Recommend A sewing Machine

djburchgrove

Hi Folks.

Absolute newbie to this, buying a sewing machine for my mother as a retirement present. Can anyone recommend one at a good price? Ideally to be purchased on Amazon. Needs to have all of the following capabilities:

Quilting
Embroidery
Auto Needle Threading
Drop Feed
Built in Embroidery Patterns
Decorative Stitching
Twin Needle
Stop/Start Button
Variable Stitch width/length
Between 800 and 1200 Stitches per minute
Speed Control
Blind Hemming
1 Step Button Holing
Foot Control
Auto Bobbin Winding
Alpha Stitching
Numeric Stitching

Thanks for reading this post.

looksee

I don't want to rain on your parade, but some of those requirements are basic and some are really top end. Can I ask how you came up with the list? What kind of sewing does your mother do? Embroidery is one of those expensive things you think you need till you have it. Quilting is just a matter of a small attachment and adjusting the pressure foot.

I have to admit I have no idea what alpha and numeric stitching is

Edit, ok, same thing as programmable embroidery

djburchgrove

A list of necessities apparently listed by none other than my mother. SHe's had the same sewing machine for 45 years which recently broke, so its prob a mix of modern and stone age features shes listed ha!

dori_dormer

I've never seen a machine with embroidery features that less than a grand. Unless you buy second hand. I don't have a suggestion though as I can't afford one at the mo lol!

djburchgrove

between a grand and 1500 is max

looksee

djburchgrove wrote: »

between a grand and 1500 is max

Sorry, you are out of my range then! Hopefully there may be someone on with experience of that quality of machine! Nice prezzy!

cuilteanna

If she made up the list, perhaps she has something in mind already? I'm not sure there is a machine in your price range that has everything on the list so where would she compromise?

Embroidery is very generic, how large an embroidery design would she want to stitch? Different machines have different hoop sizes and multi-hooping (successfully) is a pain. Does the embroidery function need to be built in or would she get by connecting a computer to it for embroidering? I agree with Looksee, it's one of those things you think you will use all the time but usually don't.

I had a quick look at Amazon, there doesn't seem to be much there in your price range that comes close to her specs. Plus if something breaks who will fix it? Once the machine gets fancier there are many more things that can go wrong with it.

Maybe you need to have a chat with her!