Brother Bobbin Winder

Brother Bobbin Winder
Brother Bobbin Winder

Brother CE 5500PRW Sewing Machine Review

The Brother CE 5500PRW sewing machine has won the Consumer’s Digest ‘Best Buy’ award and is one of the least expensive Project Runway machines on the market. If you want to sew like a pro without breaking the bank, this one is certainly worth a look.

This is a compact, lightweight machine with lots of features suitable for making clothes, light quilting and free-motion embroidery. It’s smaller and lighter than comparable machines making it highly portable.

Brother CE 5500PRW Stitch Patterns
A total of 50 built-in stitches are programmed into this sewing machine including 5 styles of auto-sizing, 1-step buttonholes. The stitch selection covers decorative sewing, stretch stitches, quilting, and heirloom sewing. Stitch width is adjustable to 7mm and length adjustable to 5mm.

Comparing sewing machines often comes down to settling on a set of stitch patterns that will grow as your skills improve and your taste for more complex projects increases. The collection that comes with this machine has enough variety to accomplish all types of sewing with some very pretty designs.

Brother CE 5500PRW Presser Feet
There are a total of 7 snap-on presser feet included with the purchase of this sewing machine. The Zigzag foot has a leveler button for maneuvering over thick seams. Stored inside the flatbed of this machine you will find a Zigzag (general purpose) foot, a Buttonhole foot, an Overcasting foot, a Monogramming foot, the Zipper foot, a Blind Stitch foot and a Button Fitting presser foot.

Brother CE 5500PRW Features
Brother does a great job of packing as many automation features as possible into their machines – even this entry level Project Runway model.

The LCD screen used to monitor your stitch selection and settings is bright and easy to read. Four push buttons around the screen operate all of the machine’s stitch operations. There is an automatic needle threader to make getting the thread through the eye of the needle as easy as possible, a drop-in bobbin system, and a fast, automatic bobbin winder.

The six point feed dog system provides good fabric control and the machine handles even thick fabrics like layers of denim, tweed and canvas.

Top thread tension is adjustable. The needle has two possible positions – left and center so you can get close to the edge of your fabric. You can remove the flat bed for free-arm sewing and also drop the feed dogs so you can do a simple mending stitch or try your hand at free-motion quilting and embroidery.

You can perform twin needle sewing on this machine for parallel stitch lines. The work area is well lit. The reverse button is conveniently accessible. A built in handle at the top of the machine makes it easy to move around. A see through bobbin cover saves you from running out of bobbin thread in the middle of your stitch work.

For convenience, a large selection of supplied notions store in the flat bed attachment: seam ripper, 4 bobbins, 3 piece needle set, ball point needle, cleaning brush, screwdriver, spool caps, and an extra spool pin. A soft cover is included to keep your machine free of dust when not in use.

The Brother CE 5500PRW offers a lot of functionality for a very decent price. It’s worth considering if you are in the market for a new sewing machine.

To learn more about the features and stitch names available with the Brother CE 5500PRW see: Brother CE 5500PRW.

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To compare this sewing machine to comparably priced ones on the market today follow this link: Sewing Machine Reviews.

Sewing notions, bobbin winder?

I just ordered my first sewing machine, a Brother XL2610. It’s to do crafts with mostly, specifically memory bears.

Anyway it says it comes with notions and I was wondering what that means, and whether I can expect it to come with some thread already in it to try out?

Also, it says it has an automatic bobbin winder. So does that mean it makes bobbins out of normal spools of thread? So should I just buy empty bobbins and if so does it matter if they are metal or plastic?

drip gave a good answer.
It’s hard to say what the notions are, possibly oil for the machine, a brush for cleaning out around the needle and feed dog and a small screwdriver. It won’t come with thread.
The automatic bobbin winder comes with every machine, even the really old models had that. You put your spool of thread on the spindle, wind it around the thread tension (check your manual to find the right spot) then around the bobbin. Turn the knob on the flywheel and it fills the bobbin. On most models, the bobbin pops up when it is full. Find out what kind of bobbins you need, some use plastic, and some use metal. Check your manual when the machine comes.

Bobbin Winder Rewinding Bobbins for Sewing Machines Bobbins


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