A basic Brother was what I learned to sew on. It belonged to my mother. Brother makes a basic version that can be found at Wal-Mart for under 200.00.

My DIL got GD a Brother at Walmart when she was 13. It has worked well for her.

Check with your machine shops and see if they have any older machines available. Estate or garage sales are a good place to pick up really nice old machines like Singers and Brothers.

My 11 yo son has a 1963 Nelco and that thing runs great. My kids also sew on a 1928 Singer Red Eye model. I love the older heavy machines. They are easy to maintain and can always be fixed.

Gloria

Thank you! I decided to check out Costco, since you often get more for your money there, and they had a Brother 100 (with one letter following, but I don't recall it right now). It's an electronic machine with a lot of stitch options, for about $200. Anyone have it? I know it's a lot of machine for a young girl, but it's not much more than a decent basic model. I know she'd enjoy all the decorative stitches.

I started sewing at 12 and it became a life-long hobby with many machine upgrades. I also had a SEWING SCHOOL for children and used to recommend the Sears models-usually a multi-stitch. They were quiet, dependable, and you could get them serviced annually. Hope this helps.

It's a Brother CS 100T. Anyone have it? It seems to be designed for a quilter. It might be a bit much for a 12 year old, but she wouldn't outgrow it for a long time, if ever.
Thanks and happy holidays!

I was about 14 when I got my firt machine, it was a Brother CS600 from Wal Mart. It cost about $200, but works great, very easy to use, and everything.

Thanks everyone. We decided not to get the Costco machine after talking to some sewing machine repair companies. We got a Janome for her, manual. It has utility stitches and some decorative stitches that should satisfy her for a long time. This way she'll get the free lessons and we have a place to go if there are any problems and it didn't cost much more than the Costco machine. Plus, I think it will be a sturdier machine. She likes to just dive in and take off with it, before she has instructions on how to do it, so I think the manual is safer with that.

I personally would buy a basic machine to start with. Nothing electronic or fancy. Just to get the basics will take a few years and then she can upgrade. Hope she likes it!
Judy

The Janome we got is a basic machine. I think she will enjoy it once she learns the basics.