Is #sewing fedi a thing?

[bfordham@infosec.exchange]

Is #sewing fedi a thing? If so, I have a question.

My 10 year old is incredibly crafty, and loves making outfits for her toys. My wife and I think getting her a simple sewing machine would be a hit.

Are there any beginner-friendly machines we should look at? Say in the $50 range. We've found options but we don't really know how to judge if they're decent or not.

#Fedihelp #AskFedi

[tazpoltorak@fosstodon.org]

@Bfordham Hi. It's amazing that you want to get your child a sewing machine! If you think she will stick with it, maybe it's worth spending a bit more. A sewing machine is something that will serve you for years. It's worth going into a local sewing machine shop and having a word with them. That way you will also find tech support for the machine.

[bfordham@infosec.exchange]

@TazPoltorak Thanks for the advice. We've considered a more expensive one. We think if she shows any real interest and sticks to it we'll upgrade her to something that will last.

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@Bfordham @TazPoltorak I'm not sure about prices in the US, but if they are vaguely close to ours there is a serious risk that a $50 machine would just not work properly, cause your daughter lots of frustration and let her just drop the hobby.

if (and it's a huge if) you have a sewing machine shop in your area I'd recommend looking for a basic, fully mechanical, vintage model: it will cost a bit more than $50 (maybe $100, or something aroundish that?), but it would be something that works reliably.

Then, if your daughter doesn't stick to sewing, the same shop can buy it back, since there is a decent market for those, and unless some *really* bad accident happened that made it hard to repair you may not have paid more than $50 on the whole thing.

And if the interest sticks, depending on her tastes she may want to upgrade to something fancier with more features, or she may already have her lifelong machine (or both, but that's likely to happen when it won't be your budget problem anymore :D )

(if you don't have a shop nearby that's more of an issue, since buying those machines online or from private sellers comes with a significant risk that they require significant maintenance before they are brought back to working reliably)

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@TazPoltorak @Bfordham the issue here is that even a basic sewing machine has quite a bit of mechanical complexity, and there is a limit to how cheap you can go during manufacture before you make it too prone to jamming and breaking

on the higher end you can throw electronics at the issue to make stuff cheaper, for e.g. fancy stitches or fully automated buttonholes that used to require additional cams etc., but the mechanism to make a stitch and move the needle side to side just needs to be mechanical, and that bit requires precision.

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@TazPoltorak @Bfordham some toy machines cheat by only being able to make a chain stitch instead of the lockstitch used by modern¹ machines: those aren't really sewing machines, they can't be used to follow instructions designed for sewing machines and I'd recommend staying away from them even as a “starting” machine, because they really aren't one.

the main issue being that the chain stitch unravels, and using it to make functional garments will require a lot more handsewing and different techniques that those used today.

as the first sewing machine ever built, they were time saver when sewing meters and meters of ruffles on a 1850s dress, when you were used to sew 1840s dresses by hand, but really, sewing machine technology has moved on :)

¹ i.e. since the second half of the 19th century :D