There's a line in the movie, "Back to the Future", where Doc Brown says something like this to Marty McFly:
"Do you know what this means, Future Boy??? It means that this damn machine doesn't work!!!"
Translation for my friend's daughter:
"Do you know what this means, Hailey? It means that this darn machine is made to turn off aspiring sewists before they even start!"
Thus, a Waste of $70.
Okay. Where am I going with this? I'll tell you. It's Saturday night and I'm drinking some wonderful blueberry wine and sitting down at my friend's daughter's "kiddie" sewing machine. It's one of those beginner child sewing machines, the kind that no company has a right to market. Yeah, I'm being a bit harsh, but it's the truth.
My friend has little knowledge of sewing and bought this machine for her daughter who expressed an interest in sewing. She didn't know anything about machines and bought this for her daughter. It was probably marketed as a toy? I don't know. Most likely with a price tag between $50 and $80, which is a waste of consumer money. It's basically about preying on unsuspecting consumers like my friend with no or very little sewing knowledge. Companies who sell these machines should be ashamed of themselves.
Why? Because the aggravation they cause is likely to turn off all but the extremely motivated, young, inspired sewist.
Consider the snippet of a video I made for her. Notice the wine glass stem behind the machine. Boy was I sure glad I had a glass of wine before test driving this machine. My laughter masked some harsh language LOL.
My "Beginner" sewing machine video snippet
Everything about this machine screams cheap. From the knobs and dials, the flimsy plastic components, the lack of power and the ridiculous option of using batteries. What? No component box? Kids leave "extras" all over the place. There was no thread spindle on the machine, no AC Adaptor, likely where kids leave accessories. (For my kids, that might be in the couch!). I know they're in Hailey's room because her mom keeps an impeccable house, unlike mine LOL. So I'm not worried about where they are, they are in order. But the average kid will lose several of the accessories before they even get going on the machine.
Stitch quality? Well, it's what I expected from the machine. The upper thread stitch was actually okay. The bobbin thread was irregular and uneven. The needle type? Who knows. Where was the manual? With the accessories I'm sure.
Do you know who I feel sorry for?
1. My friend and others like her. She was duped by the company who sold this machine. She didn't know and was an unsuspecting consumer. *** ETA...FYI--My friend bought this BEFORE we became friends. Just to clarify that. She had the best of intentions as we all do but I'm sure the box looked nice. Kind of like how my husband will see an informercial and think we should buy product X. It almost always performs way better on TV LOL.
2. Simplicity. I like Simplicity patterns. Always have. And they're name is stamped in large letters on the front of this machine.
Who do I want to yell at?
1. The marketing director who allowed the Simplicity name to be placed on this machine. It does not bode well for the company have their name advertised on this kiddie machine. A better idea would be to team up with a well-known, reliable sewing machine company and market a quality machine to youthful sewers.
2. Simplicity (and other companies) who allows this to happen. Please Simplicity, get these machines off the market! There is a better way.
Moral of the story or the purpose of this post?
We want to encourage young sewists from the get-go, not discourage them at every twist and turn.
And these, my dear readers, are my Monday morning ramblings.
4 comments:
A good used (real) machine is SO much better than this low end toy (and the kind sold for $199 in big box discount stores)! If only we could match used machines, vetted by experienced sew-ers with beginning sew-ers. Inexperienced folks cannot be expected to know this. Too bad they didn't ask you first. That $70 would be a start on a decent machine. So glad I learned on a Singer FW, rather than a toy!
Good post. I believe in "you get what you paid for" and sorry to hear that your friend had wasted her money. It's hard to shop for something where knowledge is lacking. If my knowledge is lacking, I always do some research on the Internet, ask friends, and stick with a known name brand.
BTW...thanks for letting me know about JEF (PR). ;)
Susan
I bought the little Janome Sew Mini for my then six year old granddaughter and it works great and is still sewing beautifully after two years of use! I only paid $50. for it.
I think the difference is it's a Janome. Bernina is coming out with a small inexpensive model to compete with the Sew Mini and I've heard it will be less than $100. too.
Don't shoot them all down until you try them all. I wouldn't expect anything from Simplicity to work but then I've been sewing for over 50 years which adds up to lots of experience. ;>)
That makes me sad. I had a (Simplicity I think) kiddy machine when I was little, about 20-25 years ago. It plugged into an outlet for a proper, reliable power supply and I think that must be the difference. I loved mine, and I had zero patience as a child...some may say there hasn't been too much improvement on that front.
The point being that I got it when I was little, and it worked well enough for a child to use reliably, and it kept me interested enough in sewing to take home ec in junior high, a few years later.
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