Brother Project Runway CS5055PRW Electric Sewing Machine Review

The Best Sewing Machine for the Budget-minded

Brother has always been a name associated with well-made, quality sewing machines that you can buy at an affordable price.

However, they’re also consistently referred to as a brand that makes sewing machines for beginners and little else.

With this amazing machine, Brother is most certainly trying to prove that notion wrong.

The Brother CS5055PRW is a marvel of technology, filled with great features and available at a ridiculously affordable price.

What are those great features?

Well, stick with me and read my full Brother CS5055PRW review to find out all about that!

Watch video: Brother CS5055PRW Project Runway Limited Edition Sewing Machine Overview

The Brother CS5055PRW at a Glance

If you want to have a quick look at the basic specs of the machine and figure out how it might perform, just take a look at this chart!

For a closer look at what this machine can offer and how well it performs in practice, read through the article and don’t miss the complete Brother CS5055PRW review!

The Top Features of the Brother CS5055PRW

Sewing machines these days have tons of features packed into them, and it can be difficult to learn what they all do and gauge, which are the most important ones.

To help you out, I’ll put a spotlight on what I believe to be the top features of this machine.

50 Different Built-in Stitches

This computerized sewing machine has a lot of built-in stitches, 50 in total. This includes some clothing stitches, decorative stitches, heirloom stitches, and even quilting stitches. You also get a choice of 87 different stitch functions.

All of the available stitches are printed on the front of the machine for easy reference, and you can choose the ones you want to use easily, through the LCD screen.

6 Specialty Sewing Feet

This machine comes with 6 different feet included in the package – a zipper foot, a buttonhole foot, a button sewing foot, a monogramming foot, a blind stitch foot, and an overcasting foot. That’s more than enough for most sewing jobs you would want to do with this machine.

Automatic Needle Threader

The automatic needle threader included with this machine will allow you to stop worrying about threading the needle – it will do it for you with just the touch of a lever.

5 One-step, Custom-sized Buttonholes

If you’ve struggled with making buttonholes, this will be a feature that you’ll love to bits. There are five different buttonhole styles included in this machine, and they can all be automatically sized to fit the buttons you want to use, giving you the perfect result each time.

Watch video: How to Sew Buttonholes for Beginners

Accessories Included

The accessory pouch which comes with this machine includes quite a few good extras. There are 3 bobbins, a 3-piece needle set, one twin needle, a ball-point needle, an extra spool pin, a seam ripper, a screwdriver and a cleaning brush.

Other Features that Brother CS5055PRW Offers

While I chose to highlight all those features for a reason, they are far from the only thing good about it. Here are some of the other features it has under the hood.

• LED lighting
• Vertical spool pin
• Quick-set top bobbin
• Black-and-white LCD display
• Built-in carrying handle
• Drop feed for free-motion quilting
• Built-in storage compartment
• Easy bobbin winding
• Foot controller pedal

The Complete Brother CS5055PRW Review

When you think about Brother sewing machines, you usually think about relatively basic but well-made machines that can do all the basic stuff and don’t cost a lot.

This machine almost fits that description, but it can definitely do more than just the basics, and it has a lot of other functions which make it great for more advanced users as well.

For starters, it has 50 built-in stitches, as well as a total of 87 stitch functions. All of the basics are included, but you also get a lot of fancy decorative and specialized stitches as well.

Two of those built-in stitches do require you to use a foot which is not included, which is a bummer but not a big deal.

You get 6 sewing feet with the machine itself, though you can buy others of course. The ones included cover the basics and a few other things as well.

One of the specialized jobs that this machine is great for is making buttonholes. It has 5 different buttonhole styles that you can automatically size to fit the buttons you’re working with, allowing you to make amazing, perfect buttonholes.

This machine is also quite good for quilting, and the drop feed allows you to do free-motion sewing and quilting with ease.

It has a decent amount of strength for that, but I wouldn’t test it on some tougher fabrics if I were you since it doesn’t do well with things like denim.

You’ll also notice that it shakes quite a lot when struggling with some tougher jobs and that can cause it to skip and ruin your work. You need to stabilize it well if you intend to use it for some tougher stuff.

When it’s working on stuff it can deal with more easily, it works fairly quietly and doesn’t make a lot of noise at all.

Don’t try to force it since it’s definitely not the most durable machine around and it might start breaking a bit if forced. It will last for a few years at least if you don’t abuse it too much, but it’s definitely not a heavy-duty sewing machine.

The cause of some of these problems is how lightweight and small it is – but that can also be a benefit to you if you need a more portable machine, which this one definitely is and it doesn’t sacrifice functionality to achieve that. It even has a carrying handle built into it!

Its price is relatively affordable considering that you get some great accessories bundled in with it.

It also has a lot of great quality-of-life functions like the strong LED light, the automatic needle threader or the automatic bobbin winding.

There are some unexpected functions as well, like the vertical spool pin which allows for more consistent thread feeding and allows you to use some specialized threads you otherwise couldn’t.

This will definitely be a good sewing machine for beginners, and it will give you room to grow, develop, and discover some of its more advanced functions as you learn more.

However, it’s also a good machine for more experience people since it offers some advanced functions and it’s not a simple machine by any means.

It might not be durable enough to be your main machine if you’re doing this professionally, but as a portable side machine, it will be more than adequate enough and worth the money.

Watch video: Sewing Machine Tips: Determining Which Spool Pin You Should Use

The Pros and Cons of the Brother CS5055PRW Sewing Machine

If you just want to take a quick look at the best and worst things about this machine, here’s what I think they are:

The Conclusion

This is the final stretch, and it’s time for me to tell you if I think the Brother CS5055PRW is worth buying and for you to make your decision.

While this is just my opinion, I do think that Brother CS5055PRW sewing machine is one that would be worth your money. It has a lot of great functionality, comes with great accessories, and it doesn’t cost a lot at all.

It’s a good machine for beginners and pros alike, though they’ll probably use it in wildly different ways.

In case you need a functional, portable sewing machine that comes at a budget price and can do a bit more than just the basics, this is the one you should get. However, you should pass on it if that’s not what you’re looking for.

So, what do you think? Is this the machine for you? What are your opinions on it? Post it all down in the comments, and I’ll try to answer you as soon as possible, especially if you have any questions – I love that.

Until next time, I wish you good luck with any of your sewing projects, and I hope I’ll see you again soon!