The Handi-Stitich hand-held sewer review The Charges: "The cordless sewing machine. Handy Stitch is the portable hand-held sewing machine that packs the power of larger, more expensive machines. It's great for quick repairs or jobs that conventional desktop machines can't handle, like sewing curtains while on the rod, or mending a torn pocket without having to remove your pants." The Evidence: (Right off the bat I want everyone to know that your judge isn't an accomplished seamster, your results my vary.) Spotting the oft advertised Handy-stitch sewing machine at my local retailer, I decided to pick it up and test it out for my loyal TV Gadget Judge readers. The Handy-stitch comes with 4 bobbins of white, red, blue and purple thread along with a bobbin extension rod so you can mount regular spools of thread. Setting up the Handy-stitch was fairly straight forward even for a non-sewer like the Judge. Simply slip on a bobbin and pull the thread through the needle. Easy enough, now for the first test. I had a cotton shirt with a hem unraveling. The fabric of this shirt is very soft, and tends to unravel when cut, so there was many loose strands of cloth around the hem. Here is where the deficiencies of the Handy-stitch come into play. Unlike regular sewing machines which have a floating foot, the Handy-stitch has a combination foot/needle plate bar attached to the unit. This is a clumsy combination. In order to get your material in place, you'll have to hold the handy-stitch in one hand, use a finger of that hand to pull the foot/needle plate bar up and use your other hand to put your material in place over the feed dog and lower the needle plate bar. The needle plate bar does have a tab extending from the side to aid in pulling it up but only of the right side, left handed users will find it even more of a hassle to use. To make it even more unwieldy, the weight of 4 AA batteries makes the Handy-stitch back-heavy, which is fine while using the machine, but is bothersome when trying to put your cloth in place. Another drawback to the Handy-stitch is the space between the needle and the plate. At maximum height, the needle is only 1/16 of an inch from the needle plate, so sewing quilts, for example, is impossible. My attempt at repairing the hem of my favorite shirt was a dismal failure. The material was so soft it bunched into the feed dogs and jammed them. Strike one against the Handy-stitch. With that failure I grabbed the nearest thing I could find - a bedroom slipper - and tried the handy-stitch on it, just to see if it would work at all. This time the handy-stitch worked as it was supposed to, a simple stitch at a nice clip. The Handy-stitch punched through the slipper quite easily. Remembering the commercial for the Handy-stich shows it sewing through denim, I took out an old denim jacket. For Halloween I'd sliced it up for a zombie costume so I took one of the strips and folded it so it was 4 layers thick. Again the Handy-stitch sewed through the heavy cloth with ease. Power-wise, the Judge has no complaints. Where the Handy-Stitch really disappoints is that it's clumsy to use. Ironically, the Handy-stitch's greatest selling point, its portability, is also its greatest hindrance. With a regular sized sewing machine you have both hands free to guide the cloth as you sew. With the Handy-stitch, one hand is holding the machine and operating the power button, leaving only one hand to guide your sewing project. Not Good. I couldn't sew more than a few inches without starting to zigzag the stitch. The Verdict: A great idea, but poorly designed. The combination foot/needle plate makes it too hard to load material, the clearance of the needle from the plate also makes it suitable for only thin cloth. The one-handed operation makes it almost impossible to sew a straight line (except for a curtain on a rod since the rod would act as a second hand) for long. If you ignore the pictures of people throwing full sized machines out the window or the elderly lady balancing a Singer on her knee while sewing a curtain, then you'll get a better idea of the Handy-Stitch. As the blurb at the top of this article says; "It's great for quick repairs or jobs that conventional desktop machines can't handle, like sewing curtains while on the rod, or mending a torn pocket without having to remove your pants." Other then these simple tasks the Handy-Stitch fails to satisfy and is sentenced to 250 hours of community service. |
The TV Gadget Judge: Handi-Stitch Review
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