Sewing Machine Ratings? - How Useful Are They?

If you are like most consumers today you want to make sure you are getting the best deal for any product you are going to purchase. This means that you are going to ask your friends, look online and go to stores to get sewing machine ratings to help you make your final decision. Sewing machines start at under a hundred dollars ($100) for basic mechanical sewing machines. By adding stitches, features like button hole settings, computerized stitches and patterns, the ability to do embroidery, quilting options and more you can easily find machines that are now over three thousand dollars ($3000).

How do you make sense of all the brands, models and features? One way is to gather sewing machine ratings on the types of machines you are considering. A sewing machine rating on a long arm quilting machine is not going to help you if you are looking for machines that sew seams and decorative stitches. There are many sites with ratings and reviews of just about all available models. A great site for expert reviews in How Stuff Works with almost two hundred models reviewed and rated of all price ranges and features. Another place to go is the library to look at the Consumer Reports Buyers Guide. They annually review many different models and offer Best Buy recommendations in different price categories. Models are rated on reliability, durability and cost benefit comparisons.

JoAnn Fabrics offers a full comparison chart on all of the Singer Models it sells in stores and online. It divides them into three categories - sewing machines, sewing machines with embroidery and serger feature machines. The chart starts with the number of built in stitches for each machine (7 for the 1507WC and 173 for the 7470 Confidence Model). It shows you how many needle positions each model has (1-13) and the maximum width stitch for each model. The chart goes on to detail what features are available by putting a bullet point in the box for each feature like top drop in bobbin, Drop and Sew Bobbin TM, what kind of work light it has, what kind of drop feed and whether the needle is programmable. This is just for the regular sewing machines. JoAnn's chart does the same things with the features specific to the other two categories and is a great tool if you are looking for a Singer machine of any type. The only issue I have with this chart is that there are no prices.