Brother XR1355 is a good choice for beginners and intermediate sewers. It is feature rich and competitively priced.

Brother XR1355 Computerized Sewing Machine Features

• 130 built-in stitches
• 8 1-step auto size buttonholes
• Wide table for large projects
• Needle up/down

Brother XR1355 Review

Sewing Machine Reviews Recommendation Level : HIGH

Brother XR1355 is a feature rich beginners sewing machine. It comes with 130 built-in stitches, which include 8 1-step auto size buttonholes. It has stitch functions for decorative stitches, quilting, heirloom and garment construction. Monogramming is made easy on this sewing machine. It has 1 sewing lettering style each with 55 alphanumeric characters for monogramming.

Brother XR1355 has all the essential features of a beginners machine. It comes with a very good automatic needle threader. Stitches can be selected using the push-buttons. The detachable wide table lets you do free-motion quilting. It is equipped with a drop-in bobbin system.

Brother XR1355 comes with a fantastic feed system than can sew any kind of fabric. The machine is lightweight as well. It weighs around 14 pounds. It can be operated with or without the foot pedal. If you want to sew without the foot pedal, you can control the sewing speed using the speed control slider. This machine can sew at a speed of 850 stitches/min, which suggests that it has a powerful motor inside. You can start/stop sewing with a press of a button. Even thought the stitch width and length is automatically set, you can customize it. Stitch width can be adjusted to a maximum of 7mm and length to a maximum of 5mm.

Brother XR1355 has needle up/down feature. It also comes with an automatic presser foot lifter. This sewing machine comes with 25 year limited warranty.

Usability

Brother XR1355 is a user friendly sewing machine. It is very easy to thread the machine. Being lightweight, it is a good option if you are planning to take your machine to sewing classes. You will be better of going through the instructional DVD before setting this up. Selecting the stitches is super easy as you can see everything on the backlit LCD screen. The stitches are consistent and straight on this machine.

Limitations

The only limitation of Brother XR1355 is that the monogramming letters are of 1/4″ size which is not really enough for major monogramming works.

Pros

• Lot of features
• Easy to use
• Lightweight
• Needle up/down
• Automatic presser foot lifter

Cons

• Monogramming letter size is small

Verdict

Brother XR1355 will suit you, if you don’t want to spend $400 or something for a good sewing machine with a lot of features. It is competitively priced as well. It will suit intermediate sewers more.