SINGER® Brilliance 6180 Portable Sewing Machine + Accessories| 180 Stitch Applications| Free Arm

Great little machine!!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] i always buy Singer machines. This one was bought for my niece. She was to learn and sew for herself. Singer is a good type of Machine.I have an older singer.

ive had this machine for ~10 years now? been using it nonstop for the last ~5 years. its really a great machine for the price. i have gotten to know it and how to ensure success for both of us. the machines quirks are that you have to hold the tails when starting to sew. also, you should be careful with knits and practice on scraps to get the tension right. i adjust the bobbin tension often and know how to change it for different fabrics. this just takes practice and time. otherwise. i have sewn leather, jeans, silk, knits, wovens, and anything in between including mesh, and sport fabrics such as ripstop nylon, and many zippers. i have made bags, pants, dresses, tops, masks, etc. It has done everything for me and i am so happy to have it as my machine. this machine is exactly enough for beginners with its semi-automatic threading, automatic buttonhole, the numerous stitches, and feet it comes with. its really great!

It's a decent machine, but you must have a computer, printer, ink and more than 70 sheets of paper to get a full owners manual in several different languages even though you only want English. I was willing to print the English pages however there were multiple languages on a lot of the pages. Singer no longer sends a manual when you purchase it's sewing machines.

When it works it's good. We had to watch youtube video after video to figure it out. At least they are available if you search enough. It comes with no manual just a sheet on how to load thread, wind a bobbin and a few other little details. Not very intuitive for a brand new machine. The machine we have is 6180 brilliance, and it had no tools with it. Just a few needles, 2 bobbins and thread cutter. Compared to our original Kenmore, this thing has harder to reach threading areas. To wind a bobbin, it worked but the video helped. To thread the machine to and through the needle was a pain again compared to the Kenmore. The areas are hard to reach and see. The automatic needle threader was bent and after 2 hours i had to take a magnifying glass to see that this very minuute hook that is suppose to go thru the needle was bent. I carefully readjusted it back with my jewlers tools....man what a pain., but it works "now". After we got it all set up the C4 error occurred right away on the basic stitch. Found out via the video that the bobbin holder has a screw that was about 1/2 turn too tight causing it to bind and not work. the machine sounded terrible. Once we got that working, sewing has been great. Out of box issues: no manual - had to go on line, watch videos for 3 darn hours, bobbin holder too tight, needle was so tight a screwdriver had to be used really hard to remove it, the needle threader was not aligned from the factory. So bottom line, once you figure out how to correct what we think should be factory perfect settings out of the box ready to use, was hampered by not having them set. We got it working, but man, it was a battle. hope it works for years, but we are sceptical. Very respectfully, A & L

The only thing I like about it was the price. Had a hard time trying to sew and to find out the needle was bend. I look through the manual to see what was the problem it had no other solutions beside stating to check the needle. The manual is a joke. It had a DVD, but I don't have a player. Now that I fix the problem it seem to work.

Difficult to use with poor eye sight

To be honest, I thought this model would be relatively easy to master, after years of using my much older electric model Singer, from the late 1960's. But so far, I've struggled a bit with the manual (very little detailed information about the machine) and I've managed to break 3 of the included needles. I'm not down and out, just yet. I've managed to tackle a few sample pieces of material by sewing seams and creating hems. Every now and again, I notice that the needle housing jams while in the down position, forcing me to turn the machine off (this is how the needles broke) Guess I'm going to be looking for new needles before the weekend is over.

Sad that they call this a Singer! Didn't reverse, foot off the pedal, kept running, sounded horrible!

I purchased this machine one week ago today. When I first saw it I was thrilled with all the things it would do. Not so thrilled anymore. After one week the needle threader no longer works. If I can get it to come down to use it won't go back up. When I step on the peddle to make the machine go some times I have to step on it several times before it starts the same with the reverse button. I have been a loyal singer owner for 40 years and this has really dissappointed me. I will be returning this machine and possibly looking into a different brand. If I hadn't had all the problems I would say this was a fantastic machine for the value.