Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

TL;DR The negative reviews scared me but the price and features ultimately convinced me to buy the machine, and I'm glad I did! I've been sewing very sporadically since art class in my senior year of high school in 2007-2008. I know the very basics of using a sewing machine but I've never used anything other than a straight stitch! I'd been using my sister's Singer Esteem to make masks for myself but when she moved a few miles away this month, I found it considerably less convenient to pop over to her house, so I started looking into buying my own sewing machine using Unemployment Insurance money. I knew I didn't want a Singer Esteem--that thing gets jammed if you look at it wrong. If ever faced with the choice to buy a Singer Esteem, please save yourself the trouble and just don't. There are things I like about it but ultimately it's mostly a pain in the neck. Upon conducting some research, I made a list of must-have features for me, a baby: adjustable speed, drop-in bobbin, & mechanical. I encountered the Brother XM2701 on many lists of best sewing machines for beginners, and it met all of my needs and generally received better reviews than, say, the Janome Magnolia 7318 at a better price point. I also had my eye on a Janome New Home available at Urban Outfitters for $165. You know, because it was pretty. I mean, it also fell in the lower half of my price range. Ultimately, though, that Janome only has 15 stitches, and paired with a truly cursed side-loading bobbin (which is also the scourge of the Singer Esteem that I hate so much), it seemed not worth the money when compared to a Brother XM2701, which has everything I absolutely need plus some nice bells and whistles like an automatic needle threader, some pretty decorative stitches, and a one-step buttonhole. Plus it has a thread cutter attached, which is essential; the Janome did not. For $201 (from Kasande Beauty Fast Shipping), this seemed like a no-brainer. I wasn't thrilled to be choosing between UO, a company I'd rather not buy from, and Amazon, a company I loathe because of its treatment of its own workers, but I figure a reliable sewing machine will be somewhat of a necessity for the next few years. I'm not better than you because I hate Amazon--we're the same because I still use it. And the brand has made itself a staple, so we're all going to come up against these moments where we have to choose to use it or look elsewhere. This was the most financially feasible option this time, so I chose Amazon. I did choose an independent seller without Prime shipping--but with free shipping--so the experience was really the best possible outcome. Anyway, Kasande Beauty Fast Shipping did, indeed, ship my item quickly so it arrived a few days later (I wanna say 2 or 3 days later?) in perfectly new condition as described. Setup was easy and I watched the instructional DVD via someone who'd uploaded it to Youtube because I just didn't feel like popping the disc in my PS4. I can't recommend that video highly enough--just brace yourself for the narrator. Her style of narration is extremely strange in ways I can't describe but it might grow on you. I followed her instructions to set up my machine. That narrator quickly ascended to the very top of my list of celebrities I'd like to meet. I also recommend keeping the user manual close at hand--it'll tell you everything you need to know about what settings to use for each stitch, and it'll have troubleshooting tips if things go wrong. I also recommend finding an independently-uploaded video on thread tension, because that can be tricky to grasp without precise visuals. For a straight stitch out of box, I'm using the setting just below 2.5, but it took a lot of trial and error to come to that conclusion. Other little things for beginners or seldom-sewers like me to get started easily? Use polyester thread if you can--choose a good brand like Gütermann if you can afford it. Using cotton threads and low-quality threads apparently gunks up your machine faster, which isn't the worst--you just need to clean it more often--but left untouched, can lead to it not working and needing servicing. I'm just paraphrasing what I read in the Questions section of this product page. If you buy extra bobbins (which you may not need--the machine comes with four, if I'm not mistaken), make sure they're Class 15 plastic bobbins. Have an iron (any old iron--I'm using my 10-year-old Toastmaster from college that I haven't used in about 8 years) and ironing board (or just a towel--because I don't have an ironing board) handy for lots of pressing! Keep an eye on the needle's sharpness and -do- change it when it gets dull rather than riding it out--if you work with knives, doing prep work, I know you feel me. If your needle's still sharp but not cutting it, you may be using the wrong needle for the job! You wouldn't use a nakiri to cut sashimi (well, you might use it to cut, for example, avocado "sashimi," so maybe this is a bad example). You wouldn't use a butter knife to cut steak. If the feed dogs won't feed because you're sewing the very edge of a piece or just a very small piece of fabric (which happened to me when I tried to sew a 1" x 6" pocket for a nose wire), put a piece of regular old paper--newspaper, notebook paper, printer paper, magazine paper--whatever you've got--under the fabric to cover all the feed dogs. It'll be louder than usual, but it'll get the job done! And you can easily tear the paper off the back of the fabric when you're done. Way less messy than it sounds. Overall, this machine operates smoothly and sews beautifully even stitches. It's easy enough to use--from auto-threading to bobbin loading--that I believe it would even suit a child as young as 9 or 10, if you were to find yourself with a kid eager to start on the DIY path (and if you had $200 to drop on a machine that will likely last them years, maybe decades--we'll see--with good maintenance habits). In my very short time sewing with it, I've learned so much and I have visual evidence that my sewing is already improving, getting neater, because I'm working with a quality machine that does everything it's supposed to do, and does it well without jamming. I assume that despite still-developing motor skills being what they are, a 9- or 10-year-old would be able to sponge up fluency in this machine even faster than I can. I don't know why I'm trying to push this machine for kids--I just like the idea of kids who want to learn to sew, and I wish I'd started earlier because it feels empowering. I'll drop by with an update in a few months. UPDATE 2022: Still love this machine. 💖