Learn to use your sewing machine : 2

Get to know your sewing machine :
2. Thread the machine, stitch on fabric.

If you’ve done some stitching on paper (see previous post), hopefully your machine will not seem such an alarming uncontrollable thing that can race away from you unexpectedly. And you know what some of the knobs and levers do.

So the next steps are to thread your machine and repeat the first steps on fabric.
Yay !

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Needle, thread, stitch length, fabric for novices

For a beginner, who has enough essentials to learn without worrying about details, these work well for most projects :
Universal needle size 70/10 or 75/11 (bigger number needle for thicker needle, use for thicker fabrics).
Poly-cotton thread, size 40-50 (bigger number thread is thinner, so use for thinner fabrics – aargh).
Stitch length 2.5 mm (10 stitches per inch).

For your starter trials, it’s best to use a medium weight fabric with a plain weave. Use scraps, or get some ‘muslin’ (US)/ ‘calico’ (UK).

Bernina in their ‘basics for beginners‘ post, do the first practice stitching with thread on kitchen paper.

You don’t need to know more about needle and thread until you feel confident about the basics – but it may not be long before you find yourself wanting to use the best needle, thread and pins for a task.
Here’s a post with links to information about needles, threads, pins.

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THREADING THE MACHINE

The general principles of threading a machine are the same for all machines, but there may be some little things which are important on yours, so try to find a manual or video specifically for your model.
There are some specialist sites supplying manuals for vintage machines, so if you have an old machine it’s worth looking around.
Brother machine models have different numbers in different countries, find the US number to get the most information.

Many sewing problems are caused by wrong threading. So if you have thread problems, it is worth looking for detailed help with your machine.
If you’re using a vintage machine, some of them thread and take needles in ways different from modern machines, so try to find out about your specific machine.

Learn to :
Thread the upper thread through the machine.
Wind the bobbin (which holds the thread used to make the stitches under the fabric).
Thread the bobbin.

Threading is something that needs to be done correctly or the machine won’t stitch properly. A “that’s near enough“ attitude works for many sewing processes, but not for threading the machine. So follow instructions in the manual carefully. It looks very complicated to start with. But practice several times until you know where all the channels, hooks and slots are. It’s the same every time, so it won’t be long before you’re able to do it nearly without thinking.

Top threading

Make sure the thread leads off the spool and through any leads to get it correctly from the spool to the down-up-down section.

There are several mechanisms you need to get the top thread past – not essential to know these reasons, but they do explain why top threading has so many ‘rules’ :

That down-up-down section :
– first take the thread down to the tension discs, these are visible on vintage machines, hidden on modern ones. When they’re hidden, you have to thread with the presser foot lever up : that opens the tension discs so the thread can slip between them.
– next take the thread up to the thread take up lever. Best to turn the hand wheel so (the needle is up and) the hole/slot in this lever is in the top position : otherwise the thread may pull out of the needle the first time you take a stitch.
In order to make the ‘lock stitch’ the upper thread has to go down and around the bobbin (video), and the movement of the thread take-up lever ensures that the top thread remains the same length throughout this journey.
– then take the thread down again, through leads to ensure the thread gets to the needle from the right direction. There’s a groove in the needle that the thread needs to lie in while the stitch is being made, otherwise you may get skipped stitches or the thread may break.
Thread can also be too thick to lie in the groove – matching needle and thread sizes is something to learn about later.

If you have learned to thread another machine, and are using a machine that’s new to you, do check the manual. Some machines thread through the tension and take up lever channels from left to right, some from right to left !

Modern machines thread the needle from front to back, but on older machines some thread the needle left to right, some right to left.

Bobbin threading

Next learn how to :
– wind a bobbin.
As usual this needs to be done correctly – if the thread does not go through all the leads to the bobbin winder, the thread may wind onto the bobbin with the wrong tension. When a wrongly wound bobbin is used, stitches do not form correctly.

– position the bobbin and how the thread leads away from it.
Does your machine need you to position the bobbin so the thread comes off it leading like the tail of a p or a q ?

Again you need to make sure that the thread leads correctly :
– top loading machines – put the bobbin in the right way round, and find all the slots and gaps which the thread needs to lead through.
– front loading machines – these have a separate bobbin case. You have to find how to :
– put the bobbin into the case the right way round,
– lead the thread through the slots on the bobbin case,
– put the bobbin case into the machine.
– lead the thread away from the bobbin case (a special route may not be necessary).

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First stitches

On modern machines this may not be necessary, but on older ones it often is.

Do a ‘thread up’ : hold the top thread with your left hand, and turn the hand wheel (top towards you) so the needle goes down and then up again.
It should bring up a loop of bobbin thread. Pull on this loop until you have both ends and several inches of both threads in view.
Try it, and find whether your machine stitches well from the first stitch without needing to do this.

I always do some test stitching after threading my machine.
If you get a ‘thread nest’ try :
– hold both threads taut behind the needle while the machine makes the first few stitches.
– if that doesn’t work, take out both threads and re-thread from the beginning.

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Practice sewing straight lines, corners and curves – with thread on fabric.
If you need a reminder, look at comments on these skills in the previous post.
It’s usually easiest to stitch on a double layer of fabric.
You may like to mark lines, corners and curves on the fabric to practice following.

Then there are a few more things to learn about getting your machine to do what you want.

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MACHINE SETTINGS

Find the reverse button/ lever

Hold this down while you’re sewing, and the machine sews in reverse.
Sew a few reverse stitches at the beginning and end of lines of stitching, to fix them so they don’t unravel.

Alter stitch length and width

Find out how to alter the length of the stitch.

Find out how to select the zigzag stitch.
Find out how to alter the width of the stitch.

Try out some zigzag while altering the width and length.
On most machines you have to stop the machine to change the stitch settings.
On some machines you can change the length and width of the zigzag while you sew. Lovely effects but definitely a skill that needs practice !

Find how to choose another stitch

Some machines have a wide selection of utility and decorative stitches.
Find out how to choose them on your machine, and what tells you which stitch is selected.
You may like to make a sampler : stitch out a few inches of every stitch you have, for reference.

Needle up-down

Some machines have a control which you can set so the needle always stops in the down position. Very useful in many techniques.
If you haven’t got this control, you will often have to turn the hand wheel manually (top towards you) to move the needle down into the fabric.

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For later :

Learn how to change the needle

Sad to say, a needle does not last for ever, they get blunt.
How many stitches they can make before getting blunt depends on the material they are made from.

On modern machines you always put the flat side of the needle to the back of the machine.
On older machines the flat side may need to be left or right, so check the manual.

Learn how to control the upper tension

Tension affects how difficult it is to pull the thread through the machine, so how tightly it sews.

Find out how to control the upper thread tension and balance the upper/ lower thread stitching. It’s easiest to see the effects if you have different colour threads in top and bobbin.

Beware altering the bobbin tension, which is needed for some embroidery techniques, and can only be done on a separate bobbin case. The machine may never again do ordinary stitching well using this case – how do I know this. . . Best to get a second bobbin case when you want to try bobbin work, so you can keep one case unchanged from the factory setting.

Presser foot pressure

On some machines you can alter how heavily the presser foot presses down. Experiment if you’re using a fabric that doesn’t feed through easily – try more or less pressure. You don’t need to use this early in your sewing, but it’s good to know where the control knob is.

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At last you’re ready to use your machine to make something ?!
Suggestions for learning first skills in this post, and for beginner projects using those skills in this post.

There’s a huge range of skills you could learn to make full use of a complex sewing machine, but the steps in this post are actually all you need to know for a lifetime of sewing !

Take the time to learn at your own pace, and enjoy using what you learn 😀

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First published January 2014, links checked October 2021

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Learn to use your sewing machine : 1

Get to know your sewing machine :
1. Learn to control speed and direction, by stitching on paper

The second post is about threading your machine and stitching on fabric. Best to be relaxed and know where the important knobs are, before moving on to that.

Here’s a post on choosing a basic sewing machine.

This post is about taking the first steps in learning to use a machine.
Even the simplest sewing machine is a complex machine tool, with many knobs, buttons, levers, wheels, plus other odd things sticking out which turn out to be bobbin winders, thread cutters, spool holders (and what are they. . .). It takes some effort to learn to use, but it’s all well worth it.

Sewing courses for children often start with hand sewing, so they don’t need to be able to use a sewing machine before they can ever make something. See this page for some links on hand sewing.
And some courses start with felt rather than woven fabric, so there are no problems with fraying fabric. You can even glue felt pieces together.
Would you find this a more stress-free way of starting to make ?

You don’t need to know everything about your machine before it’s safe to put your foot on the pedal, but there is a surprising amount that it’s helpful to know. So take your time if you like to learn slowly.

And if you instead need advice on how to start using a treadle machine, see here.

I find it’s less alarming to try your first stitching on paper – somehow it doesn’t seem to matter so much if it goes wrong 😀
The second post in this group is about trying your first stitches on fabric.

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Get to know the parts

It’s a great help to have a machine manual to find the parts of your machine.
It’s good to look for these parts, but you haven’t actually got to learn all this deliberately, learning will come naturally as you try the first exercises.
Many manuals for older machines are available online.
For photos of what to look for, and guidance on using your machine, see :
Written tutorials from Tilly and the Buttons
Free videos from eSewingWorkshop

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For complete beginners, here’s a possible sequence of things to try on your machine.

On a mechanical machine, you need to find the specific knob, button, lever, wheel to use for each function.
On an electronic/ computerised machine with a screen, you need to find how to change the screen to the specific setting you want.

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First steps

Find how to raise and lower the presser foot using the presser foot lever.
Find how to raise and lower the needle, by turning the top of the hand wheel towards you.

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BASIC STITCHING SKILLS

Most machines start with the default of sewing straight stitch.
On some machines you may need to check and set this up.

Control the speed

Sew on a piece of paper, without thread in the machine.
Put the paper between the presser foot and foot plate.
Lower the presser foot to hold the paper firmly.
Lower the needle. (You may not need to do this with a modern machine.)

Try pressing down on the foot pedal.
What is the slowest you can stitch, the fastest ?
Some machines have a fast-slow control, though not the most basic machines.
Find out how to control the speed with the foot pedal.

This may take some practice. It may not be a quick thing to learn, especially if you don’t drive a car, which needs a similar skill.

Unfortunately if you always feel the machine is getting away from you – even at its slowest you don’t feel in control – the solutions can be a bit extreme.

How to slow down ?
– Get a machine which you can set to a slow speed.

– Get a manually operated machine – no need for electricity !
– – a hand cranked machine (search ‘hand crank Singer’ if you don’t know what these are),
– – a treadle machine – activated by your feet. Modern treadles have a variety of stitches.
An old manually operated machine can be a good cheap buy, but best to get it checked and oiled, so you’re not being frustrated by the machine rather than the sewing technique. Most only sew straight stitches, so some special techniques and tools may be needed.
Many people love these as you can feel in complete control, and totally involved in what you are doing.

– Learn to sew by hand.

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The following suggestions apply to all machines, whether powered by the operator or by electricity !

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Control the direction to follow a specific line

You don’t have to move the fabric/paper lengthways under the needle. The machine does this. Watch the machine while it stitches without anything between presser foot and foot plate. You can see how the feed dogs move. They pull the fabric along.

You just control where the fabric/paper is relative to the needle from left to right.
Hold the fabric/ paper with one hand on each side of the needle, slightly nearer to you, and control the direction of stitching by rotating the fabric/ paper around the needle.

Try sewing along the lines of lined paper.

Pivot corners

Learn to pivot the stitching :
– needle down (turn the top of the hand wheel towards you),
– raise presser foot (not needle),
– turn the fabric/ paper to the new direction – it rotates round the needle,
– lower presser foot,
– continue stitching.

Make sure the needle goes all the way down into the corner.

On some powered machines it isn’t possible to control making one stitch at a time using the foot pedal. If so, ‘walk’ the final stitches towards the corner by turning the top of the hand wheel towards you.

You may need to stop just before you get to the corner, and move the fabric/ paper a little to get it in the right place. Then lower the needle into position by hand, before you pivot and start stitching again.

If you stitch a little past the corner :
– find the ‘reverse’ lever/ button.
– hold that while you make a couple of stitches backwards.

Pivot round a curve

Draw some straight lines, gently curving lines, and corners on paper.
Practice stitching along the lines – watch the needle for this.

Sewing round a curve involves a whole lot of little pivots.
Here’s a post on pivoting round a curve.
When you sew a curve on fabric, these little pivots are important. If you pull the fabric straight to save the effort of pivoting, it will sew those distortions in place !

The ultimate test ?
Here’s a pdf spiral to print out and try stitching around.
Start from the outside, then the inside. Take it slowly.
Not to worry that you can’t do this early in your learning to use your machine. Or if your machine won’t let you do it well. Such stitching accuracy is rarely needed. But when you can do this you can do anything 😀

Control the direction by sewing a set distance from the edge

You spend more of your sewing time controlling so the stitching is a set distance from the fabric edge (where your seam/hem stitching needs to be), rather than watching the needle.

Find the width marks on the foot plate, to the right of the presser foot.
Or stick some tape to the foot plate to mark the distance you want from the needle (only leave the tape there for short times so it doesn’t leave sticky residue.).
Practice sewing while watching the edge of the paper or fabric (not the needle) to keep the paper/ fabric edge aligned with a mark on the foot plate.

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Good, there’s now much that is familiar about your machine.
The next step is to thread your machine and try stitching with thread on fabric – exciting 😀

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First published January 2014, links checked October 2021

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Moving on to a special purpose machine

When you are confident with using a basic machine, you may know what types of items you like to make, and what extra machine tools you would like to have.

The best sewer I know uses a basic mechanical machine costing about £150/$200 new.
If you love sewing garments, you usually use just the basics, perhaps with a good choice of buttonholes.

There are many machines with extra facilities. Best only to move on to one of these when you have enough experience to know what sort of sewing you most enjoy, not before.
Mostly sew knits ? or crafts ? quilting ? love embroidery ?

My own machines ? an example of the choices to be made :
I love machine embroidery and have a good machine for doing that (Bernina 500E).
I used to do a lot of patchwork piecing, for which you can use a basic machine, as all you need is a 1/4″ seam allowance. I didn’t enjoy the hand and machine quilting I tried, and always got the quilting done by a commercial quilting company, so I don’t need a machine with space and support for handling a big quilt.
I enjoy making bags, but my domestic machine (Bernina 480) is plenty strong enough for all the layers I have tried to sew through so far.
I’ve recently become a serger/ overlocker owner. I don’t sew knits, but don’t much like any of the overlocking stitches on my basic machine for finishing seam allowances. As I have shaky hands I’ve been doing much research on overlockers that are easy to thread, see next paragraph.

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Knit fabrics
There are machines which make special stretch stitches not available on a domestic sewing machine.

When you have some experience, you may want a serger/ overlocker, if you find you love speedy sewing, or want your seam finishes to look like RTW, or sew a lot of knits.
You can get an air threader, so you don’t have to find how to do the threading yourself. Though with a bit of research you can find a machine with good help with threading. As air threaders are more expensive.

Next add a coverstitch machine to make RTW-like hems on knits.
Many machines which claim to do both overlocking and coverstitch are difficult to change from one function to the other. So much so that many people don’t do it, so try to find a manual or video about a model you are thinking of, to check what is needed.

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Bags, home dec, toys, crafts
You may want a more powerful machine.

If you like to sew bags, home dec, toys, crafts – you’ll want a sturdy machine with the penetrating power to sew through many layers of fabric without complaint.

If you sew a lot with heavy fabrics you may want an ‘industrial’ machine. If you go that route, look for a machine that only does straight lock stitch, as true ‘industrial’ machines are special purpose.

There are also semi-industrial machines, which are heavy duty and with minimal facilities, but oriented to the home market.
Here are some of the options, a post from Sewing Direct.

When home sewists talk about an ‘industrial’ machine they usually mean one that does straight stitch only. But actually there are many different types of industrial machine.
Commercial sewing can be very different from home sewing.
Here is a video about an individual jeans maker. See all the different machines he uses in making one pair of jeans. Domestic sewing machine manufacturers try to fit all those different functions into one machine, or they assume the operator’s knowledge and skills.
Large scale manufacturing is even more different from domestic sewing. Not only special purpose machines, but each part of the process is done by a different person. Here’s a video about factory making of jeans (there’s an audio-only section at one point).

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Quilting
Look for machines with extra space, a large working area for supporting the fabric while you stitch, and with more controlled stitching.

Quilting machines have a built-in ‘walking foot’, which ensures several layers of fabric move through the machine together.
And a wide gap to the right of needle, to make room for the bulk of a quilt.
Some have a ‘stitch regulator’, so when you’re ‘free motion’ quilting, the stitches are all the same length whatever speed you move the fabric.

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Embroidery
There are machines with special firmware/ software, which can stitch in any direction and make beautiful patterns.

Decorative stitches
Most modern machines will produce some ‘decorative stitches’, narrow lines of patterned stitching, 5mm or 9mm wide. Most sewers don’t use them. I love them so have upgraded to a machine with more.

Many basic ‘mechanical’ machines can sew some decorative stitches which can give attractive effects. No need for an ‘electronic’ or ‘computerised’ machine unless you find you want to explore more.
An ‘electronic’ machine has more control over shaping of stitches, so there can be pictures of flowers, leaves, toys, letters – even several alphabets. . .
A ‘computerised’ machine has a memory, so you can store stitch settings and decorative stitch combinations.

Wider embroidery
There are 2 types of machine embroidery that cover a wider area (decorative stitches just sew a narrow line). There’s ’embroidery using a machine’ – done on a conventional sewing machine and entirely operator controlled, and ’embroidery by machine’ – needs an embroidery module holding an embroidery hoop, and is entirely controlled by the machine.

Machine embroidery, you move the fabric
‘Free motion embroidery’, or FME
This is best done on a domestic machine with some special options.

In general sewing, the feed dogs move the fabric through the machine.
If you want to do ‘free motion’ embroidery, controlling the stitching direction yourself, you need a machine on which you can lower the feed dogs. This embroidery is like the opposite of drawing – instead of moving the pencil over the paper, you move the fabric under what is making the mark (the needle). May take some time to learn the skills needed, see this post.

Lovers of machine embroidering may want to be able to vary the width and length of stitches while they sew. On basic machines you have to stop sewing to change the width and length of the stitch, and the machine only makes changes in clearly different steps, not gradually. There are a few machines on which you can gradually change stitch length and width by turning a knob while you’re sewing.

If you want to do ‘bobbin work’ with thicker bobbin thread, you need a machine with a front loading bobbin in a separate bobbin case (most simple machines have a drop-in top-loading bobbin which can’t be adjusted).

Embroidery machine, the machine moves the fabric
Machine-controlled embroidery wider than the narrow strips of decorative stitches is done on special machines, controlled by software which moves hooped fabric around under the needle. Photos of this type of machine usually show the embroidery module and hoop.
Using these machines is not just a matter of pressing a button and ‘hey presto’ something beautiful emerges. There may be quite a lot to learn about operating the machine and choosing the right materials. Here’s a post about the basics.
As the designs are software they can be downloaded, so there are huge numbers of machine embroidery designs available on the internet.

There are both ’embroidery only’ machines, which only do machine controlled hooped embroidery, and sewing-embroidery ‘combi’ machines, on which you can do conventional sewing and both types of embroidery. A combi machine can be cheaper than buying both separately, and is good if you rarely do machine-controlled embroidery. I prefer to have separate sewing and embroidery machines, as there are many steps involved in changing the machine from one function to the other. Top-of-the-line machines are all ‘combi’.

If you find you enjoy using decorative stitches and want to move on to larger sizes of design, I suggest you start with a modest size of machine-controlled embroidery machine to learn about the skills and supplies used. There’s a group of posts here about using an embroidery machine, starting with choosing one. The smallest embroidery machine can just make embroideries 4″/10cm square. Every embroidery technique can be done on such a machine. Paying more gets you an increased area of embroidery, and increased ability to edit (alter) designs directly on the machine.
Most people find they’re happy to use simple embroidery methods with designs made by other people. Some people move on to spend surprisingly large amounts on a top-of-the-line embroidery machine and the software to alter or make their own designs.

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Choosing a special machine which can do more than basic straight and zigzag stitches is not something for a sewing beginner to worry about.

Machine manufacturers emphasise the glamour of their top-of-the-line machines. But many of us don’t do much of that sort of sewing, and just need a ‘workhorse’ machine.

You can take your time to find out which types of sewing you enjoy enough to justify the investment in a special machine.

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