caspharm

I also agree with them. I would go with the Brother or see if you can find another brand (not Singer) used. Do your research well and test them out.

Michellesews

Stay away from Singer! They are plastic! Brother makes a much better machine but for $500. Or less I don't know...that could be plastic too 😞

mtteach101

Did anyone know you can order sewing machines at homedepot.com?

madamepurl

My friend bought a little Brother embroidery machine with Disney stuff built in, she paid around $600 at the dealer and got lots of support. This type of machine I'd buy at the dealer. If it was their straight stitch model the PQ 1500s, then I think you would be ok ordering online.

romanojg

Not all Brother machines are set up to do the Disney. It has to be able to handle a certain format so I'd check that out before buying if that's a criteria.

usafchick1980

I did not know that..I am not completely surprised though. The 2 that I listed in the OP the Brother was from Costco's website and the Singer from Kohls website.

The one that I have is a Singer..I bought it 5 years ago, for about $200 or $300 I can't remember. I had it cleaned and serviced last year for the first time and it cost $100..now it stopped grabbing the bobbin thread. So everyone says that that is probably a timing issue. But I don't want to put a lot of money into it since it didn't cost all that much. I am glad that I posted this though because I was leaning towards the Singer that I listed..now I think I am leaning very far away from it.

I would prefer something with a top drop bobbin. The other kind "scares" me. Keep the advice coming I am finding it very helpful. Thank you everyone for all of the comments.

Sewnoma

I am very fond of Brothers, but they have plastic gears too. Some of these posts kinda make it sound like Singer is the only brand that uses plastic gears but this is the era of planned obsolescence and they all do it. (I do think Brother is better than Singer these days, though.)

If you already have a good sewing machine, then I second the recommendation for your new machine to be embroidery-only. I have this set up and it's great because I can still be sewing while the embroidery machine is working away on its own. And if one needs to go into the shop, you still have the other to play with.

My embroidery-only machine is a Brother PE770; I bought it from Amazon. I don't use it a lot but every time I've wanted to use it, it's been ready for me. The only problems I've had have been due to either user error (wrong stabilizer, etc.) or poor materials (cheap thread that shredded). My only gripe is that the screen is really small and it's tough to tell what design you're selecting if you've got a lot of stuff on your USB stick; everything looks like blobs. As a work-around for that, I do my pattern selecting on my PC and only put the design/designs I'm about to stitch out on the stick so I don't accidentally get the wrong thing going. For my needs this is the perfect machine and I'm very happy with it.

usafchick1980

This is the machine that I went with. My Dh ordered it for me this morning. I can't wait to get it and start using it.

Also I am glad that I waited..since the price came down by $80 since this was first posted.

mea12

The Singer brand is confusing...but i think has been steadily improving over last couple of years. They now have the very popular Janome 1600p and Janome 6500 as models S16 and S18. A couple of their models of late have been well reviewed even though as a brand they have a pretty bad reputation to overcome....it does look like its getting better and not all of their current models are necessarily bad choices, but its still best to thoroughly research any Singer model you're interested in.

Sewnoma

Wow mea, I had NO idea that Janome was making some of the Singers now. I had to look up the S18 and you're right, it looks exactly like the Janome 6500 except different colors. I have a 6600 and it's a fantastic machine.

Well, that's ONE way to improve your brand...have someone ELSE make your products! LOL