My friend would like to get her 10 year old daughter a first sewing machine for xmas but has no idea what to choose. I said I’d ask the experts here so any advice would be welcome please.
If you can recommend a good starter book or patterns that would be great too.
Thank you 
Shaz
The little ikea one is pretty good. Chloe has it in her room and it’s straight forward, cheap and cheerful and to be fair even my machine would have struggled with the couple of things she’s thrown at it that gave it the collywobbles:)
As for books, I’d be inclined to buy a nice binder and print a ton of kid friendly patterns from t’internet, use pinterest as a starting point and print off things that fit with what she’s already into. She could group the patterns together by size so that if yiur friends daughter has a meter to play with she can scour those patterns, then the fat quarters, right down to using little scrappy bits for mixed media patches, badges, embellishments for clothes, making cards/toppers for friends etc and jewellery.
I hope she has fun with her first machine
Ooh yes, I love your binder idea Leanne - I might put that together for her myself along with a helping of fabrics from my plentiful collection! Apparently she wants to start by making clothes for her teddies and dolls but I think she’ll be up for trying all sorts of different projects. I’ll tell my friend about the Ikea one - thanks for sharing Chloe’s experience.
Chloe’s more bags and button or velcro purses (we’re getting there with the zips:) she loves making little things like badges and brooches, she’s made a few belts and a couple of circle skirts with knit waistbands instead of faffing with elastic and she makes most of her cards, the ikea machine happliy sews through card blanks and paper. And she’s made a few toys and things for her cousin.
The letter to santa had pompom trim on it but I don’t know what she’s planning with it just yet. It could just be a habby craving … nought wrong with that:)
John Lewis do a small one for just under £50. I bought the red one a couple of years ago and my daughter now has it, as I’ve upgraded to a bigger machine. They come in lots of funky colours and are fine for a child of that age I think as the needle speed is quite slow. Pink Machine
That’s really helpful, thanks @SeetheWoods and @silvapagan - slow needle speed sounds like a good thing for a beginner.
I’ll mention both options - they’re similar prices too.
I’ve had a quick look on Pinterest and it seems that sewing on paper first is a good way of getting used to learning about the way the needle moves, lifting and turning without worrying about the thread. One idea was to use dot to dot puzzles.
I should think Chloe will be wanting her own Folksy shop soon won’t she Leanne 
Oooh, I like those pretty coloured machines!
They’ve got drop in bobbins too. I much prefer them over the ones that use the bobbin cases as they’re less fiddly to use and you can easily see how much thread you have left on the bobbin.