Buy Brother HC1850 Computerized Sewing and Quilting Machine with 130

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List Price: $549.00
Sale Price: $199.99
Today's Bonus: 64% Off

This machine has a lot of features, stitches and feet for a reasonable price. The general feeling among people I know who sew is that the Brothers are not as durable or trouble-free as other makes (and I can say, my Brother had problems out of the box--missing parts) but for the money, this is quite the machine. If you have a beginner sewist at home, this machine could really encourage creativity. Or if you yourself sew small projects and kids' clothes, there is a lot here to like.

Stitches: there are 160 different stitches, including many embroidery, quilting and so-called "heirloom" stitches. These can be used to create the effect of handsewn clothes or dress up simple patterns by putting these small ornamental stitches along seams and across plain parts of clothes. For machine quilters, the feather stitch or other decorative stitches can be used over seams or to applique along edges. Your student sewist could even use the stitches to personalize ready-made clothes or vintage clothes. If you are on a budget, you could shop at thrift stores, find some great clothes with good "bones" (a nice blouse, some jeans, a jacket) and then use the embroidery to add a monogram, designs or other embellishments. If you own a "Bedazzler" or are handy with beads and sequins and fabric paint, you can really have some fun with thrift clothes and fabric remnants. If you go on Youtube or other sites, there are many sewists who take vintage clothes and create amazing designs. (One person made a dress a day out of thrift shop finds and created a wardrobe of fashionable dresses. If your budget is smaller than your fashion yearnings, this really could be a way to stretch the clothes dollars.)

For quilters, there is a DROP FEED: this is where you drop the feed dogs and move the fabric freely under the needle. Many inexpensive machines only accomplish this by covering the feed dogs; a drop feed is really what quilters want. Also, you can adjust sewing speed by moving a lever on the front of the machine. In addition, it has the ability to run without the foot pedal; buttons are on the front to control start-stop and reverse. This is very handy when coordinating your foot and hand motions is challenging. But you can attach the foot control if you want to. I find for certain projects, the foot control good, for other projects, I want to use my hands to control the machine speed and start-stop.

There are six different buttonholes, which is unusual in a machine at this price point. You can do measured buttonholes with a foot that holds your button to adjust the size of the opening to fit perfectly. Most attractive of all, the ability to do simple monogramming with a single font. You can't adjust the font, nor add decorative letters but again, the simple ability to add a child's name or initials to a garment or bag is very handy. If you are "crafty", you will find that you can make cute handbags from the many patterns that are available in quilt stores, and then monogram it for a very welcome gift.

The stitches are available to view in a flip-down panel on the front. A good-sized LCD screen shows the stitch and length chosen in front. This is an ELECTRONIC machine, meaning the stitches are set via an onboard computer. That makes for quick changes of stitch and length, but if the onboard computer goes, the machine is not usable.

As to feet, there are the basics: Zigzag foot, Overcasting foot, Monogramming foot, Zipper foot, Zigzag foot, Blind stitch foot, Buttonhole foot, Button fitting foot, and Quilting foot. These are probably all you need, unless you want to add a walking foot to be able to sew on layers that shift (the walking foot moves with the fabric and prevents bunching.) An extended table is included for sewing larger pieces of fabric or quilting.

I usually find the Brother bobbin is not as clog-free as the Janome, but it's acceptable. If you take good care of the machine, change your needles frequently (machine needles get barbed and blunted on fabric and should be changed to stay sharp), if you keep it clear of thread nests and dust, and do not push it through huge wads of material, you will have a very functional machine. For the casual sewist who wants to make children's clothes, small quilts and crafts, this is quite the machine. If you are a production home sewist or are going to do heavy materials and want to expand embroidery to motifs and adjustable designs, this is probably not for you.

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I do a lot of sewing & machine quilting. This is my 3rd sewing machine after many years of sewing. This Brother HC1850 is the best I've ever had. It sews, quilts & embroideries with a computer that is easy to use. The instructions are clear enough for novice seamstresses. I am disabled so sometimes my leg muscles just will not work. This machine gives you a choice of using the foot pedal or you can use the controls on the machine. It will move the presser foot up/down, start your seam, then stop & lift the presser foot. Of course, you are in control of the buttons & the speed so it is comfortable for your use. Another plus is this machine is not very heavy like my other ones. I also use a serger which is a bit heavier than my sewing machine. This is a real help if you suffer from motor problems like I do. The price is very good for a computerized machine that does so much. Great buy!

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I've been using the same Singer machine for almost 20 years. But when a canvas zabuton seam left me picking needle shards out of my hair, I decided to start looking for an upgrade. This machine will be fantastic for newbies, but has some foibles that should be considered if you're an experienced seamstress.

* BASIC SEWING The machine has a nice selection of basic stitches, for both knits and wovens. There are three sewing speeds, which are roughly "medium, slow, and glacial". A new sewer will appreciate the slowest speed I went immediately to the fastest, and even that would be too slow in a real production environment. The machine comes with a number of different presser foots (presser feet?), and, when you select a stitch, the LED readout will tell you which presser foot to use with it, which is a nice little convenience. The automatic buttonholer is a marvel.

My only real beef with the basic sewing functions is with the "reverse" button, which only actually sews in reverse for some stitches. For others (the more complicated ones), it makes an automatic (and tiny) "reinforcement" stitch by going straight back and forth three or four times. I prefer a much larger reinforcement at the end of a seam, but there's no way to do this without changing the stitch setting, or maybe dropping the feed dogs and doing it freehand.

* EMBROIDERY In addition to the construction stitches there are a large number of decorative stitches, as well as the ability to drop the feed dogs and do embroidery freehand. The machine does the decorative stitches very well, with an impressive amount of four-direction play in the needle and feed dogs.

Some of the decorative stitches are designated as "mirror image", with their own selection setting and panel, and I had high hopes that these would do a two-sided decoration, up one way and back the other. In fact, these are just some of the stitches on the first panel reflected parallel to the direction of sewing (and with no correlation in the stitch numbers). It would be a lot more intuitive to group all the construction stitches together in one panel and all the decorative stitches together in one panel. (I suspect that the grouping was specified by programmers, not sewers this makes me sad).

* MONOGRAMMING The third selection setting and panel is for monograms, and in this setting you can specify an alphanumeric string (for example a name) and the machine will sew it automatically. I'm impressed that the letters also include some diacritical marks (ö, ß, and ñ, for example, though not a complete set). Setting the string is a little tortuous, inasmuch as you only have two pairs of arrow keys to work with, but the machine will remember and repeat the string (and there's even a kerning function, if you're really hardcore).

There is only one size setting for monograms, and it's a little bigger than the one I'm used to on handkerchiefs and custom shirts. (I think those use serger thread, however). The bigger issue is that I could only really get the monograms to work on heavier fabric. On poplin they came out very well (size 14 needle, 50-weight thread), but on sheers the letters were puckery and distorted, even with the tension adjusted properly and a finer needle. I don't know if using an embroidery hoop would help (I really don't want a backing on a handkerchief). I would also note that the letters come out all attached together, so you'll need a thread nipper to finish up (the machine comes with a seam ripper, a thread pick, and an eyelet punch. Why no thread nipper?).

* QUILTING This function was a major disappointment. The machine claims to be a quilting machine, but in this case "quilting" must only refer to piecing together squares to be assembled later. The size of the space under the arm is only about 4''x5'', and the presser foot only raises by about an inch both these things preclude assembling large pieces, or putting in actual batting, even if there is a quilting foot included. The other "quilting" feature is the attachable wide table, which does give you a better workspace if you don't have a recessed sewing table. I found that it rattled when I sewed some stitches, even after I adjusted the feet and attached it as per the instructions. Real quilting machines also have a knee-lifter so you can adjust the piece without taking your hands off the work. This doesn't. Not a quilting machine.

* BELLS AND WHISTLES Inasmuch as my previous machine is almost an antique, I was happy to find some newer innovations here. The needle threader and automatic needle lifter will be of help to anyone with aging hands and eyes. The clear bobbin plate (and clear bobbin) makes it trivial to see how much thread is left, which I appreciate more than I anticipated. The machine has diagrams with numbered steps, on the machine itself, to show you how to thread the bobbin winder, the top thread and tension arm, and the bobbin thread. Lovely for beginners. There are also automatic thread cutters for the bobbin winder, finished seam, and bobbin plate (though the one for the bobbin plate doesn't leave quite enough slack to grab easily when you're bringing up the thread)

* DOCUMENTATION There is an instruction manual, in both English and Spanish, covering the basic stitches and some basic construction techniques. There is also a 30 minute video, in four languages, covering a much smaller subset of stuff. The video has no table of contents/menu navigation, which makes it considerably less useful as documentation.

Overall, this is an excellent starter machine, with some nice bells and whistles. Serious sewers will outgrow it eventually, and people looking to do production work will probably want something faster and more robust.

Honest reviews on Brother HC1850 Computerized Sewing and Quilting Machine with 130

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program When this came in, I couldn't wait to get it out and play with it. I had no actual projects planned because I really just wanted to play with all of the beautiful stitches and features of this machine. The first thing I have to recommend is that you watch the included DVD as you set it up and as you go through each of it's functions. It would have taken me forever to get it up and running had I not watched the DVD as I sat it up. It isn't that it is very difficult, but I had never used a computerized machine at all before I got this, so I had no clue what I was doing. My regular sewing machine is the older model of the Janome Sewist 500 Sewing Machine with 25 Built-In Stitches and Hard Case, which is a great machine as well, it just doesn't have nearly as many stitches and functions, and it doesn't come with the wide plate for quilts either. This machine will operate without the petal, so the instructions on the dvd for winding the bobbin start out explaining it as if you didn't have the petal plugged in. This confused me for a minute because I couldn't get it to wind by pushing the button it said to push. The reason for that, was that it sensed the pedal and I had to push the pedal rather than the button. I used the pedal when I used the machine because that is how I've always sewed, but I did test out the machine without the pedal for a large square just for the sake of testing it out. It worked flawlessly and I highly recommend trying it to see if it is the technique for you. I guess I'm a little old-fashioned, because I prefer using the pedal over the button. For the rest of the set up, I just watched the DVD while I was performing the winding of the bobbin, threading the machine, etc and paused it as I needed to. It made it so easy for me. The dvd takes you right through how to do everything, even the character stitches and how to do letters, one after the other, like a name or date, so that there is no break in the letters and it tells you how to add letters etc to whatever you already have programmed and then how to delete them, because they are saved in the machine until you delete each one. The machine sews the regular way with very straight stitches and has no trouble sewing through thicker fabrics. It was a little different getting used to the reverse button. I've always had a manual one that I pulled down, like a lever, but this is a computerized button that you just press. It was no big deal after using it for an hour or so. The fancy stitches on this machine are so nice. I took a few pictures of a name I sewed and some of my favorite stitches. It is extremely easy to go from stitch to stitch. You simply enter the stitch number and the group it is in on the chart, then it tells you what presser foot you need for that stitch. The presser feet are clearly marked, as you can see in my photos, so there's no guess work in it. The buttonhole function worked extremely well and there are several styles to choose from. I watched the dvd and did that with one try and flawlessly as well. I highly recommend this machine to anyone looking for an inexpensive computerized machine. I had never used a computerized machine before getting this one, and I had it up and running in no time. All I can say, is watch the dvd as you set this up. It made it effortless! I hope this helps you with your decision.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Brother HC1850 Computerized Sewing and Quilting Machine with 130

I upgraded from an 20 year old mechanical zig-zag singer machine. I'm thrilled with this machine. I mostly sew clothing-but want to quilt too and liked the extra table. Since the time I bought the machine I have made:

1) elastic waist slacks out of heavy stretch denim fabric for my mother in law in assisted living.

2) two pair of men's trousers. (Fly, welt pockets.)

3) seat covers for the kitchen chairs.

4) two pair of slacks for me.

5) Man's shirt.

Compared to my old machine the basic sewing is much smoother and goes through multiple thicknesses of fabrics easily-including the denim. (I don't know if this was due to age and condition of the old machine. But this new one is smoother!)

This machine has so many features my old machine did not have. Many I haven't even used.

The features I particularly value are:

1) built in one step buttonholes with the automatic measurementwhich are very easy to use.

2) the drop in bobbin with a transparent cover. It's easy to check if bobbin and avoid running out when top stitching zippers, or working a button hole.

3) A choice of 'straight' stitch positions that let me place the needles to the left, center or right. This simplifies edge stitching.

4) Easy push button for reverse or reinforcing stitch. On my old machine, I had to fiddle with the crank on the side. But the push-button lets me control the number of reverse stitches very easily.

Of course I tried embroidering a few small letters-I was happy with that and anticipate placing these on cuffs or pockets. But people who want *fancy* monograms will want an embroidery machine. (I also tried a few fancy stitches t thinking I might put them on back pockets, but so far haven't made any trousers with patch pockets. )

There is one thing I did do to make sewing easier for someone who is a bit vision challenged (I wear bifocals). That was place transparent tape to either side of the presser foot running from front to back and mark the 5/8" position with a pen to better eyeball the position for seam allowances. I had to cut out the opening for the bobbin case. But this is really a non-issue as I added the tape with my old machine. For that matter, my 4-H teacher did this with her machines back in the 70s.

Oddly there are features I haven't tried, so I can't comment on them. But I am very happy with my purchase. (I'll try to update in a few months especially if I have any trouble.)