The Brother CE 5500PRW sewing machine is one of the least expensive Project Runway machines you can buy. This is a compact, lightweight machine with lots of features suitable for making clothes, light quilting and free-motion embroidery.

It’s been awarded a Consumers Digest ‘Best Buy’ Award.

It’s smaller and lighter than comparable machines making it highly portable.

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Know a student who is taking a sewing machine to college?  I bet some do but it didn’t really hit me until I walked into Joanne’s the other day and saw – unexpectedly – a ton of dorm room décor right up front.

This was unexpected for two reasons the first of which came in the form of “Dear Lord, school starting up again so soon?” and the second was that I had sewing machines and fabric on my mind and seeing small dust pans with mini brushes and plastic drawer organizers in multi-colors wasn’t quite what I thought I’d see when I first walked in to a well-known fabric and sewing notions store.

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The Brother CE4000 sewing machine has a nice assortment of stitches including some adorable decorative stitches, great automation and easy set up features for beginners and at under $200 it’s quite a deal.

It doesn’t get the attention it deserves, though, for two reasons: its companions the Brother ES2000 and the CS6000i.

I don’t know who or what is driving this issue, but the other two sewing machines cost the same or less and one, in particular, has SIGNIFICANTLY greater functionality.

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The Accuquilt Go Fabric Cutter completely simplifies the process of preparing fabric for quilting. If you quilt, or want to, but don’t like the idea of hand cutting all of those fabric shapes, this tool is an ingenious solution. It’s like a die cut machine used by scrapbookers but it is made for quilters and handles fabric with ease.

The Accuquilt Go Fabric Cutter takes material sandwiched between a die cut and a layer of plastic and squeezes it through a roller. The pressure applied as the fabric and die go through the roller cuts the material into the shapes carved into the die.

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Sewing machine shopping is not nearly as easy as I would have thought.  In fact, today’s little excursion produced several tips I’d like to pass along to those of you also looking for your first, second, or third sewing machine.

These might seem like really basic shopping tips but I really didn’t understand how significantly they applied to sewing machines until I returned home this afternoon.  My day didn’t quite go as planned and I hope this piece of shopping advice will save you some of the same aggravation.

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Sewing machine stitch patterns are different for each machine and even the names of the same stitches can be different depending on the manufacturer.

Sorting through your options can be confusing, especially if you’re just learning to sew. Deciding on a new sewing machine is pretty easy right up until you have to choose one or another based on the built-in stitches.  You can’t add more later but it’s difficult to know in advance which ones you’ll find most useful. Here’s one way to help narrow down the stitches you might use most often.

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These top 5 beginner sewing machines all cost under $100 and have outstanding reviews. These are full size home sewing machines that can last for years, offer basic utility stitches plus some extras, have the highest consumer ratings, and are great for kids, too!

Click on the price options in the table for any machine to quickly check current pricing. The information in the table is as of January 10, 2011.
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The Janome DC3050 sewing machine offers precision stitching in a solidly built design with great features. It’s pretty, is a nice weight for home use, and – most importantly – is a high quality sewing machine. Beginners who want to explore a variety of sewing projects will get many years of value from this machine.

It was apparent upon review of all the features, though, that one should compare the DC3050 to the Janome DC2010 for a full understanding of choices and price savings. I’ve outlined the differences between the two at the end of the Features section of this review.

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The Juki HZL-35Z sewing machine is a solid, smooth, precision machine with 27 built in stitches and a superior feed dog system. It’s a nice sized sewing machine with a blend of practical garment construction stitches, stretch stitches, and satin stitches.

This machine is one of a handful that bring Juki’s strong reputation for industrial sewing machines to the home sewing machine market. It’s easy to use, reliable, and runs smoothly.

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The Singer 7468 sewing machine is not widely available but some sewing outlets do still have this model on hand. The stitch patterns and features are exactly the same as the 7469. The only differences between the two are the color accent on the front of the machines and the machine dimensions.

Singer no longer shows this as a current model on their website but it’s still a sewing machine worth considering if only for the price discount as compared to the 7469.

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