Hobbycraft Mini Sewing Machine Review

I hold my hands up and admit, I was close to quitting yesterday. I honestly thought I'm never going to do it.

My partner used the time I spent at a children's birthday party (not getting bored for a change - we adults were allowed to participate in the ice skating activity!) to sort out the suits, and when we got home, I proudly looked at the sewing I had done over the holidays. And my face fell. It looked sloppy, lopsided and a mess. Of course I knew I had overlooked a few things. The fabric should have been washed first as it is prone to shrinkage. The gathered part should have been done with two threads at the same time, not the shoddy attempt I made to rescue the one-threaded bit afterwards. Silly, beginner's errors, which have now cost me some material. My local Hobbycraft have run out of the satin I used, so the whole pressure bubble burst in me frantically trying to find a dress I liked online. My partner then told me how silly I was (granted - he didn't see the first attempt) and I agreed to give sewing machines another try.

My mother-in-law's is lovely, but just not for beginners at all. It has lots of different settings, an option of one or two needles and the tension needs adjusting for each type of thread. When I first used it, I was just overwhelmed and had little idea what I was doing. It is a miracle I managed to thread the bobbins alright.

So off I went to purchase the one thing I had set my eyes on for the last few weeks: Hobbycraft's very own mini sewing machine. At £25, not only was the price attractive; the whole things also came pre-threaded, saving me the many minutes of cultural vocabulary enhancement (i.e. swearing) I spent fussing with the other machine.

Working the machine is intuitive, if you have ever seen a sewing machine before. There are two wheels and two buttons, One wheel you leave alone (it sorts out the thread tension and is already pre-set to its optimum setting), the other you use to sort out the needle height. One button switches the sewing machine on, the other one sets the speed to low or high. The one lever at the back ensures that the fabric can be inserted and held in place. That is it. As a sewing machine for beginners, this is brilliant. It does what it says on the packing - sew fabric together.

There are two downers. One is that the machine only works the most basic running stitch; there are no potions to change to any other type. Having said that, the machine costs £25 as opposed to £100 for most of the others, so I didn't expect miracles. The other downer is that the instructions still require some basic knowledge of how a sewing machine works. Other than the labelling, there were no diagrams to show how to thread the machine; the instructions only stated to look at the set-up closely before threading and the rest was text. Now, having threaded the other machine, I have a basic understanding, but I feel that diagrams would have helped there as this machine would most obviously be bought by beginners like me, or by people who just use it 'on the go'.

Other than that, however, the tiny machine is just what I wanted. Something to help me get started and save me many hours of labour. Thank you, Hobbycraft, I love my new favourite toy!

I will cut the patterns again and carry on!


P.S. Just in case you were wondering, I now have a full-time job, so typing posts will probably only happen once or twice a week.

Dress the First

Phew. I've finally done it. I've started on the big dress. No toile; time is precious enough as it is.

The dress I've chosen as my basis for the top is the one shown above. There are so many advantages to it, including being able to lace it up two ways (three when I have had my way with my dress), so that any misjudgements in size could be forgiven, provided that I see myself as too fat rather than too thin. So good chance it'll go well :-)

There are a fair few things that will have to be altered. There are the sleeves. I love the dress, always have done, but always had to cover up the sleeves as they just didn't fit. There is elastic band at both ends; I will remove the one on the inside and make the sleeves larger to cover my shoulders completely.

The top will be shorter. It will finish at the hip and then the dress will flare out from there. If there is one thing the trial dress from the previous post had shown me it is that a frontal shot of a longer-than-waist top will make me look huge.

The skirt may include some layering. I haven't decided that yet. I have an underskirt if I decide against that, but if not, the layering will add volume.

After a curious measuring session, I have drawn the first two patterns onto squared paper. That, in itself, didn't prove too challenging, although exactly what the shape of the ruffled bit is, is a bit of a mystery. Again, I rather err on the side of caution and go too big rather than too little.


I then pinned the patterns to the silk and started to cut. Satin is bloody hard to cut! Or my scissors need some sanding. There will be some fraying, but hopefully the large seam allowance of 1.5cm will more than make up for that, given that it will only be worn once.

 Am I a fool? Maybe. But it will be fun while it lasts.