Brother HC1850 Sewing and Quilting Machine, 185 Built-in Stitches, LCD Display, 8 Included Feet

I am in total love with this machine. I am a new sewer, started in September 2015. I've done a lot of sewing by hand and dabbled a bit in mini courses when I was in third grade back in 1973. Lol.My first machine was a singer 4432 in September. Which has already gone to the shop once to have its hook timing fixed. For $86. For a machine I spent $139 on. Not very happy. Especially when three days after I got it back, the same thing happened.When the hook timing is off, you can't pull up the bobbin thread, so you essentially are unable to sew anything. And if you can't figure out how to fix it yourself – and it's not easy for a lot of machines and the 4432 is one of them — then you have to pay someone else to do it.Anyway, long story short I wasn't about to spend another $86 to get the hook timing fixed on a $139 machine that I'd already spent $86 on three days earlier. I decided to cut my losses and buy a better machine. This is where the brother HC 1850 comes in.I did a lot of research and found that brother was best for my needs. After speaking with the guy who repaired my singer, he told me that brother and babylock are made by the same company. That was pretty much all I needed to hear. So I had narrowed it down to this machine or the SE400 which is a combination embroidery/sewing machine. The price on this machine was $179 when I bought it. And the SE400 was $270 at the time of my decision. I decided against the embroidery machine simply for the reason that it would be a long time before I would actually have use of the embroidery. And I didn't want to discover many months after buying it that some part of the embroidery didn't work and I was now out of warranty. So I thought to just buy the lesser expensive of the two which was the HC1850.Wise choice because I am still discovering this machine after weeks of having it. And I will say that this machine performs extraordinarily well. It really "finesses" your sewing. The heavy duty from singer 4432 "bullied" my sewing. I found that the singer had a lot of bobbin jams and just really weird hissy fits for no apparent reason. And for a while I thought I was doing something wrong. I wasn't. Now that I have this machine, I am confident that it was the machine and not me. This machine is so easy to work with it is really a joy to use. I never sit down and start to use it and think, "what is this going to do to me today to make me fiddle around with it/fix it for an hour before I can actually start selling?" I never have any trouble with it. With the singer I always faced sewing with trepidation, and that's no way to go into a hobby you really like.I did a big project with painters dropcloth recently which can be very ravelly and linty. Once I got an error message early on saying that I needed to clean out the bobbin case and the race. I did that, extraordinarily easily, by the way, and have not had any problems since. Now I suspect I was getting similar problems with my singer 4432, but as that is a mechanical machine, it gives you no such prompting as to what you need to do or than anything is actually happening. It will just stop working - gives you bobbin jams, and then messes up your timing.I sat down yesterday and played around with a lot of the stitches – they are fantastic. And the monogramming, while not gorgeous, is pretty good. It would be great for labeling children's clothing and the like.So bottom line, if you're looking for a machine that is very easy to use, very lightweight but does not move while you were using it, comes with a number of feet, comes with the quilting table, and is extremely reliable and makes your sewing easier and a pleasant experience, try this machine. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I absolutely love this machine! I should clarify that I am no seamstress. I have always struggled with sewing machines that you try to get threaded correctly. Have you ever started to sew and the top looks wonderful but the bottom is all messed up and sloppy? Or you are sewing along and find that you aren't actually sewing real stitches, yes the needle is threaded and the bobbin thread is poking up... why isn't it sewing? Who knows? Sure it's a brand new machine and you take it back to Joanns Fabric Store and they say "It needs to be serviced, that'll be $99" or “the tension is off.” There it's fine. You get it home and sew, everything is just perfect for a little bit then it starts happening again. I swear every time I have ever tried to sew it was one of those kind of issues I always had. Most of my time has been with a seam ripper then the machine and patterns put together! Very rarely a finished product. After a while I just got fed up and had not sewn in 15 yrs.I actually had this machine for about a year before I took the plunge and finally opened the box. Honestly I don't know possessed me to even buy it. I guess after reading the reviews I started imagining all the wonderful things I could create and thought "I can do this! It even comes with a DVD!" Then I got it and thought "You are an idiot. You can't even thread the darn thing, you tossed out all those patterns and fabrics years ago and NOW you are a pride owner of a fancy pants sewing machine that has more stitches then you will ever use or know what they are for. Nice one. Where the heck are you going to hide it before your husband gets home? He is going to kill you and it will be justifiable homicide!" So needless to say it was hidden in the basement in a dark corner where my husband would never look! I pulled it out last weekend when he was out of town for the week and thought that I would try and make curtains for my sons bedroom. Curtains aren't all that scary, 2 straight stitches and I am done. I figured if I couldn't get it to sew correctly I could always use that fabric glue stuff. So I had some free time and pulled it out, looked at the quick guide and had that machine threaded in just a few minutes. Half-heartedly I started to sew on some scrap material. IT WORKED. Seriously it was perfect. I was amazed. I went to go and get the material for the curtains. During this time the unthinkable happened! My little girl pushed buttons on the machine! I about had a heart attack thinking that she messed up the dreadful tension and it will never sew right now!! The top was going to look fine and then the bottom was going to be a mess, I just knew it!! I put the piece of scrap material back in and the machine started to sew, the needle kind of went all over the place and acted funny. It was making the cutest little flower and leaf you ever saw! WOW! That's so cool looking! But can I EVER get it to sew a straight stitch again?? Believe it or not it wasn't that hard at all!!! Woo hoo! Just another push of a button and it was sewing in a straight line again!The Pros to this machineEasy!!! Has tons of bells and whistles! Just a couple of button pushes and you're making fancy stitches! Another push of a button and you are in the comfy safe zone of a basic straight stitch that looks nice on the top and the bottom!The Cons to this machineYou will regret throwing away all those really cute Daisy Kingdom patterns from the 90s. No, not regret, much more then regret. You will be kicking yourself over them! Yes they are a wee bit old fashioned but dang they were so cute with the matching doll patterns! :(Even though YOU struggled through a semester of Home Ec in the 8th grade and a million hours of trying to put a little dress together without ANY success, your children that are 8-10 yrs old that have never sewn anything in their lives or endured Mrs Bolchovitch in Home Ec for an entire year, will be sewing cute little things out your scrap material like it was nothing. Just sick and wrong.

I must have spent 5 hours reading reviews of this machine. I was so worried I would buy something I would regret. I've been using my grandmother's Ulna from the early 1950's for the last 30 years. I love it. It's sturdy, but the bobbin hook is worn out and it slips stitches and tangles at least 3 or 4 times for every hour I use it. I needed something dependable and that could handle everything from quilting to working with outdoor fabrics. I've had it for a week, and have already completed 3 baby quilts and other little baby projects, and a soft case for my Brother HC1850 sewing machine. It is a great machine. I'm older and my sight isn't great, so I love the needle threading. The bobbin winding is quick and doesn't tangle. The machine operation is smooth and fairly quiet. The programming is simple, with many options. It's light. So light! My goodness! After lugging around my very solid metal Elna for years, I cannot get over how light this is! I love the extended sewing table that comes with it. Very handy!I would highly suggest reading the entire manual cover to cover for the best operation of the machine. I can see that many of the negative reviews that I read, could easily have been a result of poor user practices due to not reading the manual.Look, for the price, you could replace this machine every few years and still feel good about it. But it feels like a solidly built, smooth operating machine, and I don't anticipate replacing it for quite a while. It has everything I could anticipate needing. This is one purchase that I am patting myself on the back for making! Go me! Good decision! Great machine!