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| I love the little quilting table that came with it, so convenient! :) |
Yes y'all, I have welcomed a new member to my fold. I hadn't planned on getting a new machine for quite some time, but this one sort of fell into my lap (free of charge, I might add!) so I figured I would give it a whirl. Meet the newest member of my sewing machine pack, Little Brother! Little Brother is, you guessed it, a Brother machine. One look at him and it was easy to see that he's smaller and much more complicated than my Kenmore a.k.a First Born. I took to the manual and managed to get it up and running pretty easily, which was a relief. Here's what I've gathered so far from using Little Brother.
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| When I first looked at it, I was like, "The heck are all these pictures and buttons for?!" |
Pros:
- He's quiet! I never realized how loud the First Born was until I sewed on this little guy. Mr. LBC and I were able to watch a movie while I was sewing. Even Mr. LBC pointed out how quiet this machine is! He purrs like a kitten!
- The needle automatically goes down. When I first read about this, I couldn't figure out why this was even a thing. Why would I want my needle to always end up in the down position? One sewing session showed me how nice it is to not worry about making sure my needle is down before lifting the foot. And a simple push of a button lifts the needle to the up-most position.
- Speed regulator. I'll go ahead and admit I'm guilty of getting a little too fast and furious with my sewing machine. I don't know what it is, but there are times I want to sew that seam with the pedal to the floor going 90 mph! I was guilty of this when I first started learning how to throw on the potter's wheel too. I learned quickly that speed isn't always best for the final product (and I might have completely thrashed a few pots along the way to learning that! Lol). With this machine, I have 3 speed caps to choose from. The second setting is a comfortable pace - perfect for keeping those seams straight and fabric lined up while still letting me put my foot to the floor.
Cons:
- He's not a workhorse. I pieced charity quilt blocks with Little Brother to try him out. I made HST's and I noticed he has a little trouble going over groups of seams. I've got to do a little tug and pull to help get him over the hump. I'm used to the First Born tackling plenty of seams and denim with no issues at all, so this was a bit disappointing for me.
- A 1/4 inch seam isn't the default. Silly me assumed it would be and started sewing, only to notice my seam allowances looked a little large. Holy moly, they were huge! I ended up looking to the manual and figuring out how to shift the needle over to create a 1/4 inch seam. The pain in the butt is that I have to shift the needle over EVERY SINGLE TIME I turn my machine on! I'm so forgetful, I'm bound to botch a few seams before it becomes burned into my brain.
- Tiny Throat Space. Although First Born doesn't have an enormous amount of throat space, I've quilted on her without issues related to space. Little Brother was definitely not designed with quilting in mind. I could see piecing a larger top getting cramped towards the end!
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| First Born is happy to be on our dining room table and quilting up a storm right now! :) |
Overall, I like Little Brother. He has helped take some of the workload off of First Born, who, let's face it, isn't a spring chicken anymore. For simple sewing and block construction, I think he'll be my go-to machine, leaving quilting and more complicated sewing for First Born.
What about y'all? Are you a parent to an only sewing machine? Or do you have a brood of machines filling your house?
