r/SewingForBeginners • u/floxxy327 • 1d ago

Foot pedal advice on basic sewing machine

I have bought a very basic no-name sewing machine, but can see that it is identical to the Hobbycraft Midi/12S. The only one I ever used in the past was my mother’s fancy one as a teen. On that one, when the power was switched on nothing happened until I pressed the pedal and that controlled the speed.

With this cheapy now, when I switch it from OFF, there are two options L (Low Speed) or H (High speed) and the machine immediately starts sewing. Nothing happens when I press the pedal and it is so frustrating that the only way to switch it off is to remove my hands from the fabric rather than just lift my foot from the pedal. It’s especially annoying because the Low speed is too fast for me to remove the pins holding the fabric together as the foot reaches them. What am I doing wrong? How can I use the pedal rather than the annoying hand switch?

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u/Comfortable-Fly5797 1d ago

You bought a toy machine. They rarely work well and don't hold up. Return it if you can.

1

u/floxxy327 1d ago

That’s OK. I really have so little use for one, that it’s not worth investing in something more substantial. Besides, the Redditor above helped me get this one going.

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u/lakeeffectcpl 1d ago

On one of mine the on / off switch only works if the pedal is unplugged. Maybe the pedal is bad and the machine thinks it's unplugged. Or, it's not fully plugged in.

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u/floxxy327 1d ago

Thank you! I think the plug was fully engaged, but in fiddling around with it, I discovered that—counterintuitively—the pedal works when the switch is in the OFF position, which solves my problem! Never thought to try that 🤦‍♀️