Are hand held sewing machines any good?

Question

I want to sew the sleeves of an old long sleeve onto a short sleeve so doing it by hand will probably take too long. What machine is best?

Answer 1

It would be quicker to hand stitch than learn to use one of those hand held machines. The one that I had is now long gone.

Any straight stitch machine will do the job if you manipulate the fabric correctly; however, a free arm machine will make the job easier.

Pressing the turned under hem in the sleeve with an iron will speed things up when you sew. An added plus - a better looking alteration.

PS: Zigzag the edges or use pinking shears before you turn the hem under. You can do a lot of things with a machine that only does straight and zigzag stitching. Any other features are a bonus.

Answer 2

I believe most of those machines are only good in an emergency, until you can stitch the garment properly. If I'm not mistaken, they do what is called a chain stitch. Once you pull on the thread, the whole line of stitching comes out. If you truly have no sewing experience, try using some iron on tape to hem the sleeves.

Answer 3

I agree with "Sharing", to do it by hand will be a lot easier than using a machine, especially if you don't know what you're doing. Also, by hand will look a whole lot better, just make sure that the stitches wont show much on the right side. Check any sewing website, they probably have some drawings showing how to do it by hand.

Answer 4

I bought one at the flea market, wicked cute. sadly the only thing it could reliably sew was a paper napkin, and since I rarely hem my paper napkins..., out the door it went!

Answer 5

no! we have one and it seems to sew,but when you finish sewing all the stitches are like basting and come out. very frustrating.