Yes I am new to puppet making, and was looking for a good begginer sewing machine for sewing antron fleece. Any input would be much appreciated.  Thank You  Lou

What can you afford?    Walmart and Targets well normally have Brother or Singer machines for around $100 and up.  As a rule Singers are normally a bit better built then Brother machines.  That being said, I have a $99 Brother here at home that seems to bully it's way through about anything.  It is a bit noisy though.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff.............. as Shawn mentioned you can find the brother sewing machines at a reasonable price these days. I have three refurbished machines that I purchased off EBay for around $50 each. They have worked great and I have had them several years.
It looks like hancock fabrics and jo ann fabrics have $99 machines.

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/category.jsp?_DARGS=/joann/catalog/supercatleftnav.jsp_A&_DAV=catName&_dynSessConf=3379954297723635296&narrowSelection=true&categoryExpand=true&categoryfullPath=all+products////product+home////sewing+%26+quilting////sewing+machines&CATID=cat2097&supercatId=cat1760&lftsuperCatName=sewing+machines&subCatName=sewing+machines


http://www.hancockfabrics.com/Sewing-Machines_stcVVcatId537270VVviewcat.htm

Link no longer available.I use this machine I found on amazon.

It's a great machine for beginners like us and it's cheap.

That looks like a pretty good multi-purpose machine that keeps things simple AWS Puppets.   I like the simplicity of the stitch selection.

Here is a little contest for folks... Can you find the mistake in the images that are supplied for the machine that AWS linked to at amazon.

I'd say it looks like it's not threaded correctly.   

I used a Walmart version Brother for several years when I was first sewing for the business.  I don't remember the model.  The only thing I had problems sewing was thick nylon backpack straps.  It would jam, but otherwise it worked great.  Used it for about 3 years at full speed, sewing about 3-5 hrs a day.  Now I have a Brother NX-450.  It is great! But, what I've really enjoyed recently is our new Bernina 700DL serger.  Fast and relatively quite.  I used to thing the NX sewed fast, but nothing compared to the serger. 

It is threaded wrong in one of the photos. I just noticed.

what are the sewing machines cheap in the USA...........

Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have our winners!  Yep they show it threaded wrong in the one picture.

what are the sewing machines cheap in the USA...........

Do you mean "Why are the sewing machines cheap...."

Many of the big chain companies are so big that they can make special deals with manufactures. They can buy thousands of a product from the makers of things so they give them a reduced rate. They then pass on the savings to the consumer.  The US also imports a lot of stuff from third world countries where it is cheaper to make things.  Not sure if European countries do this as much.