SM for kids

We got a Janome for a 10-year-old niece:

This is a Sew Mini at Hancock Fabrics, for only $49.99 on sale.

Trixie

My immediate thought is to start a child off on a 'real' sewing machine. Often the inexpensive machines are poorly made and can't keep a balanced tension, etc. It would be a sad thing for the child to get a bad feeling for sewing and frustrated because of the machine.

I started my 5 y.o. granddaughter on my full-sized Janome 4800 (I've since traded it for a 6600). We started off with her choosing fabrics to match their kitchen from my stash as I explained about contrast and coordinating assorted fabrics. Then a lesson in rotary cutting (*very* carefully and with me hanging over her and guiding her hands!), sewing some straight seams for her to get the feel of the machine- how it worked and sounded and the speed- and how to get the 1/4 in. seam allowance. Then she made a quilted potholder with almost no help from me! I sat beside her for moral support and to explain things as she asked questions.

I was sooooo proud of her! Her mother took a photo of us sewing together and had it and the potholder framed in a shadow box. ;-)

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

I started sewing on my mother's machine at a very young age, for whatever that's worth :-) We were poor, however. I can only imagine the delight I would have experienced at having my very own SM, sized and built for a child!

ep

Oh how I hope there's a special place in heaven for my grandmother. She let me stitch on her treadle. If you've never experienced that, you can fail to pull the hand wheel down and the rascal will make the most miserable ugly rat's nest in the SM imaginable. Many, many times, she calmly cleaned up the rats and again and again showed me to pull the wheel forward before I started the treadle. God bless that precious granny. I wiffle/waffle about a child's toy SM. I simply just don't know what to think about the idea. Polly

Polly, Your dear Granny and mine must be sharing a sweet corner of heaven, stitching away on their treadles. My Granny was incredible. She (and everybody else in the family) knew I didn't have the manual dexterity to handle sewing. But she let me make the treadle go and showed me how to sew on buttons and let me be part of her sewing and quilting. I will forever bless her for that, and for giving a miserable, clumsy, sickly child more love than you can imagine.

Sunny

My GM too let me sew on her treadle. Started when I was about 3 or 4 yrs old. Once she was making me a dress, and I got on the machine while she wasn't looking. I sewed around and around making a real mess on the collar of the dress. She had to cut out the mess of stitches and then creatively covered it with Ric-Rac. I bought my daughter a toy machine for Christmas when she was about six. She was so disappointed Christmas morning, she wanted a 'real' machine, not a toy. Luckily a friend of mine had an old green Singer that she never used and we cleaned it up and gave it to my daughter. She was thrilled and sewed on that machine for years, until after she was married. Lots of good memories because of this thread. Michelle G.

Donna, the one BIG piece of advice I will give you is: STEER AWAY FROM TOY SEWING MACHINES AND THOSE $20 CHEAPO JOBS! That Discovery thing goes for anyhing between £12 and £19 here in the UK, and is about as much use for sewing as a stuffed grape! I know, I've tested one.

The rest of my advice is contained in this sewing machine buying essay:

The best sewing machine for kids is one that works reliably. You don't need lots of fancy stitches, and if the budget is less than $300, look at pre-loved. Kids love hand cranks.

I'm another that first sewed on her granny's treadle. :) I think I must have been all of four and a half. I made my first skirt on my mum's 99K when I was seven.

I'm soon (like probably topmorrow!) getting an entry level Brother here for testing. I'm hoping to change my mind a bit about cheap Brothers, but we shall see...

Hi Donna

Like others I would suggest starting her on a real machine albeit a basic one. Sewing machines "for kids" are generally worthless and lead to frustration rather than enjoyment. And some are even hazardous (with parts coming off when they shouldn't, for example). My dear granny started me sewing on the predecessor of her Lewenstein whose brand name I cannot remember (I don't think that the Lewestein brand is even alive anymore!) and I have never looked back.

My middle DD was given a kiddie sewing machine for Christmas by some friends several years ago and all it did was make her angry as the darn thing wouldn't sew straight, the seams came apart and the needle fell out at the oddest times. The thing ended up in the trash can before January was through! She has since sewn the odd bit on my dear granny's Lewenstein (which I inherited whern granny went to the sewing circle in the sky) and she loves it!

Like others, I suggest uyou go for a basic but REAL sewing machine, used if necessary. Toys machines and kiddie machines are a waste of time, money, energy and enthusiasm.

Claudia Lelandite ha escrito:

I, too, learned to sew on my grandmother's treadle machine, and am delighted to say that I now have that machine! After Grandma died in

1962 my mother took the machine and kept it in the basement covered with an old bedspread, and after my mother died in 2001 I brought the machine to my house! It hadn't been cleaned and oiled for years and the manual had been rolled up and put into a drawer and was nearly into bits of brown crumble. However, I cleaned the machine, oiled generously several times, and flattened the manual between two large books for several weeks. Well, patience paid off, and Grandma's machine is working again! As to the manual, I carefully took the pages apart and put each page into a plastic sleeve and took them all to Kinko's for photocopying. The plastic sleeves with the original pages are now in a folder, and the photocopies are in another folder. I have been able to identify and date the machine -- made by White in Minneapolis for Sears, and sold by Sears in sometime between 1908 and 1912 for almost $20. I have all of the attachments for the machine, too! I hope Grandma is up there somewhere smiling.

Like many of you, I, too, learned on an old treadle machine and then on to my mom's old Kenmore.

What my cousin was looking for was something for a small child and one didn't cost an arm and a leg as they were penny pinches. But I hear you when you say you get what you pay for. My cousin doesn't even sew so I was just looking for her and usually what's sold thru Discovery are good products.

My thoughts are that my cousin won't get one anyways. I was just thinking of that little girl and how much fun it would be to get a real SM, cover, pedel and all under the Christmas tree....along with some fat quarters, of course.

Thanks for all the thoughts.

Donna in WA

I think you'd probably be better off with something like the Janome Hello Kitty Machine or the Janome Magnolia. They are real sewing machines, but a smaller, more compact size.

Maureen

Kate, I concur!

I have three 99Ks, that I let friends barrow, spent $40 for the lot, (2 were free). I actually got them for my grand kids, but my son has not gone forth and multiplied Yet!

The kids next door have not done any damage to them. The machines weigh a "ton", stay where they are put/not very portable! The boy loves to sew, it's a machine (he makes car noises when he sews!)

Also, I think that one can find Featherweights on e-bay for $300 or less, I've been watching them for weeks. They won't be perfect, might not have a case or attachments, might be dirty, but they work or can be tuned up/repaired.

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA

My Grandma must be up there in the cyber-treadle group with yours! She taught me how to sew a straight line (NO thread in the machine -- or bobbin) : She'd draw a line on an old piece of a letter (never, ever threw anything away!) and have me stitch along the line (using a "dead" needle, BTW!). When I could do that she went on to curves & circles. Then on to learning about seam allowances. Only after that, did she thread the machine. I was sewing my own skirts by 6th grade! (bless her!) ME-Judy

Howdy!

Oh, that's great! Thanks, Trixie.

here's amazon's reviews on the purple plastic:

I'd go w/ the Janome; might need this.

R/Sandy

My gramma who still had a treadle wouldn't let me sew on it. Though I was sometimes enlisted to sit underneath and help get the treadle going. She got me going on her electric machine because she thought it was safer. Have to admit that when those old dreadnaughts get moving they do not like to stop, and I grew bigger than that particular gramma by the time I was 10. She was tiny, about four foot

8, and if she ever weighed a hundred pounds in her whole life I would be surprised. I would guess that if she ever tried to stop the treadle machine without a stick, either the treadle would fling her across the room or the flywheel would spin her around like a pinwheel.

NightMist

I started two of my neices out on a Singer 301. Straight stitch only, portable with built in handle. It was the perfect 'learn on' machine.. For the younger neices, well they got started on the Singer

99 handcrank because they could control it and run it at their own speed... it never 'got away' from them.

-Irene

...and a 301 is a machine that is worth keeping and sewing on forever. Electric 99's are really plentiful and priced right. That is a great choice too. Handcranks are a little more work to find. It is so nice to have you pop back in Irene. Hope you are doing better. Hugs, Taria

Thanks for the kind words Tara :) Yes I'm doing better! Every day I'm feeling stronger and a little more awake LOL am even making a few Christmas gifts!

-Irene