Reviews

I am relatively new to serging, and I did quite a bit of shopping around before deciding to buy this one. I have been taking fashion construction classes at the local community college and thought that I would likely invest in a machine similar to those used at school. I assume, rightly so, that they know what they're doing and would outfit the school with good, durable machines: Bernina, Baby Lock, etc. After looking at all these other brands, as well as their prices, I thought that I would minimize my investment in my first serger and give this one a try... everyone's high ratings gave me a lot of confidence. I have to say, right off the bat, that I was impressed the moment I opened the box. This is a solid, well-constructed machine that ships loaded with accessories and instructions. I get the sense immediately that Brother is proud of this machine and is determined that their customers will be successful and enjoy using it. I know that sounds kind of corny, but I am impressed from the get-go that I get so much from Brother for such an amazing value. Mine contains 2 CD's of instructions and techniques, which I didn't even expect. The CD's are a little dated (made for Windows '95) but were easily accessible on my Macintosh. The machine also arrives pre-threaded. The machine, as well as the instructions, really lay out how each part of the machine and threading work, and how to get the best results for different kinds of finishes. I've yet to find something negative to report about this machine, but will update my review should I run into any problems. For now, full steam ahead!

Having gone through about 3 singer sergers from JoAnn's....I read all the great review on this one, and took a chance and ordered from Amazon. Recieved the next day, machine works super great. Runs quietly, a little easier to thread.....just works really well. The singers were loud and broke often, also were hard to thread. Love this machine!

My serging experience started with an old machine found at a yard sale. While the machine was a name brand, it was so difficult to use, took an incredibly long time to thread. I had thought that maybe serging wasn't for me. That is, until I visited a friends house and saw her 1034D. When I asked her about it, she raved how easy it was, how she couldn't live without it and offered to give me a quick tutorial. It was incredible! So easy to thread, so easy to use and such fantastic results! Needless to say, I bought one myself right away and I haven't been happier with my sewing in ages! I never would have guessed serging could be so much fun.

I had bought another serger, in which it was much more expensive and did not have some of the feature that Brother 1034D has, What a machine, it's great I like threading the looper, which normally it's difficult,easy to set, and light weight, and best is that Amazon delivered this machine in two days, could not believe it, and the price was great, plus no shipping charges,I recomend this Serger to any one who enjoys sewing, and Thanks to Amazon for so a great value.

I wanted to use this serger so badly but could not figure how to thread it for the life of me. I am a beginner and have no experience with sergers so I do not blame the machine at all. I am sure it is easy to use but I couldn't figure it out. I looked for a tutorial online because the instructional disc that came with the machine was not compatible with my computer. I watched the tutorial over and over again. I tried and tried. I thought I had it but never got it. After a week of trying, I just gave up and sent it back.

Reviews

My sewing machine died. I cleaned out a lot of dust, used WD-40, but the feeder wouldn't feed. At 76 I didn't want to spend money on a new machine, so I went to Amazon. There was my Sew & Sew at a great price to help me with split seams, etc. It will work on battery or electricity. It will even do serious sewing if I ever get up enough ambition to take on a big project. I grabbed my debit card, picked up the phone on a Wednesday morning. My machine arrived that Thursday afternoon. I can't ask for better service.

It is good for small job work and even on cotton fabric only and it doesn't work properly on silk fabric. I wouldn't recommend this item. I am going to return it.

I bought this machine as I have been teaching my Grand daughters to sew and wanted something that wasn't as intimidating as my machine. The first on to use it was the three year old (of course I helped). She made her first pillow and it was a wonderful experience. The slow fast button makes it easier for the little ones so whether it be the three year old or the 7 and 8 year old. All can create and have a great experience white doing so.

This little sewing machine needs a guard around the needle to be safe for children.

This little guy has what it takes to get the job done. We use it rarely but when we do it does the trick. I'm curios how sturdy it will prove to be.

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My mother just purchased this machine and loves it! The batteries run down quickly though. I contacted Smartek to inquire about their cord for this machine. Here's the Kicker: The cord costs $5.00 and shipping/handling is $6.99. You could almost buy another machine. The portability of this machine is what's important for my Mother so she won't be purchasing a cord!

I have no experience using a sewing machine and rely solely on the instructions to route the thread. The machine came in with the thread already routed but I have to change the color. After spending like an hour figuring out why it doesnt work (it will jam and the thread kept coming off the needle), I tried to insert the thread from the opposite side (opposite from the instruction), then it works. But after that, I spend quite some time to adjust the dial to get the upper and bottom seam nice. The battery cover is very hard to open. It's almost like trying to rip it off. I think the latch will break soon. I want to give it 1 star but since it works nice after the thread is routed properly and the dial is adjusted, I add 1 more star.

I would have rather thrown away $20 then have wasted my time with this! It worked for a hot minute. Ended up throwing it out! It would have been less aggravating tossing a twenty then the time spend dealing with this!

It is just a piece of crap. It was working pretty decently when I received it, then, when I had to replace the threads, I could never make it work again.

I have never used a sewing machine before but have had luck with learning on this. The instruction sheet for loading the bobbin and threading the machine was not really clear but I got it figured out. It is not something you could use on thick material as it hangs up in it, but it is great for small repairs and hemming material. I bought a power adapter later so I didn't have to use batteries. I would recommend this for anyone that needs to do light repair work but just doesn't have the time or ability to use a needle and thread.

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We are starting a new couture fashion line in Guadalajara; I saw these industrial thread nippers and decided to order them...the service was fast and most reliable...follow-up emails were appreciated...easy tracking of the order...highly recommend Amazon and it's support retailers

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I deeply regret this purchase. Every dvd is only 30-40 minutes and each contains a way too long discussion between Kenneth King and the chief editor. Very few really useful things. I learned much more about fitting in the Palmer Pletsch dvds. They are each cheaper, longer (more than 1 hour) and more educational. I must mention that the Threads dvd with Louise Cutting (Secrets from the fashion industry) is very, very good. I'd give 5 stars to that dvd box.

These videos are an excellent resource for those who need to know just how to fit. I'd recommend these videos to all sewers beginners and advanced.

Perfect set for newer sewers needing help with altering or fitting. Explains how to measure, cut and alter a pattern to fit to fit various figure issues.

Reviews

Lots of good basic sewing information contained in this dvd. It is somewhat difficult to find specific information about a technique, you have to search through the articles to find what you're looking for. Indexing could be more specific.

Just received this DVD, I would have given it 5 stars if there were more than 50 articles included. For the price ($49.99) I would say "fill up the DVD" with as many articles as Taunton Press could fit! Oh well, that aside, this is a great help to sewing Goddesses, pattern makers, costume designers, and at home weekend tik-tik sewers. I like the "run from DVD" option, as I don't need to load another 355 MB of stuff on my hard drive. I also kind of wish you could view the articles on your tv, with your home stereo DVD player, so you can reference some techinques while you are actually sewing. If you love "Threads" magazine, as I do, and don't have all the past years of cool articles, this is a great purchase, and I think you will enjoy it. I have about 100 issues, but I save them all, as each issue is really useful and informative. This has a nice "search DVD" feature, which allows you to look up "interfacing", or "waistbands", etc. and get relevant articles to look at, that are on the DVD. I will buy Threads Best of II, if and when that comes out, so I give Volume I the thumbs up, for good info, and easy access to it! ~Barbara Costume Designer, Sewing Goddess [...]

Reviews

The spools were a little smaller than what I expected but the color variety is great (50 different colors) and at that price I am really happy with it.

I need a variety of thread colors to sew patches on my Boy Scout uniform and did not want to buy separate, large spools. This sewing kit does the job, because it has a little of many different colors. Even though it can be advertised as a travel kit, it really is not portable once you take everything out of the bubble pack. I had to transfer the contents to a different container. Thus, I would not recommend buying this as a travel sewing kit.

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Sometimes I would spend more time attempting to thread the needle than it took me to actually do the mending or whatever. No more....not with these self-threading needles. Great invention.

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The machine couldnt handle even a light fabric. It would get stuck every two stiches and would need to be threaded every 3 minutes. Don't buy this. I returned it right away.

I was excited to get this so I could finish my halloween costume. Well my final opinion is that it's a piece of junk. I couldn't put batteries in because one of the coils in the battery compartment was missing. The needle was stuck above the little foot thing and then the needle broke. It was so frustrating to deal with. I do not recommend this product at all!

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This machine is very poorly made. It is flimsy and cheep. The tension is really difficult to set and the thread breaks a lot. You basically have to take the protective shield off (by unscrewing it) and get to wear the thread base is. This happens about 10 times a sitting. My little one loves to sew, but this was quite discouraging.

This just never worked corrently. I have adjusted the tension and re-threaded the machine over and over. Couldn't get it to create a correct stitch.

Both our daughter's received one of these for Christmas. One machine works. One doesn't. I called the manufacturer about the broken machine...They want us to ship the product to them at our expense so they can either repair or replace the product. It is a very poorly made product. Cheap plastic parts and easy to dislodge wiring. You have to play with the tension to get the stitches to stick. Then you have to be sure to be careful and not let any stitches slip/undo as you sew. After you finish sewing your line, you have to lock in your beginning and end stitches by hand, with a needle and the tails/ends of the stitched thread. The needle guard is a pain to undo so that you can thread the needle. The screw on the needle guard of one of our machines was stripped. Once it was off we couldn't get it back on. The presser foot is very wobbly and does not stay aligned straight so trying to teach the girls how to sew a straight line is extremely difficult. I wish I would have saved the $$ and spent it on a lower cost 'real' sewing machine for the girls. The company's customer service/support is lacking and the hours for support for east coast residents are lousy. Save your money and buy a lower cost real machine.

I have to agree with all the other reviewers ... getting the tension adjusted correctly and learning to sew without the stitches coming out, was a bit irritating for me. In the end I did figure it out and my 5 year old granddaughter was sewing like a champ in only 2 days! However ... by the 3rd day I decided to try her out on my CraftMaster 300 since I saw she was being very careful, and now she doesn't want to go back to the Singer. Anyone want to purchase a very lightly used machine? BTW: you can also use wind bobbins and use in the machine when the spools are empty. I tried rewinding them and they don't wrap evenly, though they still work. It just wasn't worth the headache to rewind them.

I bought this for my daughter last christmas when she was 6. We have tried various times during the year to find the 'knack' to get this "machine" to work, but each time Mom gets frustrated and my daughter gets disappointed that the stitches don't stay in--Yes the stitches are supposed to be like the flour sack stitches, but the flourbag-type stitches don't actually work/loop 80% of the time. It would be better to actually to save your money and wait till your child is old enough to be taught and supervised on a real machine. Otherwise, your child will think even real sewing machines suck as bad as this toy and will never want to try a real one. A total waste of money...so sad, cause it looked like it could've been so fun.

Reviews

I love this toy, so simple and yet so fun. Although my daughter (21ms) whom i bought it for doesn't understand it yet. She thinks it's funner to swing around as a yo yo. Which is a bit dangerous for her sister since it's made out of wood.

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If you have a hard time translating stitches to left hand use, this books for you. If you are right handed or left and have no trouble switching the right hand directions to left, there many, many FAR better books than this. This book is for my left handed 9 yr old niece that hasn't learned to manage the usual right hand instructions yet.

being lefthanded the pictures and directions are very clear. The only lefthanded stitch quide i'v ever found. would recomend to both right and left handers..

Great tool for crazy quilters. I use it exclusively now that I have it. Every stitcher needs to have this in their library.

This book offers good, detailed, easy to follow instructions for the stitches. I was disappointed that the book was so small in size. I may have missed the measurements in the book info, but it is only about 6" X 6". I thought it was going to be a bit larger. Also the spiral binding is on the top and when you flip the pages open and look at the pages, the printing on the top page will be upside down to you and the bottom page will be right side up. So, as you are reading the instructions for a stitch, as you progress to the next page you have to flip the book around to read the instructions.

i love this book it tell you all you want to know...so helpfull and the pic. are great..