Customer Rating: 
List Price: $449.00
Best Price: $179.99 (new)
Availability: New (13)
Brand: Brother
Model: CS6000I
Weight: 10 pounds
Dimensions: 16 x 6.7 x 11.4 inches
Warranty: 1 year
Publisher: Brother
Release Date: 2006-10-16
Customer Review
A complete sewing novice.......
by Customer A1DQHS7MOVYYYA at October 25th, 2007
I once tried to use a sewing machine when I was around 14 and into altering my clothes. Honestly, I think I almost blew up the darn thing. I had borrowed it from my grandmother and I don't know if it ever worked again. At that time I vowed NEVER to touch a sewing machine again(I easily get frustrated when things don't work out the way I plan). Well, about 13 years later, I decided I wanted to make a quilt out of old band t-shirts. I had planned on sending them away to a professional company, but could not justify the $400-500 price, and someone said "why don't you do it yourself?". Never one to turn down a challenge, I decided to give it a go. If I "blew up" another machine I would know I'm never meant to use one.
I read a lot of reviews on amazon, because frankly, I didn't even know what I was looking for. I knew something that was 'user friendly' and good for a beginner. Beyond that, totally clueless. I remembered the Brother brand being good, and I liked the look of the machine. Not too many knobs and buttons and I can totally work with digital. The fewer things I can manually break the better. I also didn't want to go all out on price, but get something moderate so that if I did end up enjoying it, I wouldn't have to immediately get a better one. So, with these ideas, I finally decided on this machine.
And I'm EXTREMELY proud to say, I made a quilt/blanket my first day. No, it wasn't perfect, but I got the machine running and found it pretty easy to figure out. I started slow and really paid attention to the manual (which is rare in my case). Granted, some of the terminology is like reading something in the hardest foreign language possible, but some staring at the diagrams in the manual helped me to figure it out(and making a couple phone calls to see what threading the bottom and the top meant, did I need to do both? Apparently so.) I even know what a bobbin is now. =)
I'm currently starting my second quilt and I'm really excited to learn. I've ordered some 'complete guides to quilting' to get a better idea of things, but I am confident this machine will work well for me. I think the light it has is fantastic, I could easily get busy in a darkened room and see what I was doing. Once you get the hand of threading it's easy to remember. The speed button works well, it can go very slow if you're unsure and speed up as you become more used to the machine.
The only thing I don't love is....and maybe there's a trick to this I haven't caught onto yet.....is that I end up JAMMING as much blanket as possible under the arm to try and finish things in the middle of the blanket. I wish there was more room between the body of the machine and where the stitching happens. I've fiddled a little with the different stitches, which is really fun. I still don't know what the tension is, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go along.
If you're a beginner like I am, I would definitely recommend this machine. It's a fun new hobby and not nearly as daunting as I had thought it would be. Happy quilting!
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