Choosing a Sewing Machine

[miss_s_b]

Amazingly, I have a refund to come from the utility company, and will actually have a little bit of money to play with soon. This means I also have some decisions to make. As I mentioned in the previous post, my current machine is bloody awful. Specifically, it is this one, which my mum bought new for twenty pounds. It doesn't like any thickness of fabric beyond a couple of layers of standard cotton, but the foot doesn't actually press down hard enough if the fabric is thin enough for it to sew; the tension adjustment is totally bizarre - it's either way too loose, or thread-snappingly tight with nothing in between... Yeah, I could go on, but you get the picture.

If I scrimp and scrape, and including the nice fat refund I have coming, I might be able to run to 350-400 pounds for a machine. That's going to give me quite a lot of choice. So, I have a couple of questions. I'm planning on doing a reasonable amount with clothes, simple stuff to begin with, but I'll probably want to at least be able to do denim, which apparently most cheaper machines can't deal with. I'd also like to be able to (for example) run up a pair of curtains without having to sit hand sewing them for a full day. I really am not interested in embroidery functions. With those points in mind:

1. Am I better off going for a semi-industrial machine with less stitches but more power, or will I really miss things like automatic buttonholes?


2. Would I be better using all the money for one machine, or splitting it and getting a reasonable machine and a cheap overlocker (serger)? Or even JUST getting a good overlocker?


3. What brands should I look at? And which ones should I really avoid? (for instance, I have heard good things about Husqvarna/Viking - which are the ones they have at my class - Janome, Bernina, and old Singers; and bad things about Brother, modern Singer, Toyota and I have experience of the crapness of Hyundai. But what about Pfaff? Or other brands?


4. What are the code words, for want of a better term, that I should look for that will tell me this machine can do denim or this machine can only handle light fabrics?


5. Given the issues that seem to surround tension, is it worth looking at a machine with automatic tension?

Thanks for all your patience with me as a novice :)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I have a Pfaff! It's a hard-working, basic machine that can sew two layers of heavy denim but would have trouble with more than that. It's very reliable and has had no maintenance issues (which is the main issue for me, as I live 150km from the nearest service centre).

Are you going to be sewing stretch fabric? If not, an overlocker is probably not critical at this point.

[miss_s_b]

I'm not planning on lycra or anything, but as far as I understand it, most fabrics have some degree of stretch. At what point does the stretchiness become stretchy enough to really need overlocking? Or is that a daft question?

[lilacsigil]

I've sewn plenty of cotton-elastane with moderate stretch and no need for an overlocker. There comes a point where the edge of the fabric just sort of shreds if you don't overlock it, but in my experience it's not something that anyone would run into by accident - maybe talk to your sewing teacher?

[miss_s_b]

That is something I was planning on doing, yes. But thank you, if cotton elastane is doable on a normal machine then I should be fine, at least for a while.