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?

reached the point where we (my daughter and I) are about to buy a new machine and some accessories together - looking at clothes, projects (inc bags), curtains, soft furnishing and quilting - so all sorts really

The Brother A50 seemed to fit the bill nicely, but with the (quite pricey) extension table ends up costing about the same as Janome 360DC, which comes with table as standard. The 360 also has adjustable foot pressure which the A50 lacks, might be a 'nice to have' but like the idea for quilting and heavier projects

Janome seems to be considered more robust than Brother to, so I am now wondering if that might be a better option

Bit of a newb question, apologies I cant seem to find an answer elsewhere

Some of you may know we (my daughter and I) are looking to get a Brother A16/A50 "sewing" machine as our first machine for all manner of projects etc

Was looking for more info about the A16/A50 family and came across another family of Brother machines called "sewing and quilting" machines, eg FS70

Can someone help me understand the difference? The FS70 seems to offer more than the A50 for less money, unless I am missing something . . .

Following on from the "what machine" thread my young daughter will also need some "stuff" to accompany her new sewing machine - would welcome your views

She has a few hand needlecraft items already that are probably good enough for now:
Hemline 20cm gold dress making scissors (her favourite), generic embroidery scissors and mini thread shears
Lots of embroidery / hand sewing needles and threads.
Lots of books with ideas, though the first projects aren't yet picked

Stuff she is planning on getting from local haberdashery:
Large glass tip pins (30mm, 48mm, bigger?)
A box of Guterman Sew all threads
Some spare machine needles (whatever the shop suggest)
A box of spare Brother bobbins (possibly with the little clips to keep the thread safe)
A small cantilever sewing box (or something) to keep stuff in

Stuff we aren't sure about:
What to stand the new machine on? Is it too heavy for a desk? Will is vibrate and need a neoprene pad?
Does she need top stitch thread and / or bobbin thread or is 'Sew all' exactly that?
What marking stuff to get, there seem so many choices?

And then there is the stuff we don't know we need . . .

My daughter has been doing hand sewing crafts for a number of years, eg rugging, cross stitch and embroidery etc

She started using a Bernina at school in craft lessons for basic projects and dress making - this has ingnited her interest in having a sewing machine, primarily for projects/clothes, probably for some applique / free hand sewing and just maybe some embroidery

We are lucky enough to have 2 shops nearby. The first stocks Bernina, Brother and Janome - they suggested the Brother A16 which seemed nice. She seems to prefer computerised over mechanical

Our other shop sells Husqvarna and Pfaff but we havent been to visit yet

- is the Brother A16 a decent place to start?  Are there other machines we should look at?