Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Very Easy Guide To Using Your Sewing Machine
Wendy Gardiner

Search Press
29 November 2013 (US 1 April 2014)
ISBN-13: 9781844488285
Paperback

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

If sewing machines look as complex as the controls on the bridge of a spaceship, then this is the book for you. Learn how to get to grips with your new machine and embark on a lifetime of machine sewing fun!

I wish I had had something like this when I got my first sewing machine. It tells you what everything does on an average model, what all the feet and accessories are for and what your need to buy in order to get started. You can also read why you need these things (always a good idea) and all about different needles, how to work with all the fabric types and what thread is out there too. There are those useful staged projects with plenty of photographs that Search Press does so well, and these include how to do things like wind a bobbin, thread up and check tension. When you can do all that, get stuck into making lots of simple but useful and attractive items to practice skills like buttonholes, putting in a zipper, hemming and piping. It is true that the book that comes with your machine tells you some of these things and it does of course pertain to your particular model, but it certainly does not tell you all of this in such detail. There is even a chapter on free machine sewing, another on using twin needles and an exhaustive troubleshooting section. All of this might sound daunting, but everything is explained in remarkably few words and plenty of pictures, so I reckon that my eleven-year-old self on receiving my first sewing machine would have been happy with it. I've seen lots of books on this sort of thing for beginners, but this is the most user-friendly.

UK Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in Sewing World, Sew Hip, Popular Crafts and other magazines. Her craft blog is Green Thoughts
Reviewed 2014
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