Review: Chinese Q-Snap

I got Happy Mail today! It's always great to open your mailbox and see a small little something inside, isn't it?

Today I'm happy to report I finally received my q-snap knockoff from AliExpress, and I was super excited to see if it compared with the real thing. I ordered an 8x8 inch frame, and here is how it came packaged:

It was all very neat and satisfying really! The plastic is very soft to the touch, and putting it together was (wait for it...) a snap! I'm hilarious. The frame is quite light, and the size is pretty much perfect for what I want.

Putting it together was a snap!

I had made a grime guard for it before it arrived, and thankfully it fit.

I also made a matching project bag and they look adorable together

I went ahead and put some fabric on the frame, and clamped it shut: the tension was perfect, it all seemed to be working just fine. However, there is one MAJOR FLAW in the q-snap: there are sharp bits of plastic in the clamps, so unfortunately when I slid the clamps off of the frame the fabric caught and snagged a little. Major fail!

Thankfully, I had some thin felt on hand and it was easy enough to use it as a buffer between the clamps and the fabric, as shown:

And at the end of the day, you can't even see the felt once you put a grime guard over it. Not that it bothers me much to be honest!

So, my opinion? 4 starts out of 5. The frame was cheap, it's very nice to the touch, it's light, it holds the tension perfectly, it does exactly what it's supposed to do for a fraction of the price of the original q-snap. However, just be careful to put some felt under the clamps. You'll protect your fabric and your stitches too!