Quote Originally Posted by Llwyd View Post
Anne, I think part of the problem there is our disposable materialism..and the fact that skils which were once common are not now, and most folks don't know good machinery when they see it.
Agreed with this statement. Mass marketing, cheaply made goods and big box stores has removed the mom and pop stores that not only sold you quality items but either repaired them or knew of someone who did. Repair has been replace by "toss it and buy a new one." All the new bells and whistles just make new items more costly to either replace or repair and create more problems than needed. Ok off my soap box on consumerism and mass accumulation.

Here are my shopgoodwill scores. I always keep my eye out for machines on shop goodwill and have two workhorse machines that cost me 20 bucks each.

My Dressmaster work horse. This will sew through anything.



For all those fancy stitches, well all 14 of them, my Brother machine.




I have a Familylok serger I bought from goodwill and need to get it figured out. Found a reproduction of a Babylok manual so just need to spend some time messing with it. Jennifer just bought a working Singer foot treadle style machine that still works, has the old leather belt that runs from treadle to sewing machine and has a table that is in near perfect shape. At an estate sale she got that for 60 bucks.

I was told by a gentleman who has a Janome shop that the Singer featherweight is in high demand and you will be fortunate if you ever get one under 300 dollars. Ive seen them on shop goodwill at minimum 350. They must have been quite a machine. He said they were popular because they were portable, light and bombproof. Here's to quality workmanship and craftsmanship.