroidery via free hand or pantograph has been around for ages, it just takes time and skill to perfect. I've never seen anything by home embroidery machines that touches projects shown in the vintage Singer book.

Candide

I have a Singer 301 and have used it quite a bit. It works well and love it. It is great for straight stitching and the attachments generally work well, especially the buttonholer. I've always been able to work around the lack of free arm. However, I do much of my sewing on stretchy fabric these days and find that having to use a zigzag attachment on some of these fabrics is tough.

My 301 is currently put away, and I'm using my Bernina 530. If I were going to live with one inexpensive machine, I would pick an older one with built in zigzag.

--Betsy

First off warranties, any of them for anything, are not worth the paper they are written on. They will exclude anything that will break. Cars and sewing machines are far different animals. I too have played with older sports cars and the nightmare does not translate to sewing machines. As I said previously with your lack of experience the dealer is far more important than the particular machine. The 1980's Vintage Pfaff and Bernina machines were some of the best sewing machines ever made. The problem is with parts as they are becoming harder and harder to come by.

Wow!

You guys are lucky. I find computerized Pfaff, Bernina & Vinking as used, and a few mechanical Singers, Kenmore etc. Nothing jumped out at me yet.

I'm hoping for a nice used Pfaff mechanial machine, but I look at them all.