Hi all,

If like to have a go at making a few different items but don't have a sewing machine. Do you have any suggestions of suitable ones. Ideally I would want to be able to sew material from silnylon to heavier fabrics and old innertube.

Cheers,

Pretty much any 'home' machine will cope with that lot Alec. If you're new to sewing machines, I'd advise getting something without too many whistles and bells. I find knobs and levers much easier to work with than buttons and digital displays. I use a Singer I bought from Lidl for less than £80 and I've not found anything I can't sew with it yet ... it's also got a flower on it which I find very calming when things aren't quite going according to plan.

What stu said, simple is good. I have used an old Toyota machine for lots of different projects and it's been fine.

Do consider some quality thread and needles though! I like Gutterman!

My advice is to find a good local shop. The shop near me is an old school shop where the owner is also a repair man. I went in and explained what I wanted to be able to sew and the sort of money I wanted to spend. He said he had just the thing in his lock-up and could I wait a couple of weeks. Two weeks later I get a call to say pop in the shop. What he had was an old Frister and Rossmann Model 46. It's only straight stitch or zig zag but it's all metal, there are no plastic parts, all metal bushes with oil holes on the moving bits inside and the casing is cast. It weighs over 40 lbs (I weighted it which is sad I know) and will outlast me if kept oiled regularly. It came fully serviced with a years guarantee and was the princely sum of £75 I've sewn everything from multiple layers of heavy material which even had thin plastic sandwiched inside to silnylon. I'm not suggesting that you need this exact model but don't be put off by second hand. A quality old machine will be much better value than a new one.

Yeah, I'd echo the local shop thing too, there's a really nice little fabric shop in my town, they're really friendly and very happy answer stupid questions about sewing & fabric, they do lessons too, which I'm considering doing one or two to get to grips with the more complicated bits :)

May sound backwards thinking, but after 3 digital home machines i now use an analogue machine, no digital controls or fancy patterns but solid dials and some actual punch to get through tough fabric.

Currently use a singer heavy duty (looks like something out of the cold war) ugly but tough.
Prefer this over my fancier brother digital and my bigger industrial brother.

Find something you can easily lift and drop the foot, and quickly drop the needle manually, this could include any machine but our brains all work different and some lever placements feel more "natural" than others.

I would echo the local shop thing but where i live theyve all gone bust....haberdashery seems a dying trade in towns around here.

Background: i am a self employed machinist and make my livelyhood sewing

Thanks for all the ideas guys.

Ditto the older but quality machine, I finished making my bags on the wife’s frister rossman model 46 after her modern Bernina died on me. Though this did require me fixing the seized motor on the frister rossman first and now the wife has spent £3000 on a new machine