Do you make stuff?

Does anybody have sewing machine recommendations? I think I want to get one for my wife for X-mas.
This wouldn't be for clothing. More for stitching her home made handbags and other smaller projects.
Is there a good portable but dependable brand I should lean towards?
@nolalady - I thought of you first on this. Any advice?
 
ranbalam said:
Does anybody have sewing machine recommendations? I think I want to get one for my wife for X-mas.
This wouldn't be for clothing. More for stitching her home made handbags and other smaller projects.
Is there a good portable but dependable brand I should lean towards?
@nolalady - I thought of you first on this. Any advice?
Click to expand...
I got mine a few years ago and I did a ton of research. The Brother CS6000i is what I finally settled on. There are machines that are bigger and do a lot more, but for a general purpose machine, you really can't beat the value.

Amazon product ASIN B000JQM1DE
When I grabbed it (in 2013 as Amazon has reminded me), it was about $150. It looks like it's gone up $50 in price, but it's still worth it. You get so many stiches and I haven't had a problem with it in 8 years. Now, it does require maintenance (like all machines), and you basically have to split the machine in half to oil it, but there are youtube videos that show you how.

On a quick look, it seems they have updated this machine some and put a new one out: Amazon product ASIN B08BH5GTNC
I cannot attest for this one, but it looks like it's getting high marks from a lot of places. Either iteration of this machine is not too expensive, it does button holes, it has every stich you'll need (and some fancy ones too), and it's fairly easy to maintain.
 
nolalady said:
I got mine a few years ago and I did a ton of research. The Brother CS6000i is what I finally settled on. There are machines that are bigger and do a lot more, but for a general purpose machine, you really can't beat the value.

Amazon product ASIN B000JQM1DE
When I grabbed it (in 2013 as Amazon has reminded me), it was about $150. It looks like it's gone up $50 in price, but it's still worth it. You get so many stiches and I haven't had a problem with it in 8 years. Now, it does require maintenance (like all machines), and you basically have to split the machine in half to oil it, but there are youtube videos that show you how.

On a quick look, it seems they have updated this machine some and put a new one out: Amazon product ASIN B08BH5GTNC
I cannot attest for this one, but it looks like it's getting high marks from a lot of places. Either iteration of this machine is not too expensive, it does button holes, it has every stich you'll need (and some fancy ones too), and it's fairly easy to maintain.
Click to expand...
Awesome, thank you for the info. I guess the trickiest part might be getting it, because we share an Amazon account.

Actually, it appears JoAnn Fabrics carries that brand.
 
Another month, more to share. Place I ordered my paper from sent the wrong type so prints are still coming, just dealing with an exchange. 🤓

73FB0EFF-69BA-490A-9852-9C61AF4559E3.jpeg004470D2-E876-4C1A-8738-E1C5FF9286AA.jpeg
56EF71ED-6E03-4C69-A905-DDA07D2DD44E.jpeg7AFC0A01-38F6-460C-8D65-244FFB216F6D.jpeg2867268F-1590-4B5A-926B-5CACC566062C.jpeg
Favorite work doodle, smaller canvas I did up for a charity thing coming up and some stuff I’m currently working on. Create, create, create.
 
I can share these glass pieces now.

Daft Punk at the Grammys and Run The Jewels 4. Both prizes in the PIFsGiving event.

Tried to mimic the LEDs in the Daft Punk helmets. The RTJ piece uses vintage, textured, streaky glass that I salvaged out of a storage unit in middle-of-nowhere Kansas.

IMG_20210810_153128_406.jpgIMG_20210810_153128_596.jpg0810211515a_HDR~2.jpg0810211515.jpgIMG_20210710_114539_171.jpg0710211150_HDR~2.jpg0710211149_HDR~2.jpgIMG_20210710_114539_200.jpg0710211117_HDR~2.jpg
 
nolalady said:
I got mine a few years ago and I did a ton of research. The Brother CS6000i is what I finally settled on. There are machines that are bigger and do a lot more, but for a general purpose machine, you really can't beat the value.

Amazon product ASIN B000JQM1DE
When I grabbed it (in 2013 as Amazon has reminded me), it was about $150. It looks like it's gone up $50 in price, but it's still worth it. You get so many stiches and I haven't had a problem with it in 8 years. Now, it does require maintenance (like all machines), and you basically have to split the machine in half to oil it, but there are youtube videos that show you how.

On a quick look, it seems they have updated this machine some and put a new one out: Amazon product ASIN B08BH5GTNC
I cannot attest for this one, but it looks like it's getting high marks from a lot of places. Either iteration of this machine is not too expensive, it does button holes, it has every stich you'll need (and some fancy ones too), and it's fairly easy to maintain.
Click to expand...
Glad I saw you posted this! My wife's been wanting one and I was thinking about getting it for her for Christmas, but was getting overwhelmed by researching it 😅
 
Hemotep said:
Glad I saw you posted this! My wife's been wanting one and I was thinking about getting it for her for Christmas, but was getting overwhelmed by researching it 😅
Click to expand...
I did way, way too much research on this back when I looked. I kept finding the brother machines up at the top of every blog best of list. I also noticed this was the machine a lot of seamstresses that I follow in blogs used the most. When I looked at pricing for a basic machine, this by far hit the price vs. quality mark. You can't get nearly the amount of stiches in any other machine for cheaper, and like I said, I've had mine for 8 years now, and it still works well as long as I keep it oiled.
 
zdkaiser said:
I can share these glass pieces now.

Daft Punk at the Grammys and Run The Jewels 4. Both prizes in the PIFsGiving event.

Tried to mimic the LEDs in the Daft Punk helmets. The RTJ piece uses vintage, textured, streaky glass that I salvaged out of a storage unit in middle-of-nowhere Kansas.

View attachment 117494View attachment 117495View attachment 117496View attachment 117497View attachment 117498View attachment 117499View attachment 117500View attachment 117501View attachment 117502
Click to expand...
Ummm... do you do commissions?
 
nolalady said:
I did way, way too much research on this back when I looked. I kept finding the brother machines up at the top of every blog best of list. I also noticed this was the machine a lot of seamstresses that I follow in blogs used the most. When I looked at pricing for a basic machine, this by far hit the price vs. quality mark. You can't get nearly the amount of stiches in any other machine for cheaper, and like I said, I've had mine for 8 years now, and it still works well as long as I keep it oiled.
Click to expand...
I have this same machine, can agree with all of this. I've had mine since college and it still works great!
 
Took a week off from my day job and this came out
77843223-D844-4482-876D-02F395C4A648.jpeg095EDCDB-329B-4EAB-9ED3-C6EA5A80833C.jpeg
Tubes for the new prints will be in this week so expect some info on that following. Also got commissioned by a band (one of N&G’s album of the month but I’ll have more details once they announce the new album 🙂) for a shirt design so overall it was a pretty good December.

Hope you all are well and can’t wait to continue sharing and seeing what you all are creating this next year. 💜
 
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I don't like how hard it is to do detail with acrylic paint, but it's so much easier to clean up than oils so it's what I've been messing around with lately. Still needs some detail work once this dries if I can manage. But this is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's Fishing for Fishies.

IMG_20220116_185009.jpg
IMG_20220116_185625__01.jpg
 
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