Sewing Machine shopping for a cosplayer! Sewing Machines Parts and Sales in Los Angeles

Hey all!

I’m looking to buy a mid-range sewing machine for my girlfriend. We’re both cosplayers, but I focus more on armor building whereas she does a good bit of sewing. Lately I’ve been seeing her struggle more and more with a $70 low-end Brother machine she has been using for 4 years.

It’s clear she wants a better one, but I’m sort of at a loss of what to look for. I can say that the biggest problem she has is her machine getting jammed up (pardon my ignorance here), where she’ll have to stop, manually turn the needle and get things back into place.

She generally doesn’t sew with too tough of material, just linens, cottons, vinyl fabric etc.

So I have a budget of roughly $400. I would love to get her an industrial grade sewing machine like some of her friends have, but I just don’t have the budget for that. I guess the question is, will my budget be high enough to get her a sewing machine that she would get a noticeable benefit from?

I have done some Amazon shopping and currently my two top are:

$361 – Singer 9960:
http://www.amazon.com/9960-600-Stitch-Computerized-Extension-Accessories/dp/B004RDH7Y8/ref=sr_1_18?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1455901289&sr=1-18&keywords=sewing+machine

$350 – Singer 9980
http://www.amazon.com/Singer-9980-Quantum-820-Stitch-Computerized/dp/B00F6PL84Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455901407&sr=8-1&keywords=singer+9980

I have picked these two purely based off reviews and price, and I’m totally open to more suggestion. Also, it seems like I should get the 9980 since (I think) the differences are largely that the 9980 has more stitching patterns than the 9960, and in this case is cheaper.

Thank you so much for your help!