Who writes this

Jean-Benoit Buisson

Every review on this site is written and signed by one person. This page says who, what he uses, and — just as importantly — what he is not.

How I got here

I bought my first sewing machine to take up a pair of work trousers. It cost under a hundred euros, and it was awful — the thread bunched underneath, it skipped stitches on the hem, and after twenty minutes I put it back in the box and took the trousers to a tailor.

Two years later someone told me, almost in passing, that the needle that comes fitted in a new machine is a universal 80/12, and that a folded denim hem needs a 100/16 jeans needle. I changed the needle. The same machine, the same thread, the same trousers — and it sewed straight through the fold without a complaint. It had never been the machine.

That is the whole reason this site exists. Most of what gets sold as a machine problem is a needle, a thread, a tension setting or a stabiliser, and almost nobody selling machines has any reason to tell you that. I spent the following years getting things wrong in more expensive ways — a combination machine I converted between modes twice before giving up, an overlocker that sat unused for eight months because re-threading it defeated me — and writing down what actually made the difference.

What I actually use

Everything listed here is taken from the catalogue of this site, and each entry links to its own page. When the catalogue changes, this list changes with it.

What I am not

I am not a professional tailor, a seamstress by trade, or a sewing machine technician, and I have never worked for a manufacturer or a dealer. I have no formal qualification in any of it. If you are looking for someone whose authority comes from a job title, this is not that site.

What I do have is the habit of measuring things and writing down what I find, including when the result is inconvenient — and no reason to prefer an expensive machine over a cheap one, because they pay the same.

How I work

Every review says where its judgement comes from — a measurement, a manufacturer specification, or a limitation I hit myself.
No price, product reference or specification is ever invented. Where a figure is missing, the field is left empty and the gap is stated.
Product references are verified against Amazon before publication, per market. Where a model is not sold in your country, you are sent to a local search rather than to a page that does not exist.
Where the cheap option wins, the review says the cheap option wins.

Why this site exists

Because the sewing machine market is unusually good at selling the wrong thing. Machines are advertised on stitch count, which almost nobody uses, rather than on presser foot lift and feed control, which decide whether the machine can do the job you bought it for. Accessories are sold as afterthoughts when they are frequently the actual fix.

This site is written for the person I was with those trousers: someone who has one specific job to do, a real budget, and no way of telling which of forty near-identical machines will do it. Every page tries to answer that question in its first paragraph, and to say plainly when the answer is "you do not need a new machine".

Correcting me

If something here is wrong, tell me and I will fix it and date the correction on the page. Write to [email protected].

Jean-Benoit Buisson · Montrollet, France