child's sewing machine and loom

[Wilhemina]

I'm shopping for my dds for Christmas and am wondering if anyone here has an opinion about:

1. Singer Chainstitch Sewing Machine (with starter kit). It is described in the catalog as, "...lightweight child-sized battery operated...featuring foot pedal, working light and tension dial...."

2. Wooden Loom by Brio. It is described in the catalog as, "...just like the real thing, only smaller...great for making gifts and doll accessories...."

Both are in the "Back to Basics Toys" catalog.

Thanks in advance for your input!

[twirlgirl]

my daugher received the "barbie" sewing machine for xmas last year. Its essentially the Singer genie thingamagig
uses battery or electric and you can also turn off the foot petal and use a button to just make it go.
CRAP...total CRAP
she does have some fun with it but it jams up so often...it wasnt worth the 30 bucks my mom paid for it.

Dont know anything about the loom though so I cant help with that one.

[Meiri]

Got a link for the loom?

[Wilhemina]

twirlgirl: Thank you for the info. I was afraid of that.

Meiri: I've never posted a link before. Here goes:www.backtobasicstoys.com

It is item #5527 for $49.99

[ladywolf]

The one question I would ask is how old is your dds? I started sewing about 7/8 (?). Okay, so I really do not remember but I used my Mom's sewing machine. Maybe the better idea would be buying a very simple sewing machine at Target or Walmart that will not have the problems toy machines have. And that way it will grow with your dds.

[Meiri]

I've seen those before. I have an old one that I gutted to use as a frame for card-weaving.

The mechanism is like a super-simplified countermarch loom--overhead control of harnesses. It's small and limited to only 2 harnesses, in other words you can only do simple weaves: no twill or anything else. The one I had didn't allow for much of a warp or variation in warping either. The reed/beater doesn't have a whole lot of spaces, so anything woven on this would not be that tight of a weave, if that's what someone wanted to do...
This isn't necessarily a problem for a child, but if she's crafty at all she may get bored with it pretty quickly. OTOH she can explore the effects of different colors, different textures, different yarns, in weaving.

In my opinion, the construction does not come up to a standard that I would expect for the price. It's unfinished wood, they don't even break (round slightly) edges. The picture doesn't look like the thing is true (all angles that should be being 90 degrees...) but that may be a camera effect? I look at mine and think, with the measurements, I could have made that with 1x1 from Lowe's. KWIM?

There's another kind of child's loom out that demonstates the basics of weaving called the Easy Weaver. More expensive, but from what I could tell of the photos I've seen, the wood is finished smooth. This may sound like an extraneous detail, until you're constantly having to unsnag your yarn as you wind it onto the beam... Before I got my floor loom secondhand, I was seriously considering something like this.

You could do a search on "LOOM" or weaving and see what's out there in the world of real looms. There are table looms that allow for a good range of real weaving, more than 2 harnesses, etc. You can also keep an eye out on eBay or in your local pennysaver type paper for someone selling one secondhand.

HTH