I would like to buy my wife, who is new to sewing and embroidery but who is artistic and loves making things, a special Xmas present.

After a lot if internet research I was drawn to the Singer Futura CE 200, as the claimed features would make it a very versatile "dream machine". Unfortunately the user reviews I've read have been quite mixed; some report a lot of frustration with moody and / or not very robust machines. As my wife is not the most techical or patient person, I looked elsewhere.

The closest apparent match I've found is the Brother Innov-is 700 (this is the UK name) embroiderer, which when used with software called the PE Design 7, supposedly does all the things which the CE 200 is supposed to do with Autopunch the extra Singer software for fonts and photos.

Unfortunately the Brother machine / software combo is about 30% more expensive than than the Singer its two extra software packages, and on top of that I'd need to buy a sewing machine, as the Innov-is 700 is only for embroidery. The Brother retailer suggested a mid-range machine known over here as the BM 3500.

Does anyone have any experience with the Innov-is 700 and the PE Design software? As a secondary question, any comments on the BM 3500?

My goal is to get her something which lets her a) use 3rd-party embroidery patterns from the internet; b) to make her own, including true-type fonts, so she can apply her creativity, and c) to sew, WITHOUT a lot of frustration, for a good number of years to come. The Brother package would cost a lot more, but I'd rather pay now for quality, rather than later, through disappointment.

Sorry for such a long post, I'm just trying to make the most informed choice I can. I'd be very grateful for any advice.

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Being a Singer engineer for many years and presently involved with Singer, i think i can give you a honest answer... buy the Brother Innov-is 700e, its available from sewingmachine-sales.co.uk with PE Design lite software valued at £200 FREE at the moment.

However, the new Singer CE250 is a different machine to the older ce200, the new CE250 includes version 3 software and its a big improvement over the v2 of the old ce200.

If you purchase a CE250 you will be very happy with its performance, pound for pound its excellent there's nothing on the home use embroidery machine market that comes close to the CE250 for the price. Ive seen it at the Singer UK website

I can answer any specific question on either the CE250 or the Brother 700e if there is more detailed questions you need help with.

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