Here are my pro's and con's:
Pro's:
1. It is super light weight, 5 lbs. It is easy to transport and store.
2. It has a foot guard. I love that I am not concerned that my child is going to get her fingers caught in the needle.
3. It has all the basic necessary stitches. Here are the specs right off amazon's website.
4 Stitches with 6 stitch width and length variations:
- 5 Straight Stitch variations (A – E) - Basic sewing, inserting zipper
- 3 Zig-Zag Stitch variations (F, G, H) - Basic mending, garment construction
- 1 Crescent / Scallop Stitch (I) - For embellishment and applique
- 1 Multi-Stitch ZigZag Stitch (J) - Stretch fabrics like knits
4. It is the perfect sewing speed for a young child. It is a medium-ish speed..doesn't go faster.
5. Threads the same as my Bernina sewing machine, so my daughter is learning exactly how to thread that when I give her permission to sew with my machine. There are easy to follow arrows on the machine itself.
6. It fits my bobbins from my normal machine. Probably not a big deal to anyone else, but if I have a bobbin of one color already somewhere in the house, I don't really want to create a second one. Laziness and hopefully thriftiness.
7. If you are into having a fun color....there are a million of options of color. I bought this machine on Amazon and got an amazing deal on it that Christmas. Always make sure to check current, past and lowest prices on camelcamelcamel.com for all Amazon products so you can see the overall trends through time.
8. With the small complaints that I have below, I honestly think that this machine is going to last a really really long time and get a lot of good use. The manual is easy to understand and follow. When my daughter forgets how to do something when threading the machine, she pulls it out.
Con's:
1. #4 above--not a good machine for an adult looking for a take along small machine on a quick get-a-away. You will want to pull your hair out at the slowness of the speed. It can't be adjusted.
2. There is NO light. When I bought this, I thought, that won't be a problem. We will always be sewing in a well lit room. But it absolutely sucks. You can't see the needle to thread it without picking the machine up and putting it in the light or shining a flashlight on it. Also, it turns my daughter off from sewing. She will think she is sewing straight but can't see it really well and then gets frustrated when she has to unpick it. (However, I found a solution to this problem that I have posted down below)
3. The bobbin holder, while easy to open, a little hard for my daughter to thread and pull out in the right place. It has to loop around twice and she usually forgets the second one.
4. The thread holder in the top back of the machine has fallen off the machine twice. Not only that, over time it slowly falls backwards so the spool of thread almost won't stay on. When I see this I can pull it off the machine and pop it back in, but I think that if my daughter were to do it, she might break the part. I might just have a faulty one, but it is annoying.
5. There is no on-off switch. So, if you don't want it to accidentally push the foot, you need to unplug it from the wall.
6. The foot pedal: tiny. I think I should maybe put that as a pro for a little child, but even my daughter finds that it is so small and light weight that it really moves around and she has a hard time pushing it down. But, I would also expect with a lighter weight machine to have lighter weight parts. I just wish this one had a bit more weight or substance.
Here she is threading her machine. She is 7 1/2 in this picture and it comes easily now, just takes time like I would expect it to take for a younger child.
Her jealous brother watching her use her machine. He just needs a power tool...but what to give him, I have no idea. He is just toooooo young!!
You can see in the picture above that she is really bending over to see what she is doing. You can also see just how dark it is in there. I got on Amazon to look for some kind of light to attach to her machine. I found the following. It is amazing!!! Look at the light that it produces. Yes, I used the sticky attachments and permanently attached it to her machine. Obviously, I am not going to be taking it off since it was meant for the machine and also we can't handle the machine without the light. I am sooooo excited. (I purchased this light Jan 2018.)
(Before attaching)
What the light looks like close up
Madalynn checking out how I was attaching it
The bright LED's
From the front.
LED lights are bright, and these pictures make them look even brighter, but they are not as florescent as they appear. Now that the light problems is handled, it really is such a good machine for her. I am glad that I purchased it and I am grateful I found a fairly cheap solution to my major problem with it...even if it took me 2 years to do it.
Hope you enjoyed!!
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