Sewing machines: How we test sewing machines
Our test was designed to discover whether you can buy an entry-level sewing machine, costing around £200, which is easy for beginners to use - yet versatile enough to take on more complicated tasks as skills grow. Our sewing machines review reveals the results.
Expert sewing machine assessment
Each of the sewing machines was put through its paces on a variety of sewing tasks by expert sewer Wendy Gardiner, who has been in the sewing industry for over 26 years, and has published sewing magazines, books and DVDs.
Wendy is the editor of Sewing World magazine, a monthly title for people who enjoy sewing with a machine, and is also a co-founder of isew.co.uk, an organisation dedicated to sharing sewing skills and knowledge so that more people can enjoy the pastime.
Wendy considered each machine from several different perspectives:
Convenience
An instruction booklet is essential reading for using your sewing machine correctly
This assessment covered:
- the quality of the sewing machine’s instruction manual and quick-start guides
- how easy it was to load the bobbin with thread
- the ease of threading the sewing machine
- the ease of using the stitch selection, tension setting and needle position controls
- the ease of reversing the stitch direction and locking stitches
- visibility of the upper and lower threads during sewing
- using the foot pedal to control the speed.
Sewing machine performance
This assessment covered:
- how well-formed and consistent the sewing machine’s straight, zigzag and overlock stitches were
- how well the sewing machine handled stitching on different fabrics including cotton, delicate chiffon, fleece, stretch jersey and corduroy. This test included sewing on multiple thicknesses of each fabric
- how well the sewing machine created a buttonhole using the button hostages and accessories
- how noisy the sewing machine was during operation.
Versatility
A wide range of accessories improves the versatility of your machine
Wendy relied on her considerable experience of using sewing machines to assess their suitability for a wide range of sewing tasks and different levels of experience.
The factors she considered included the variety of stitch lengths, widths and needle positions offered by the machine, as well as the range of accessories provided with it. She considered the size of the flatbed and free arms, and the sewing areas for sewing both large and small pieces of work, as well as the steadiness of the sewing machine for coping with bulky upholstery fabrics.
Sewing machine build quality
This considered how well-manufactured the sewing machine was, covering aspects such as how well the different parts of the plastic casing fitted together, and the sturdiness of the control dials and accessories.
Novice assessment of sewing machines
A volunteer tries out a sewing machine for the first time.
We asked 40 people with no experience of using a sewing machine to assess how easy it was to get started with the sewing machines in our test.
The novice users were asked to load a bobbin, thread up the sewing machine and sew along three straight lines drawn out for them on a piece of fabric. The only help they received came from the instruction manual supplied with the sewing machine they tried.
Each sewing machine was tried by five different people. They were asked to rate how easy it was to set up the machine and to sew with it, and how successful their sewing was.
We also examined their efforts after the test, and rated the quality of the stitches and lines that the novices achieved.
