Birds of a Feather

I'm always curious about different sewing machines that I've not been exposed to yet and it has gotten me in trouble from time to time. I hoped this wasn't going to be the case this time but so far I'm safe.

In one of the many groups I belong to I saw and ad for an Ever Sewn Sparrow 30 sewing machine. After a bit of research I found many happy owners and since it was offered at half price I figured I could take a chance. It arrived this week and I have to say it's pretty cute in light pink. That's right, another pink sewing machine but it is so pale that you cannot tell it's pink in most lights. There's a cute sparrow on the front so it does look pretty feminine:

Ever Sewn Sparrow 30

The handy stitch card shows all of the possible stitches but I still had to get out the manual to figure out which "mode" I needed to be in. This is the way with many electronic and computerized sewing machines so nothing new. It keeps the front of the machine simpler with just the basic utility stitches right on the face:

Sparrow 30 basic  stitches on panel

Sparrow 30 stitch card: oh boy!

Mine came fully-loaded with the extension table, extra proprietary bobbins, a quilt kit that includes a walking foot, plus a printed manual:

Quilt kit: walking foot, free motion foot, 2 more feet, 2 quilting guides

Cute title on manual: "Love at first stitch"

There is storage in the front compartment as well as the bobbin box so there's plenty of room for all those do-dads. It stitches fine, the alphabet was easy to use (but a little hard to read?), so what is the big deal about this sewing machine? Well, it includes some nice features only found on some of the more expensive models, such as needle up/down, memory storage, and (my favorite) thread cutter. No, I don't mean that little side slicer but a process where the threads are pulled under and snipped about an inch from the last stitch. That is soooooo nice! You don't need it all the time but once you get used to it it is hard to do without.

Handy buttons: stop/start, thread snips, reverse, stitch in place, needle up/down

Snipped thread

A nice extension table for larger projects is fairly standard but this one is nice and sturdy:

Sparrow 30 with extension table

You have to remove the storage compartment and that's when I discovered you have to remove it just to open it and take out a different foot:

Storage container with open flap facing machine body: design flaw?

And here's a few stitches I tried out the first night:

Script is not easy to read but this fabric is a little busy for letters

There are other nice features such as sewing without a foot control by just using the stop and start button. If you have it on the slower speed, this can be pretty nice. There is a stitch-in-place button for sealing off a stitch/seam without using the backstitch, something else I have grown used to. I have it set up to do more than practice sewing and hope to make something significant on it so I can give it a fair review but so far it is pretty nice. It has the cute factor and is more than functional. Will I keep it or will this Sparrow fly away soon? You never know...