I should love to know what the best features are for the varying figure types please.

I should love to be able to emulate Jackie Onassis but fear my apple-shaped figure wouldn't do her justice. Maybe if I won the book it would really inspire me to lose weight and then I could really enjoy dressmaking.

Regarding your comment on the fact that you would like to buy a walking foot one day, my old Pfaff machine had one permanently attached which was great but my current machine, a Husqvarna Designer, 1 has a completely separate one which is fiddly to put on and has to be taken off every time I change to machine embroidery; consequently I rarely use it. It also costs a lot of money so to me is not cost effective. May be this is something you should look out for if you ever decide to get one.