A sewing machine should be an essential device in any home that wants to explore creativity and save money. A sewing machine can be used not just to sew clothes, but to repair and mend clothing and soft furnishings to avoid throwing them out, you can darn socks, embroider your children’s names or initials to prevent loss of clothing at sporting events, parties, take up hems professionally etc.

Modern sewing machines are computerized and are almost fool proof to use. A good sewing machine sales person will either give you a lesson or arrange for you to have some through the store. Although it may be cheaper to purchase every day clothing at discount stores, making your own clothing ensures fit and quality every time. If you are creative, you can access many decorative stitches on your sewing machine, create machined appliqué, embroidery, patchwork and quilting – it’s easy to make a family heirloom and gifts for special occasions, as well as creating beautiful things for every day use.

So how do you find the sewing machine that will fit your needs? You need to log onto www.wize.com and take a look at the huge range of machines that are available to you. The great thing about wise.com is that you can read genuine consumer sewing machine reviews and find out what users have experienced with the model sewing machine you are considering. You can search by brand and by price. I’m looking at machines under $110 and I think the Brother 2125 is a good buy. It’s light and portable, so you can put it away if space is a premium (I live in a one bedroom apartment, so space is important to me) and it’s a good, reliable brand as well. This would be a good machine for a beginner to learn on, to let your children use and when you are ready to graduate to a more sophisticated machine, it’s not so much money that you won’t feel guilty about passing it on to someone else who wants to try their hand at sewing.