LIESEL'S PRACTICAL POUFBUNNY AREA
on Petticoat Pond
5. ADJUSTMENTS AND PRACTICE
You will need some scrap or extra
material of the same kind you want to use for your actual sewing
project. In fact you should practice sewing on scraps until you
are satisfied your machine is adjusted properly and you have the
nak of controlling the machine. I cover practice points later.
This part is about the normal set up stuff I do every time I sew
anything. The idea is that I want to be sure that the adjustments
are set so they will work good with the fabric I will be working
with. If I am going to do something like add lace to a chiffon
petticoat. I start out with some scraps of chiffon and lace I
either have laying around or I go to the store and get a small
piece for this purpose. Chiffon isn’t what you’d call
heavy duty and I wouldn’t want to damage a nice petti
because I didn’t have the machine set up right. Start with
the presser foot tension adjustment. On the back of the
machine’s head there is a lever that raises and lowers the
presser foot. This is a small metal foot that the needle passes
through and holds the fabric against the feed dogs (look like
teeth). At the top of the head there will be an adjustment that
sets how hard the foot pushes the fabric against the teeth. See
your manual for how to set this adjustment. As you change the
adjustment you should notice a change in the force on the lever
that moves the foot up and down. If this setting is not tight
enough then the fabric doesn’t feed and you’ll get lots
of stitches in the same spot or real close together. If it’s
to tight fine fabrics can be damaged. Which beings up another
point. The presser foot is changeable. Most machines come with
two or three different ones. They are for use with different
kinds of stitches, and different kinds of work. One is usually a
general purpose foot for straight and zigzag stitches. Others are
for feeding bindings onto hems, and feeding lace or piping. See
your manual for a description of the feet that were sent with
your machine. Most sewing centers sell accessory kits for the
various model sewing machines that include different kinds of
feet as well as selling individual special purpose feet. There
are three feet I use most often: general purpose, lace guide, and
piping foot. Some of the special purpose feet wont work with
zigzag stitching (later) so if you need to use a zigzag be sure
the foot you use is for zigzag stitching. The easy way to tell is
that a zigzag friendly foot has a slot in it that allows the
needle to pass through at different positions. Other feet just
have a round hole. If you try to do a zigzag stitch with a foot
that just has a round hole you’ll break the needle. You
certainly don’t want sharp pieces of needle flying at you.
You can also break needles by getting a foot mounted on the
machine wrong, by using a bent needle, by trying to sew fabric
that’s too heavy, etc. SO BE CAREFUL! The setting of the two
tension adjustments will also need to be checked, but you’ll
need to sew a little to see how it’s working. Take two small
pieces (about 2 X 3 inches) of your scrap material and layer them
together. Place the pieces under the foot so the foot is fully on
the fabric and lower the foot. The pressure on the foot needs to
be enough so that when the foot is down and you tug a little on
the fabric the fabric doesn’t pull out from under the foot.
This brings up the next point when sewing you shouldn’t be
pushing the fabric under the foot, nor should you be trying to
hold it back. The machine will feed the fabric itself. Let it
pull the fabric through. You will need to guide the fabric to
keep the stitching where you want it. You do this by turning
sideways on the fabric as it feeds under the foot. It’s best
to keep the fabric lined up the way you want it several inches in
front of the foot. If you find yourself trying to make a lot of
wild turns right in front of the foot you need to SLOW DOWN and
manage the flow of the fabric better before it gets to the foot.
Always start out slow. Wait until you have lots of experience
before you try to hurry up. Many times when I’ve had to take
out a seam and start over it was because I was going to fast and
lost control of the fabric flow. Well you’ve got the
material under the foot and if thing have gone well you’re
ready to sew so go ahead. Turn on the power and GENTLY press the
peddle. The machine should start slowly sewing the two pieces of
fabric together. Sew for about two or three inches and stop the
machine. If the machine did not sew review your set up of the
machine following your manual and the points above. Make sure the
needle is at its highest (farthest away from the fabric), raise
the foot off the material, and pull it out from under the foot.
The spool thread and the bobbin thread will still be attached and
will be pulling out as you remove your material. Using your
scissors cut the threads so you can lay them out behind the
needle as they were before you started sewing. Being careful to
keep track of which piece of material was on top look at the
stitches. The thread on the top piece of material is the spool
thread. The thread on the bottom piece of material is the bobbin
thread. If there are loops of thread standing off the surface of
the material that means that thread’s tension is to low. The
thread needs to be pinched a little tighter by its tension
adjustment. If the material pieces are curved to the top or the
bottom and wont flatten out that means one of the thread tensions
is to tight. If the curve is toward the top piece of material
then its the spool thread tension that is too tight. If the curve
is toward the bottom the bobbin thread tension is to tight. If
the material lays flat and you don’t have loops there is one
more check to make to be sure the two thread tensions are equal.
This is important to get a good quality stitch. In the
illustration figure 1 I’ve shown a single stitch hole
magnified a bunch and how the stitch looks when the thread
tensions are equal. Notice how the thread disappears into the
hole on both sides of the material. In figure 2 I’ve shown
how the top thread is laying on top of the material because the
spool thread tension is tighter than the bobbin thread. In this
case loosen the spool thread tension a little and try again. In
figure 3 I’ve shown the bottom (bobbin) thread laying ac oss
the stitch hole because the spool thread tension is less than the
bobbin thread tension. In this case tighten the spool thread
tension a little and try again. Notice that you only adjust the
bobbin thread tension if the material is curving down or if you
get loops on the bottom (bobbin) thread. Otherwise adjustments
are made using the spool thread adjustment. If you get things to
tight one of two things will happen. The thread breaks often, or
the material is gathered together by the stitching. If either for
these things happen loosen both tension adjustments a little and
try again. As a general rule I find I hardly ever have to adjust
the bobbin tension once I got things working right a few years
back. I do need to adjust to top tension depending if I’m
sewing chiffon, tricot, cotton, etc. As your making these test
seams be sure to watch how the material feeds too. The stitches
should be evenly spaced. If they’re not the foot pressure
should be increased a little and try again. There shouldn’t
be any teeth marks on the material. If find marks decrease the
foot pressure a little and try again. I know, it sounds hard, and
a lot of work, just keep thinking about all the pretty lace and
ruffles you’ll be able to put on your petti’s after
you’ve figured this stuff out.
ON TO SECTION SIX>>>>>>>>>>>>
