My family has one. I'm not sure we'd get one if we didn't already have it. With that said, I've repaired clothing, backpacks, and a fairly expensive musical instrument case. For the latter repairs, I broke a few needles, and had to work the mechanism by hand, a stitch at a time, because the motor wasn't strong enough, but it got the job done.

As for making things, curtains. They're not hard because they're rectangular, and mainly just need cutting and hemming, but the result is sizes and materials that would require buying something custom made.