Glenn Ashmore wrote:
I need a machine for making cockpit cushions, canvas items
around the boat and minor sail repairs. I know I need zigzag, enough power
to make it through 5 or 6 layers of Sunbrella and maybe a walking foot but
that's about it.

Might be worth looking into an ancient home machine. I bought a used
all metal 1950-60s ziz-zag two speed no walking foot Viking-Husqvarna
21E home machine for $80 15 years ago for a cabin cushion project,
figuring if it blows up I'm still ahead of the game. It was over $1000
new in 1960 dollars. Many sail repair, canvas, flagmaking, camping gear
and clothing repair projects later the thing is still chugging along,
needing only light bulbs (hard to find) every five years or so.

Five or six layers of Sunbrella in low gear is doable, multiple cloth +
leather-foam-adhesive-plastic window type sewing requires "helping"
with the hand wheel, broken needles, swearing and lots of time but is
also doable. The key is the right "denim" or "ball point" type needle,
swedish are best, Singers suck.

The downsides:
- It's slow
- The stitch length and zig-zag width aren't as large as commercial
sail machine
- The small bobbin means you're endlessly refilling the bobbin on 30+
foot seams
- No walking foot means you're "helping" the cloth through on thick
stuff
- Thread tension controls weren't meant for big thread-thick cloth
jobs, touchy
- Small work surface means keeping things organized requires lots of
pins
- Small throat means creative stuffing on large things, middle of sails
being near impossible

Upsides:
- It's an $80 throw away
- Only 30 pounds or so
- Compact, easy to store
- Fairly low wattage, works fine on a 1000 watt inverter, because of
intermittant load
- No computerized crap or plastic, all mechanical, screwed together
fixable
- Has attachments that will do lots of non-manly sewing, double needle,
rolled, edge, flat felled seams, darning, buttons, fancy zig-zagging,
and I lot of stuff I don't understand. The ladies love it; I've had
SailRite equipped boats borrow mine so the better half can make, repair
and enhance delicate things.

Bought mine at a sewing machine repair store; Ebay might not be such a
good idea as you may get a clunker. Probably more than $80 now, but
the codger told me women turn in their 60's machines for the latest
feature laden Singer, even though the old machine still has a lot of
life in it and is a hell of a lot tougher.

P.S., sewing is a skill and there's a learning curve involved; I'm just
marginally competent and have a lot of respect for the experts. Some
things to key on a finished outside surface vs. inside surface,
lay, seam allowance, thread tension control and shrink. I still rip
out about 10% of my seams and redo because of goofups. Worst stab is
when you make a mirror image of the item you wanted to make, you know,
seams on the outside and such.