Brother ST371HD Sewing Machine Reviews
I included this machine in this list because of all the amazing features that it has. Let us begin with its metal needle plate feature (which is my personal favorite) that promotes easy gliding of the fabric to the machine. The machine also includes a few specialty needles. Among these needles, the best one that you can use is the #16 needle designed to sew heavy fabrics like leather.
Moreover, the machine also comes with 6 versatile presser feet and extra specialized ones like the nonstick foot which glides over difficult fabrics (like leather) easily. It also has spring action zigzag foot which comes handy in sewing fabrics of various thicknesses.
Brother ST371HD Sewing Machine Reviews
Ease of Use
The ST371HD continued its trend of mediocrity, earning a 5 out of 10 in this metric. The directions on this machine were clear and easy to understand for simple tasks, and the average tension is noted. This product does not mark the average stitch length and width like some of the other models we looked at, but it was the only one that labeled which direction to turn the thread tension knob to adjust it up or down.
The light provided by this machine cast a somewhat annoying shadow, and was definitely a little too dim to be the only source of light when sewing. The thread cutter on the ST371HD is the typical, shielded blade on the side of the machine. The ST371HD can also do automatic or pedal-less sewing. Additionally, the needle always stops in the down position.
Ease of Setup
As with the above metrics, this sewing machine earned a 5 out of 10 for ease of setup. This category looked at all of the task required before you actually start sewing, and how difficult they were. This machine was easy enough to thread, and even excelled slightly when it came to threading the needle. This style of needle threader was slightly easier to use than the one on some of the other Brother machines.
It was easy to set up and thread the machine to wind a bobbin, but the wound bobbin was slightly irregular, with the thread not moving up and down in a perfectly consistent way. It was also difficult to install the wound bobbin, requiring you to fit in in the notch in the bobbin housing, with it being unclear where to thread it. This would be especially hard for those with limited eyesight or dexterity.
Button work
The ST371HD lacked when it came to button work, earning a 4 out of 10 on this metric. We initially had a little trouble setting up the machine, with the directions being a little hard to follow on what to do. This product makes a 1-step buttonhole, but it will not stop automatically on the final step, making the final step prone to human errors.
We did like that the buttonhole presser did not unintentionally catch on the fibers of the fabric, making it less prone to bunching, but that’s about it. The quality of the buttonhole produced was subpar when we compared to its competition, and we found it amazingly difficult to line up the buttonhole in the desired spot
Value
While being an economical option, the ST371HD fell short on performance. There are other options out there that offer substantially more value that we would recommend.
