sewing machine newbie - help needed

I've not used a sewing machine since school needlework classes, but as winter's coming on, I'm thinking another year without proper curtains may be another year too long. So it's time I got a sewing machine.

Can anyone advise me on this? I'd love a singer foot pedal job and I know these go pretty cheaply at the local auction house. But how do I know if I'm buying a good one or a dud? What should I look out for?

Alternatively - electric - what makes are good? And even - does anyone know a good model that doesn't have all those fancy bells and whistles - just good, simple stuff, sews things together and that's that.

Any help here would be much appreciated.

I'll post up another thread just as soon as I've got it I'm sure, saying 'help, how do you work this thing!'

Aldi ( or was it Lidl) had cheap and simple sewing machines in very recently?

I really wouldn't go for a treadle one in the first instance...life is too short IMO BUT it is a personal thing.

Not sure if Mrs C tried a foot treadle singer?

Budburst, if you want you can come and play with my electric sewing machine AND CM used to maintain the many and varied ones in the needlework and crafts dept at the school where his mum was HoD and taught such lovely skills to the secondary girls...

so he knows a fair bit about how they all work.

I have a treadle Singer, circa 1908, bought with the last £15 of my grant when I was a student! I have made children's clothes using it, but I didn't find it easy as I learned on an electric machine. My other machine is a 1950s Pfaff, which sounds like a motor bike when you use it! (Given to me by an elderly neighbour years ago, so quite special.) I personally prefer heavy old machines (I'm not talking about bikes...) as they seem to be more robust (my mother and I mended a deckchair using her old electric Singer - I held the frame and supported the weight while she guided it under the needle!)
IfI was choosing a machine I would probably try other people's machines out to get the feel of them.
My youngest has an all-singing computerised machine which I won't go near!!

At the begining of the year I bought a lovely hand cranked old Singer in good condition for about £15, yep you guessed it from a charity shop:lol: ...

Although this isn't a piccy of mine, I think it is the same, if not very similar model & in at least as good condition

http://the.earth.li/~kake/images/london.crafts/kake/singer-99k-above.jpg

It is wonderful, has no problem with materials including quality jeans...

At the moment I am not even considering getting my comparitively all singing all dancing electric Toyota fixed, & can't see why I would want to...

Ooh thankyou guys! Wood Troll especially, for that tip about the fabric shop in Oswestry! Sounds very very nice, so I shall have to go take a look. Are you from round here then, or does that place just have a broad reputation?!

Gosh, still not sure whether to go for an oldie or an electric.. I've used both in my childhood - my mum had a hand cranked singer (looked just like yours Sparhawk!) and at school we had electric ones. I liked the subtle control of the singer and its weight, although would have preferred a foot pedal one so you have both hands free - that was the main thing I liked about the electric. Although I guess the handcrank is easier to store..

Thanks for your offer of trying yours out CW! Don't think I've got the time to come all the way down to yours though sadly. There is a little sewing machine shop nearby in shrewsbury, so I'm going to take any tips you guys can give me along there and perhaps they'll let me have a go.

So thanks Zoe - some very useful sounding stuff there about what to look out for when I get to the shop.

Dandelion - hmm, computerised models sound far too scary to me too! Definitely won't be going there!

I think I'm going to ask them at the shop too if they know how to fix singers. Perhaps they could fix up my mum's old singer and I could give that a go before/instead of getting my own...

Sparhawk - how do you find it without a foot pedal?

budburst12 wrote: Sparhawk - how do you find it without a foot pedal?

Although I have only tried the electric type of foot pedal, not a treadle, & the hand cranked one, I find the hand crank bliss, it seems that you can "feel" through the machine...