This is the Official GB Sewing Bee Sewing Studio which is child friendly and ideal for beginners! This elegant lightweight sewing machine comes presented in a high-quality box and makes for an ideal Christmas or birthday gift. It is suitable for aged six and above.
This lovely machine comes with foot pedal, mains adaptor, scissors, sewing kit tin (measuring tape, 2 spare machine needles, sewing needle, needle threader, 6 metal bobbins, 8 headed pins and thimble), clutch purse project kit and instructions.
Setting it up is quite straightforward. The only difficulty is threading the tiny needle hole. Luckily Mr K is great at threading it through all the hooks of the machine. It took me back to days when I helped my mother to sew with her sewing machine due to her poor eye sight. This also comes with a transparent safety guard that is easy to remove and install.
I love that this comes with two options for powering the machine. You can either use 4 AA batteries or use the mains power. This machine is so portable you can work anywhere you want.
This clever machine also comes with two options for sewing. You can either use the foot pedal or the auto sew mode. Personally, I prefer to use auto sew mode so that I have one less thing to worry about. Of course, it does have the disadvantage that you have to react quite quickly to stop it! The auto sew mode features two speed settings: low or high speed. By pressing on the button, it will automatic start to sew and you just need to push the material through.
To replace the bottom bobbin is again very easy. Everything just works like a breeze. Remove the safety guard, press the pink button on the back of the machine, lift up the cover, remove the old bobbin, insert a new bobbin, turn the hand wheel to bring the thread upwards and cover it up. You are ready to use it again!
To wind the bobbin, you have to lift up the bobbin winder spindle, put some of the thread on the empty bobbin, place the thread properly and either use the auto sew mode or foot pedal to wind it up! It is very quick at winding the bobbin but it did not wind it very evenly.
To sew, you can adjust the stitch length by turning the dial. Turn the dial towards the left will give you the longest stitch length. Turn the dial towards the middle and the stitch length will begin to reduce. If the dial is pointing directly at the middle point, the stitch length will become zero and therefore the fabric will not move forward. To do backstitching, turn the dial to the right!
This little machine also comes with lovely features, like a mini light around the sewing area, a small cutting hook on the left side of the machine for cutting thread and a small bobbin holder/drawer.
We really enjoy using this machine as it is effortless to use. It’s perfect for beginners and children and great for small school projects. Mr K just take a couple of minutes to make a pillow! One minor quibble is that we do find the machine a little too lightweight and so it does move around very easily. It is such a shame that there are no suckers or rubber feet on the bottom of the machine to stop if from moving. Given the size of this machine, it is only suitable for very thin materials. This is available to buy in good retailers and Amazon.
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review however all thoughts and opinions remain our own.