Editorial policy
What we will and will not publish, and what happens when we get something wrong.
Editorial independence
No manufacturer, retailer or agency pays for placement on this site, and none sees a page before it is published. We do not run sponsored reviews and we do not accept free machines in exchange for coverage.
The site earns through the Amazon Associates program, described in full on the affiliate disclosure page. Amazon sets commission rates by product category rather than by product, so the commission is the same whichever sewing machine a reader buys.
Who writes this site
Every page is written and edited by Michael W.. Bylines are real, and we do not publish under invented staff names or attribute pages to an unnamed “expert team”.
Claims we will never make
- That we tested a machine. We do not run a test lab, and no page here will imply otherwise.
- Invented ratings, review counts or awards. Our scores are our own editorial judgment and are labeled as such on the methodology page.
- Fabricated testimonials. This site carries no customer testimonials, because it has no customers - it is a publisher, not a retailer.
- Prices. They change daily and a stale number misleads. Buttons open the live listing instead.
- Credentials we do not hold. No certifications, no qualifications, and no experience claimed beyond what is true.
Sourcing
Machine specifications come from manufacturer listings and are credited at the foot of each page. Where we describe how a machine holds up over time, that reflects the long-run picture in published owner feedback, and we say so rather than presenting it as a measurement.
Where we cannot verify something, the page says we cannot verify it. That is always preferable to a confident sentence with nothing behind it.
Updates and corrections
Every page shows the date it was last updated. We recheck recommendations rather than leaving them to rot: machines get discontinued, replaced and quietly revised, and a roundup that still points at a machine nobody sells is worse than no roundup.
When we get something wrong, we fix it and update the modified date. Corrections that change a recommendation are noted on the page rather than made silently.
Corrections are the most useful email we get. Send them to contact@stitchstarter.com or through the contact page, and they get answered first.
On AI-assisted drafting
Every page on StitchStarter is reviewed and signed off by a person before it is published, and the editorial judgments - which machine wins, who should skip it, what the trade-off is - are ours. We will not publish a page nobody has read.
What we cannot help with
We cannot help with orders, returns or warranty claims - those go to Amazon or the manufacturer. We do not accept paid placements or sponsored reviews, so there is no need to ask.