Every recommendation on StitchProven traces to a published number. This page is the method — what we check, where the numbers come from, and what we deliberately don’t do.
The specifications we reconcile
Every guide works from the same core figures: throat space (the distance from the needle to the machine’s pillar, in inches, then millimetres where the manufacturer publishes them), feed system (drop feed, walking foot, dual feed), presser-foot pressure adjustment, maximum stitch length and width, maximum sewing speed, needle system, motor type and the included presser feet. Where a project needs more — free-motion capability and frame compatibility for quilting, hoop sizes for embroidery, differential feed for sergers — the guide states its added criteria at the top.
We then reconcile those numbers against what a specific first project actually demands. A full-size quilt needs throat space; a jacket needs a feed system that will take four layers of wool through a seam; a beginner needs a machine whose manual explains what the dials do. The reconciliation, not the spec sheet, is the recommendation.
Where the numbers come from
Manufacturer manuals, specification sheets and parts lists, in that order of trust; warranty documents; and owner feedback read at scale across public platforms. Every specification we publish is taken from a document we can point to. When two manufacturer documents disagree, we say which one we used and why. When a number cannot be verified from any published source, the guide says so in a named exclusions section rather than repeating a figure we cannot stand behind.
What we don’t do
We don’t buy or sew on the machines we write about, and we won’t pretend to. There is no test lab, no staged workroom, no unboxing. When a question can only be settled by sewing on the machine — how it handles a particular fabric, how loud it is in a small room — we say so plainly and tell you what the published evidence does and does not support. Our author sews; the site’s verdicts rest on documents, not on her machine or ours.
Who it’s for — and who should skip it
Every recommendation names who it’s for and who it isn’t for. An honest guide has losers as well as winners, and ours name what we excluded and why.
Prices
We don’t publish prices. They change too quickly to trust in an article, so we use broad price bands (for example $300–600) and ask you to check the current price with the retailer before buying.
How we’re paid
Reader-supported, through affiliate links that never affect what we recommend — the full policy is in our affiliate disclosure.