my daughter has been playing with her new Janome 360DC and one thing we have noticed is that the zigzag stitch isn't very flat across its width (if that makes sense), it tends to pull the fabric together in a ruckle

Changing to 3 stitches per zig or zag reduces this a lot - not sure if this is inevitable or can be tuned out by something on the machine, my guess is simple tension adjustment wont help?

that's pretty much what my daughter said

The Janome felt closer to the mechanical Bernina she uses at school - and she's not worried about doing daft things like trying to sew with the foot up (which I did more than once)

Hello Sara_s

saw your interest in archery in the cutter thread and thought here was a decent place to say hi - small world

My youngest daughter (who brought me to this forum when she decided she wanted a new sewing machine) is also my archery buddy. We both shoot "traditional" so she is mostly English Longbow and I am slightly more modern hybrid/recurve wooden bows. We live on the edge of Sherwood Forest in UK and have a great trad supplier there, so I make our own wood / feather arrows. we also get to field shoot in the woods there

I also got to work on Manhattan Island a couple of years ago, not really a city person but loved it - so friendly

brill, thanks folks, lots of useful replies so quickly

We were planning on buying the Brother A50 soon, but once you add in the cost of the extra bits we need, the Janome works out better (more useful bits for less money) - on paper at least

Our local sewing machine shop has both in stock, so on our next visit we can dig a bit deeper and maybe actually make a purchase . . .

WRT 16 x 11" extension table it is listed as an included accessory (and on the link too) and our local supplier definitely includes it. Hard case too. The walking foot is £45 for Janome and £35 Brother, so not a deal breaker

Related question - just read the 360 manual and it doesn't seem to describe how to do twin needle sewing, I assume it can do that?

thanks for sharing everyone, this has been super useful

thanks folks - it seems the cheaper FS models aren't really any better and it was slightly concerning to see the FS70/100/120 sold in Argos etc, but not our local sewing machine shop, so it seems it may be of "lower quality". The cheapest FS in our local sewing machine shop was FS420, which seems to be a different beast

Having tried the A16/A50 its still our preferred option but as a novice I am still very confused by the marketplace - it seems almost everything from £100 to £400 is labelled "ideal for beginners" and the only differentiator seems to be stitch count or "minor" features like auto threader, auto lock stitches etc.

Very little seems to be readily available about "quality" or even power - comparing to stuff like cycling, photography, power tools etc where its quite easy to see the difference between £100, £500, £1000 and £2000+ products. Even the reviews I see are so generic they could have been written about any machine, because they don't seem to say anything . . . or is it just me?

wow, lots of responses so quickly, thank you

it already looks like stretch fabrics (stitches and button holes) and significantly better quilting capability mean the A50 is potentially a more flexible machine