Brother LS14S Metal Chassis Sewing Machine

Product Information

Expect it to sound loud and thumpy with fleece, denim, and canvas, and for the stitches to be uneven. The machine’s built in light is quite dim, I tested the machine during the daytime with my blinds closed to get an idea of the light quality. Overall, this is my favorite machine if you’re on a tight budget, but it’s not my favorite one for beginners who love sewing (go here to see my best sewing machine for beginners review). You can control the speed using the presser foot though, you’ll just need to practice on some scrap fabric to get a feel of how much pressure you need to apply for your desired speed.

Suitable for beginners, the LS14 Brother sewing machine is perfect for basic alterations and repairs. Another challenge with this machine is that you have almost no control over the stitch length, width, and needle position. I couldn’t sew perfectly straight with the standard foot, so many of my blind hem stitches didn’t catch the hem! There is no speed control which can be useful for beginners or even for more advanced sewists when approaching corners/intricate sections.You’d need a decent desk lamp when working late at night on this machine (you’d expect to use a lamp late in the evenings with any machine, but I have definitely used machines with brighter lights built in).

The machine doesn’t come with a cover of any sort only a thin plastic wrapper (which you could use for the meantime until you sew your own! This sewing machine has some great features: there’s only one pedal and lead cable, they are joined together so there’s less to get mixed up in your sewing space! The stitches were consistent, but when I look at them up close, there’s a weird pucker between them.A screwdriver is also needed to remove the presser foot, whereas some machines come with a quick release button to swap the feet over – have a look for machine with this feature if you think fiddly screws might be an issue for you. You’ll probably never sew 8 flat layers of denim, but you will sew 6 layer seam allowance humps, and that’s when machines often struggle. The buttonholes look OK, but you’ll need to adjust the screw to make the left and right bars look the same. In a matching thread you wouldn’t notice this, but if you use a contrasting thread it would look messy.