Have you ever had that feeling that you prefer to sew by hand even you have a sewing machine that you can use? I was mending my daughter’s school uniform last night and instead of plugging in the machine so I can be done in 5 mins tops, I backstitched manually. When I’m done, I felt weird and thought to myself, do others get this feeling too from time to time? Comment if you do please so at least I’ll know that I am not the only weird one here. LOL. Anyway, I have to apologize because what I shared above is totally irrelevant. Today, we are doing the Singer 5400 review. Stick with me…

Yay or Nay? The Singer 5400 Review

General Specifications and Features

I can’t remember how many Singer sewing machines have I studied and looked closer into and I as always, I’d like to talk about the specifications of the machine first before we move on to checking out its performance.

This machine isn’t too small but can still be portable at 16″ x 8″ x 12.5″ in size. It weighs 17.5 lbs when packed. A heavy-duty metal frame promises durability. It’s exterior is white (like almost all sewing machine) with an apple green accent.

The Singer 5400 has 60 built-in stitches consisted of 8 essential, 40 decoratives 8 stretches and 4 types of 1-step fully automatic buttonholes. The length and width of the stitches are automatically set to what best suits the stitch selected, however, the presets can be overridden if the user has other preference. Maximum stitch width can be set to 6.5mm (only on selected stitches). Preferred stitches and the desired size can be set using the push button selectors accompanied by an LED screen display.

With regards to speed, this machine can sew as fast as 750 stitches per minute. Not the fastest but is surely sufficient for a household sewing machine. Setting up can also be done very quickly especially with the help of the Quick Start Guide, an introductory DVD and the stitch guide that is printed on the machine.

The thread tension and presser foot pressure in this machine are both adaptive to the stitch selected and the type/ weight of the fabric you are using so manual adjustments are seldom necessary. It is also capable of extra-high presser foot lifting as an additional measure to ensure that all thickness or number of layers of fabric can be accommodated.

Free arm capability is also an added feature on this machine that can be initiated by detaching the accessories box. This onboard storage holds all the accouterments that come with the machine like the snap-on presser feet. The needle can be set into 13 variable positions and can be easily threaded using the automatic needle threader.

Consumer Rating

So now that we have seen what this machine is capable of, let’s see if it actually lives up to expectations. What have sewists experienced using this machine? Let’s see below…

Checking the actual ratings, sewists who owns (or used to) the Singer 5400 has divided prerogative about this machine. Either they are really really satisfied or the other way around. Sewists who kept this machine are really happy about how easy it is to set up and use. It is also quite powerful enough to sew into leather (synthetic), vinyl and felt. The price they paid is fairly worth the machine’s ease of use and functions that are adequate for casual sewists. There were even several who had it for a few years and they are still fully functional. On the other side of the coin though, there have been several complaints with regard to this machine’s bobbin assembly constantly causing nesting hence skipped stitch too. Aside from this, the rest of the complaints are DOA machines. By DOA, I meant dead on arrival. Defective machines that refuse to work right out of the box.

One very helpful review from a sewists who is not by an any means an expert/ professional but had the patience to give the machine a chance more than once and not judge or assume prematurely, is to (1) use the metal bobbin that is specifically made for this machine, a few spares comes in the box. (2) Do not overfill the bobbin. It apparently solved the bobbin issue for her and to the 30+ more people who upvoted and replied about how her simple advice helped them.

Product Video

So there you have it, the Singer 5400 review on functionality and performance. To seal it off, here is a video to introduce you further to the Singer 5400 Sew Mate™ Sewing Machine.