E:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH28.TXT Last updated on 11 January 2012 The newest comments are on top. L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----R Unsorted machine-sewing tips: -------------------------------------------------- When straight-stitching a knit, the seam should be under a little tension so that there will be a some give in the stitches, but when you zig-zag, any tension will be sewn in, causing the stitching to ripple and pucker. Too much tension, and straight-stitch will also sew in stretch. Lengthening the stitch helps to avoid this. -------------------------------------------------- Nearing the end of a project, you fill a bobbin from your last spool of chartreuse thread -- and empty the spool. Just wind another bobbin from the first one, and stop when the thread levels look equal. Put one on the spool pin and the other in the bobbin case, and you should be able to finish without buying a whole spool of now-useless thread. Be sure to label the bobbins so that three years later, when a hem comes undone, you won't be left to guess what they are from them being strung on the same strip of rag that used to tie the spool to the bobbin. -------------------------------------------------- Repositionable correction tape -- I think they were calling it "cover-up" tape the last time I looked at it in an office-supply store; it's a narrow strip of thin paper with Post-It glue on one side -- makes excellent bobbin labels. Press the tape against one side of a metal bobbin, just missing the ridge around the hole in the middle, then shave off the excess paper with a scalpel or razor blade. -------------------------------------------------- After changing the bobbin, you must pull the bobbin thread to the top by holding the end of the needle thread while you turn the handwheel through one stitch. When you see a loop of bobbin thread, take hold of both ends of the loop of needle thread and pull until you have brought the end of the bobbin thread to the surface. -------------------------------------------------- Don't empty the basket where you throw useless little snippets of fabric until you have completely finished the garment and know you won't want to make any further adjustments to the machine. -------------------------------------------------- If your machine balks at the start of a seam, fold a scrap to the exact thickness of the seam, start sewing in the middle of the scrap, and stitch off the scrap onto the seam. You can stitch onto the scrap again at the end of the seam, and leave it under the presser foot for the next seam. -------------------------------------------------- When you have several seams to sew with the same thread and machine setting, stitch off the end of one seam onto the beginning of the next. "Chaining" seams this way saves a great deal of time and worry, and makes it easy to start the stitching right at the raw edge. Snip the items apart when you have sewn all of them, when they start cluttering up the space behind the machine, or when you want to do further stitching on something early in the chain. When sewing patchwork, leave the patches chained together to keep them in order. -------------------------------------------------- When trouble-shooting, use one color of thread in the bobbin and a different color of thread on top. -------------------------------------------------- In tricky spots, turn the handwheel. -------------------------------------------------- When you are sewing under tension, it is important to release the tension only when the machine is stopped and the needle is down in the fabric; if the tension varies, the stitching will be irregular, and if you apply or release tension while the needle is up, the fabric is apt to shift a bit, causing a jog in the seam. So there you sit with both hands stretching the fabric, and the machine stops with the needle in the air. You don't dare release the tension until you've cranked the needle down, and you can't crank the needle down until you let go of the fabric. What do you do now? Shift the grip of your left hand to holding the fabric by pressing it against the bed of the machine. Then "walk" your fingers, holding alternately with fingertips and thumb, until you are holding the fabric with your fingers behind the needle and your thumb in front of the needle. Now you can let go with your right hand and crank the needle down. If the tension isn't enormous, you can use a similar technique to control the fabric with one hand, leaving the other free to fiddle with the controls or turn the handwheel. When moving the fabric, you'll tend to use the sides of the fingers, rather than the tips, and will be apt to use your palm too. Your hand will be rather like half an embroidery hoop. -------------------------------------------------- Your sewing machine makes a stitch by pulling on the needle thread to tighten a loop around the bobbin thread. If nothing is restraining the other end of the needle thread, the loop will pull out instead of tightening. If there is no tension on the bobbin thread, it will follow the needle thread instead of getting a loop tight around it. So you can't make the first stitch with both ends flopping around loose. Usually, setting the presser foot on the ends of the threads suffices to put tension on them, but sometimes sterner measures are called for. You can pull on both threads with your left hand while turning the handwheel with the right hand. You have to make a few stitches before there is enough resistance to keep the threads from pulling out. There may be a clamp behind the needle to hold the threads for you. I dislike this option because the threads must be disengaged from the clamp after you've sewn enough seam that the fabric is restrained by the held threads. The trick I use most often is to look around on the floor for the scrap of fabric that is supposed to be under the presser foot, start stitching on this scrap, then stitch off the scrap onto the seam. Once a few stitches have been made in the real seam, the scrap can be used as a handle to put tension on the fabric before enough to take hold of has passed behind the presser foot. -------------------------------------------------- Does this scenario sound familiar? You need both hands to control the fabric, so you can't spare a hand to push the handwheel to get the machine going, and maybe this hard-to-control fabric is also a little hard to push a needle through, so you push on the control and the machine just sits there and hums at you, so you push a little harder, and the machine starts suddenly at a terrifying speed . . . When you are in this situation, you must remember that it is harder for the machine to push the needle down than to pull it back up. If you aren't sewing something truly beyond your machine's capabilities, all you need to do is to crank the needle all the way down before you start to sew. If you want to start out really slow, turn a little bit past the bottom of the stroke, to where the needle is just starting on its way up. -------------------------------------------------- It is extremely awkward to gather a tube onto a free arm narrow-end first. If you have to stitch in that direction, gather the sleeve or whatever onto the free arm wide-end first, then stitch the tube off the free arm instead of onto it. Lacking a free arm, I might try stitching from the hole out -- that sort of amounts to gathering it up on the needle bar, or against the flat bed before beginning work. I don't speak from experience -- when I needed a machine of my own, I blew three hundred dollars on a top-of-the-line Necchi, so I've never sewn anything more difficult than short sleeves on a flatbed machine. This was just before domestic sewing ceased to be a serious household chore -- forty years later, my Lycia is still going strong. (I did have to buy a new motor for it after oiling a ventilation hole.) -------------------------------------------------- It is obvious from the design of the treadle on a sewing machine that you put your feet on it side-by-side and rock them in unison. Some treadles even have footprints molded in to instruct you to do this. Like many an obvious method, rocking the treadle isn't the best way to go about it. I never got serious use out of my treadle machine until someone told me that you are supposed to push the front of the treadle down with one foot, and push the back of the treadle down with the other foot. This causes you to alternate feet as in walking, which feels much more natural. Alternating your feet allows you to sew very slowly, and it allows you to start up from a dead stop without pushing the handwheel -- as long as you didn't stop with the crank-arm at dead center. Even then, you can nudge the handwheel to get the crank off dead center, put both hands back on the fabric, and start treadling. Alternating also makes it easier to start with the machine turning in the correct direction. It's much easier and more natural to stop and push with the other foot than to stop and rock the other way. Don't trust yourself to remember which foot was going down when you stopped. Push just a little while observing the handwheel from the corner of your eye before you start treadling in earnest. If it moves the wrong way, give an earnest push with the other foot. If you have to crank the needle down before beginning to stitch, notice which way the treadle moves, and you will nearly always guess right. -------------------------------------------------- After I wore out the foot control to my Lycia, I discovered that the new control made it much easier to sew slowly, and my top speed dropped considerably. I may start using the "fast" setting of the machine once in a while. I also discoverd that foot controls are really cheap, and if the new control doesn't come with plugs to fit your machine, it takes a good mechanic less than five minutes to undo the wires and swap them. So if you aren't happy with your foot control, talk to your mechanic! I can't believe that I put up with that tiny button for forty years. -------------------------------------------------- EOF