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I'm currently staying with my parents for a short while, and have been trying out my mother's Singer 7442 Electronic Sewing Machine. And, really? I would not recommend it.. It's obviously aimed at the beginners among us, and while it tries it's best to offer an intuitive, simplistic experience, it sacrifices a lot in the process.
The Singer 7442
The first thing that bugged me about this sewing machine was the way the stitching had been automated. Whenever you take your foot off, the machine will always finish the stitch, and raise itself again, regardless of where you were, removing manual control over the needle. I can see the advantages for the first time sewer, but it does make the machine less responsive, and with less direct control. The drawback of this is negated a little by the fact that you still (thankfully) have manual control over the side wheel, so you can still raise and lower the needle as you please, but the feature itself still seems like a very arbitrary trait with no obvious benefit, other than being slightly simpler for newbies.
Continuing the reduction of user control and tweaking, if you want to open up the side of the machine (something I'm fairly used to, for increasing the light radius, dusting, probing, oiling and generally seeing that everything's working) you have to find a tiny screwdriver to open it. Again, the screw just seems like another pointless obstacle. There is no apparent advantage over using a simple catch system. Instead of holding down a lever, or changing a setting, reverse stitches are done with a single button (without the pedal), which while simple for newbies, does remove your control of the speed.
The side screw attachment.
The pedal is clunky and often doesn't register when you remove your foot, then press again quickly. It's prone to jamming and breaking down, too, as this one had only seen light use over a period of a year, but the spring had already gone. The auto function on the tension dial is capricious at best, so I recommend sticking with the numeric settings. The front drawer can be removed, but it slides off attached to an extra part at the back, a clumsy piece of plastic which serves no purpose other than to make the machine look symmetrical in shop windows. And to top off my long list of dislikes, this is a surprisingly heavy machine for what it does.
The storage drawer, and the oddly designed cradle it's attached to.
That aside, the bobbin change will be familiar to anyone who's used a singer machine before, and it's easy to fill a new one. You don't have to disengage the needle to fill a bobbin, which is an improvement over many of their earlier machines. The machine itself is easy to thread if you're familiar with Singer/domestic machines, and there are guidelines printed on the casing to make it clear for anyone who's unsure. The only problem with this is the Singer autothreading device, which is extremely fiddly to use, and you'd save yourself time using a handheld one, or simply threading the needle. It has a lot of stitches which seem to work as they should, though I've not tried anything particularly taxing on this summer project, so I can't comment on the buttonholing ability. The stitch selector is intuitive and easy to navigate, doing very much what it shows on the tin. The motor seems sturdy enough, and the parts drawer is fairly roomy.
Overall? I wouldn't recommend this machine. It's obviously geared as a beginner range, but the bulk and lack of manual control over a lot of common features means I wouldn't advise a beginner pick it up, either. There will come a time when a newbie will no longer be a newbie, and the limits this machine places upon you are a high trade off for the (debatable, at best) simplicity. Singer make a lot of great machines, but unless you desperately need the wide range of stitches, I'd pass on this one. For $186, it's worth looking into their older, more reliable models.
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Sunday, 20 September 2009
I'm currently staying with my parents for a short while, and have been trying out my mother's Singer 7442 Electronic Sewing Machine. And, really? I would not recommend it.. It's obviously aimed at the beginners among us, and while it tries it's best to offer an intuitive, simplistic experience, it...
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