@Rebecca160 Well, I used to love to sew, but since doing it for a living for the past 17 years, the thrill is gone 🙂 I got by with an old clunky Brother, the kind that comes on a base, and a domestic serger for years. Then quite by luck, I was in a little furniture store in my area, and mentioned to the owner that if he ever wanted to have cushions made for any of the wooden chairs he sold, that was my business. He then told me he had 2 industrial machines for sale, that he used to be a tailor, but doesn't do that anymore. I said I really only needed the straight stitch machine, as I just use the serger to finish off the edges, and my domestic worked fine for that. He only wanted to sell both together and sold them BOTH to me for $200. They were in immaculate condition, with spare parts and all. Moving them was the hard part- even though you can detach the actual machine part from the base, it still took 3 guys to lift them in and out of the truck and move them into my shop, they're so heavy.
Now I don't know how I ever got along with those little domestic machines, the industrials go so much faster. I still use a simple little basic Singer for light weight stuff, but all the upholstery work gets done on the industrials.
I'd LOVE it if you came down- I'd give you a crash course in using them and then I'd pay you to help me out, as I get swamped with work.