Sewing Machine 101

1. SM101Intro: Hey, guys, I'm Jamie Johnson. I've been sewing for more than 20 years, and I just can't live without it. I would love for you to feel the same way. I started selling when I was 15 years old, down to the local sewn back and get some direct from the owner there. How to make it my very first quilt. How to make my junior homecoming dress I want you to be is excited about something as I am , or maybe just a little less fearful. So I'm hoping this sewing machine 101 class will remove all your fears making are confident with using your sewing machine, and we'll also be completing a little bag. Project to this bag could be made any size and shape. So grab your machine, all your accessories, your owner's manual and some scrap fabric. And let's learn how to use your sewing machine 2. SM101DialsButtonsFeatures: All right, So we're gonna start from the top of the machine to the bottom machine and cover everything in between. The first most noticeable thing on the top is the handle. There are different types of handles, some of them pushed down and retract into the machine. Others flip up like this, and then there's another style that is a cubby style in the back. Cut out. Where you going? To slip your hand in and carry your machine. Right next to the handle is the school pin. The scoop in is what holds your threat on the machine. So you just slide it on like that and use the spool cap, which we'll talk about in the accessories portion of the class. So this right here again is called your school pin. Now there is a hole at the top of the machine here for a second spool pin. And the reason they include that is so that you can use a twin needle. Um, with the twin needle, it goes into the machine just like any other needle. But it has to needles on the bottom part, where you can thread to different threads, and when you use it to a needle. You can get the him on your T shirts where it has two rows of stitching and then the zigzag on the back so the twin needle will mimic that. Next to that, you have your bobbin winder. This is where you would put your bobbin when you were wanting to fill it with the color thread that you need for your project. So use snapping on into place, and then you're gonna push it over. And what that does is it tells the machine that we're not using the needle portion of the machine we're using. We're winding a bobbin. So you've been push it over like that. And then what you will see here is it interacts with the bob and wind er stopper. What that stopper does is it stops the bombing from filling up with too much thread. What I've found is machines brand new straight out of a box. Well, sometimes have this set so that it doesn't want a very full bobbin. And what you may not know is this So screw on top is for you to adjust this piece here out or in, so that you can wind the floor or a less full bobbin. So I'm just gonna loosen up this through there and you can see how it's a kind of a crescent shape so you can push that farther in and you can see you won't get a very big Bob in that way. If you pull it out, you can see now the gap between the current threat on there and the stopper, it will allow a lot more threat to come upon to your bobbing. You don't want it to be completely out because of the bobbin fills up too much. It won't fit into your machine. It will cause problems when you try to stitch. So what you want is it to just be inside the lip of the edge of the bobbin so that it stops full but not overly full? So when do you have it in place? You just tighten that screw back down, and now you will get full wound bobbins from the top of the machine. You'll notice, um, these different guides that air the line guides there, some that are solid here, and then you have these that are dotted and what those are our guides for threatening and guides for winding the bobbin, the ones for threatening our solid lines. So these airlines you would follow to thread the machine, which will show you later. And the dotted lines are for winding the bob. And so you would come through this hook around the tension and then over here to wind your bobbin. Most machines have that, but if you don't just check your owner's manual, it will have some kind of directions for you also in the top. Here, you see this style. This is called Here's Ditch with Doyal and you can see on the top there's a, um, skinny zigzagging. It goes all the way to a much fuller, whiter zigzag. And so, as you turn the style up, you will get a wider zigzag. And as you go down on the number scale, you will get either straight stitch for zero or a a little bit larger, a little bit larger, a little bit larger zigzag. So you think control all that here. Zero is your center needle position. You can see that oval with the dot in the middle. That means that if you have your machines that on the straight stitch and at zero, then your needle position will be in the center. Some machines will allow you to choose a straight stitch and also adjust the stitch with. And what that does is it moves the needle over so you can see next to the five. There's an oval with a dot resuming. There's an oval with the DOT that's on the left side, so it will still be stitching a straight stitch if you have that stitch chosen. But it'll have moved the needle position over so you could do top stitching, or any time you would need to move your needle over that, you would do that here on the stitch wit. Not all machines have that option, so that's a good thing to consider. When you're looking at buying a machine, the machines will just have different types of exact. You can choose from the stitch selector, and you don't have control over moving the stitch with. Here's your tension dial next to that, and it has a range here. You can see there's there are lines here that's the normal considered for this machine. This the normal range you can see as you go to two and one. There is no more lines there. So there is trying to tell you that with normal thread and cotton fabric, and you know all things considered equal that that would be a normal range. But sometimes you use specialty threads, or you have a fabric that responds differently to the tension that you need to adjust that this is a picture of a perfectly balanced stitch. The needle threads are all meaning in the middle, and the bobbin thread is meeting in the middle. So it's perfectly bounty. And what that looks like on fabric is your stitch will be look like stitches on both sides of the fabric. If you have a stitch that is a straight line on the top, and then you flip it over and it's looks like stitches, then you won't want to loosen that setting because what's happening is the needle threat is being pulled up to the top. If you have it, the opposite, where the threat on the bottom is a straight line, but the threads on top look like stitches. Then you're gonna want to tighten that so that the needle thread is pulling more to pull those bob and stitches more to an even level. So that's what your attention is for, and many times. Once you find a good tension, you can pretty much leave it. If you so drastically different things like one day you're sewing drapes with upholstery fabric, and the next day you're so in shears for those drapes, then you might have to adjust that setting, but most the time it can stay in one spot. This is a tension disc for when you're winding your Bob. And we talked briefly about that when we talked about the guides and how you would wrap around this. So we'll talk even more about it when we wind the bobbin and threaten our machine. This dialogue is your presser. Foot pressure. This controls how much pressure is on the presser foot, how much it is pushing down on your fabric as it feeds through the machine. When you have multiple layers of police, many times it's good to be able to loosen this style so that the pressure for isn't pushing down so far on the fabric and maybe preventing it from feeding through the machine. Um, and then if maybe you have a delicate fabric that is really thin and slippery. Maybe the presser foot pressure could be tightened so that it's pushing down and really grasping onto that fabric. So that is what that dial is for this piece. Here, you can see it moves when I move the hand wheel. This is your take up lover, and a lot of times when you have trouble with a machine, I'm not stitching out right. It is because it's either not been threaded through or it's fallen out of this take up lever. So that's why re threading is always a common thing to do. When your machine starts acting up, most machines will have a thread cutter somewhere around the sewing area of your machine. This one happens to be on the side. What you can do is the with the When you're sewing is this spring the threat up, and it will cut it away from your project. Sometimes the thread cutters on the back of machine, and sometimes it's even on the shank of the presser foot. Now we're going to talk about some features you'll find around the bed of the machine. First you'll see the presser foot and the presser foot is the mechanism that holds your fabric in place. As you send it through the machine. This machine has snap on and snap off feet. So how that works, isn't it? Just snapped, um, foot off like that, and you can put another foot on it. Just like that, When you have a machine that has snap on feet, you can search for universal snap on feet on Amazon or eBay or your favorite local store. If you do not have feet that snap on and snap off like this, then you most likely will have a low or high shank foot system. All that means is that you will have to unscrew your foot. Sometimes it will have a thumb screw so you don't need a tool, but it will look something like this. It will have an apparatus attached to the foot toe every foot that comes with your machine , and you just means that you have to through each foot on and off as you wish to change them . These type of feet are readily available as well, so if you have a low shank or high shank, would you can just search for the different feet you need with the additional term Loesch ink in your search bar. The difference between the Loesch ink and a high Schenk is just the point on the Presser foot bar at which they connect. So low Shank is low, has a shorter reach, and a high shank with a screw will be a little higher up and equally important, part of your presser. Foot is the presser foot lifter. This machine has it in the back. Another machine I have has it right here on the inside. Most machines will come with a two step presser, foot lifter Seacon. See that pressure foot is down and now it's up, and there's a gap between the lever and the top of the pathway. There you can lift it up even farther, and that's your second step. Two years to step Presser foot lifter. And that's a great forgetting bulky fabrics underneath them and getting them in place before you set the presser foot down. Maybe you need to get over. Ah, bulky seem to get to the part you actually want to so that not case you can lift this up to the second step the additional height, it will allow you to get that bulky part under your machine. Under the pressure foot, you will find the stitch plate, and you can see there are some lines etched into this ditch plate. Are there no markings to indicate how far away they are from the centre Needle position? But do you learn what those distances are? You can either mark them or many times in class will use painter's tape because it sticks, but it doesn't gum up your machine. Those lines are marking the seam allowance to see Malone's is the distance from the edge of your fabric to where you're stitching will be. So those are the lines that you will follow, depending on how wide your seam allowances. And it's usually different for each pattern that you work with. The feed dogs are these, um, here that air that go up and down into the machine? You can see as I go down, they go under, they come up in the front, and then they scooped the fabric back before going down again, coming up at the front and pulling the fabric to the back. This means that you do not have to pool your fabric through your machine. The job of the feed dogs is to pull the fabric through your machine. So when you were guiding your fabric through, it should really just be right and left to make sure this machine on the seam allowance line that is needed for your pattern, you really shouldn't have to be pulling out. The back machine has an automatic threat. Er, well, we'll show you how that work in the threading portion. But this is the lever right here. You can see those four little prongs. They send a tiny hook through the eye of your needle and then pull the thread through. That's a really delicate part of your machine. It can get been out of shape easily, so you might need to get like a magnifying glass. And make sure if it's not working that that cook is not bent and sometimes you can push it back in the place. Other times, you'll just have to talk to your dealer or look for parts online so that you can replace it . But it is a nice feature tohave behind the automatic needle threat. Er is the lever for your one step back home. If you have that feature on your machine, you will notice that it says push. And so you want to do just that and push it back, and then you a talk to your buttonhole foot with the button you intend to use in your buttonholes. Place that on your machine and you will see you will see that there is this piece of plastic jutting out from the buttonhole foot. That piece belongs to the part in the back that holds the button the size you need for your buttonhole. So when your machine starts to stitch, it will bring that forward and it'll hit that lever on the left. And that's how it will know to reverse another feature. Down around the bed of the machine that is really helpful is called the Free Arm. It looks different on each machine. In this machine, you could just simply pull off the front part, and that reveals a more slender part of the bed of the machine, where you can now fit a tube like a sleeve or the leg of your pants to do with him. And you don't have to worry about the fabric being all bunched up in in the way so you can take a cuff like this and place it around the free arm. And to worry Robbie. What that looks like on this machine and many others is more of a U shape. So a little bit of the back and the front is coming off for this machines free arm with the free arm revealed. Now we also find another feature on a mechanical machine or any of machine with a front loading bobbin. And that is the bobbin housing The bobbin. Housing is the place where your bobbin and Bob in case go for front loading bobbin. It goes just like this, and then you close it up on your on your way. Another type of bobbin is the drop in bobbin. This housing said it's just in front of the pressure foot, and you will take your bobbin and you just drop it in. Hence, the name. Can you put the cover on top on the way to get it out? There is just a piece right here. You push that over and it releases the bob and cover. Some machines will have the ability to drop the feed dogs so that you can do free motion, quilting or darning. So what that looks like is this lever here on the back of the free arm and you can see the feed dogs in this case are up, and all you need to do to lower them is to push it over. So now that the feed dogs are down and that prevents the feed dogs now from coming up in moving the fabric in this case, even free motion, you will be moving the fabric yourself. If you do not have that feature on your machine, stay tuned for the accessories part of this class, and I will show you how that can still be done. Okay, Now we're going to come back up to the front of the machine and cover some features that you will see there, one that's almost always there is the reverse lever. This one you just pushed down the reverse and lift up. This is helpful for back stitching. What back stitching is is a way to secure your stitch by starting at the top of your seem going through your four stitches and then you would hit reverse and go right back over those stitches before letting go and stitching down the rest of the way on a mechanical machine. That's it would look like that this here in Sometimes it's here. Um, sometimes it's here, so just check out your owner's manual. If you're not sure on the computerized machine, it's almost in the same places, the mechanical. But it's now a button, so it's just a button that you pressed whenever you're ready to reverse. Another feature on a computerized machine sometimes will be a back stitching button. And what that does is it actually stitches in place for you if you press it before you start stitching. And then if you press it at the end of your stitch, sew back stitching can either be forward and backward over itself, or it can be a few small stitches in place. This machine will do a few small stitches in place, but if you want to manually backs that, you can still use your reverse. Another feature you might see on any computerized machine is the needle up and down button , and it will look something like this. And what that does is takes half a stitch for use of the needles completely in the down position. If you push it again, the needle come up to the most upright position. If you push the needle down before you start stitching, the machine will always stop with the needle down. This is great cause it'll hold your place if you're free motion quilting. This is a great feature tohave because every time you stop, the machine will hold your place on. This is great also for turning corners. How you don't didn't use your hand wheel to turn the needle down and I mean it will just automatically stop for you next to the needle up and down is the speed control who of this feature when teaching Children, I also like it for myself because I like to stitch quickly. But there are some accessories and sums circumstances when I want to have a little more control, and so I need to slow down. In that case, I can set it on the slow or the medium setting. And no matter how hard I pushed down on that foot pedal, the machine is gonna go the speed that I have determined on the speed control So those are some features that are on computerized machines. Not all of them, but some that you may find when you're looking at computerized machines. Go back to the mechanical so I can show you some things here. This style here is your stitch length style, and what that does is it makes the stitch shorter down to zero, or you can go higher all the way up to a four on this machine. I'm a machine will have a different range of numbers, but a normal stitch for just regular construction is about 2.5 or 2.5. So that's where you want to live now, right below that, on this machine, there is your stitch selector, and you can see it's on a straight stitch now. But I can change it to zigzag three steps zigzag, a blind hem stitch. And then there's so some various other stitches in some decorative along here. You may be wondering what why the stitches air in three different colors or one black and to blue back up here on the stitch length. You can see that you can continue turning this all the way to s one that is your stretch stitch. So even your basic mechanical machine will have the ability to sew knits and stretch fabrics and T shirts. And so what you see is wherever your stitches, the 2nd 1 in for s one is your first straight stretch stitch. And to get the 3rd 1 you just switch over here to s to selecting your stitch might be different. If you have a computerized machine on this one, you can just you have to choose the mode. So right now, this is the stitch mode. This would be for the stitch whip and this mode for the stitch link. The stitch that you choose. Um, there are basic stitches here in front. These the ones you're going to use most of the time. You're straight years. Exact your buttonhole. You're blind. Him I'm your keyhole buttonhole and an overcast egx. But you can choose any of your stitches this by pushing up and down when you're in the stitch mode. Some other machines might have different buttons for the stitch. A different set of buttons for those ditch length and a different set of buttons for stitch with Or it may have some kind of button where you toggle being. Those three options like this one does. So just check out your owner's manual to see where your stitch with Stitch Link and your stitch selector buttons are. Every machine has some sort of hand wheel nuts. This here on the right side of your machine, it moves the needle up and down. You want to get in the habit of moving that hand wheel towards you so from top to bottom down, because that's how the machine was designed. Toe work. It's meant to go in a forward movement, and sometimes you get a jam and you need to kind of rock it back and forth or turn it backwards to get that out. But say you don't have a machine that has the needle up or down position button, and you need to get that Neil up after you finish sewing. Because on a mechanical, the machine will just stop wherever you lift your foot off the foot pedal. So if you need to make sure to get that needle all the way up, what you do in order to get your fabric out, you'll use that handling you want to move it towards you on the side, or sometimes on the back of your machine, you will see your power switch. The sun goes from left to right. This one's up and down, not tell you. Turn on and off your machine. You also have your ports for your plugs. Now, on some machines, they will have one port, and your power cord and foot pedal are all in one. They all just plug in with this one port. Other machines will have a power port and your foot pedal port. Then they'll be on two separate cords. But either way, you should have that, either on the back or the side of your machine. The right side. This piece here is your foot pedal. It's usually on the ground, and you're using your foot to control it. It makes the machine go, and the more you push, the faster it'll go. The lighter you push, the slower. It'll go. If you're in slow mode with the speed control button on your machine on Lee, go that fast. Even though I'm pushing down completely all the way. The fast mood is much quicker, but you do have some control with how far you press on the foot slow, medium fast, so just be aware of that. It can go is quicker, a slow as you want it to, And so with the push of your foot. So that's it. That's all the dials and buttons on your machine. If there's a button on your machine, you're not sure what it is, and I didn't cover it. Let me know. I'd love to help you out. The next part of the class will be discussing the accessories that came with your machine. So go find the box, pull him out of your machine and let's lay them all out so we can get talking about what they are and what they do. 3. SM101BasicAccessories: Hey, guys. So welcome back to the accessories part for your sewing machine. 101 class. I'm just gonna go over the basic supplies that were most likely included with your machine . The 1st 1 here you can see is a dust cover. Some of the machines will have a hard case cover. Others will come with this soft cover. And as you can see, the full lines, it just folds up and it come off and be folded and set aside. But that just keeps the dust and the little fingers maybe less attracted to your machine. This was mentioned earlier, but one thing that will come with most machines is this additional spool pin. This one sits vertically in that hole we mentioned on the top of your machine behind your bobbin wind. Er, there's a little piece of felt there that provides a little bit of friction. So your threat doesn't come too quickly off your school when you're winding or when you're sewing, getting that so that you can use a twin needle and do that type of stitch that is on your T shirt. Him? I mentioned earlier when we talked about the lever for lowering your free dogs that if you didn't have that, there might be a solution for you in your accessories. This is the dining plate you can see on the back that there are two pegs and there is a hole in the middle for the needle to go through. Because what this does is it's going to block the feed dogs. Your going to set it there, two holes on your stitch plate until you're gonna line up those pegs and the whole for your needle right there on your machine. And now you can do free motion and darning and that type of thing without having the lever toe lower your feed dogs. Another accessory you will be included in your machine is the oil, and I will show you in the different part of our class how you will oil your machine and do a little bit of cleaning and maintenance. You also have a screwdriver of some sort and may look more traditionally like a screwdriver than this. But this one you can use this edge here. It's beveled as your screwdriver turn. Do the stitch plate to change your needle to change the foot If you wanted to change to a low shank foot, your machine will come with some bobbins. And I want to just caution you that bobbins are specific to a machine. So this is an ever sewn machine. You don't want to buy ever sewn bobbins for it. If you have a brother machine, we will want to have your model number handy like stored on your phone. And then when you go shopping for bobbins, make sure that your machine model is listed on the back of the package. Some bobbins air taller summer little wider, thinner. So it's really important that you buy the bobbins that their specific for your machine. These air school caps and, um, sometimes you just get one. Sometimes you'll get two or three, and they're just different sizes. This is your smallest one, and it just holds your thread on the school pin. You can see here if you have some threat on here, this would keep it from coming off. That is a small, and this is a large, and usually it's on your horizontal bullpen. Many machines will come with needles. These air organ needles there a good universal needle. My favorite is Schmitz Brand, and I'll include a link to their website. They have more information on that website and you ever want to know about needles? But it is really, really helpful. And we're gonna have ah bonus section on needles at the end of this class. So if you're interested in knowing more about the different type of needles and how they can help you and your sewing, make sure to watch the bonus. This is called a scene guide. It goes into the back of your pressure foot, you mean and it acts as a guide so you can stitch one line of stitching. And if you want to so parallel lines of stitching, you can just line up that first road stitching with the guide. And you know that that second row of stitching is going to be parallel to the 1st 1 So this is a stitching guide, and it can be pushed in or out, depending on how far apart you want to be. Stitching this here is a brush for cleaning your machine, and this actually does double duty. This one is also a same ripper, so that's everyone's frenemy of the sewing world. You hate to have it, and you hate to use it, but it's a definite necessity, so they're often times included in your sewing machine accessories and then a brush for cleaning, which will show you later. The next step is your standard foot or your sometimes called your zigzag foot. Sometimes it'll look more like this. Sometimes it will look more like this, but it will be the mission, the foot that is on your machine when you pull it out of the box and that's your standard stitching foot. You're gonna use that most of the time. This is a button, so on foot, so those of you claim you can't sew on a button you can now with your machine. What this has is a ridge on the on the back here that holds your button in place, and then this silicone feature on the front that also helps just to keep that button in place so you can lower the feed dogs or use your darning plate. Set your button there, find the right with of a zigzag, and you can sew a button on with your machine. You can also make button holes to fit the type of button. Some machines will do a automatic buttonhole, and some of them will do a four step buttonhole. If you have the automatic feature, you just stick your button. Here in this section, you set everything up on your machine, and it will make a buttonhole to fit this size button. Some buttonhole feet look different sometimes. If it's a four step buttonhole, you may just use your standard foot. But if you have something like this in your accessories, it's for buttonholes. And lastly, is your zipper foot. This slipper foot kind of looks like a ski. You see, there's a bar that goes all the way across. You can attach either side to your presser foot bar and be able to so down the sides of a zipper teeth getting very close, but without stitching on them. There are channels on the backside that allow the zipper teeth to go through without being pushed aside or pushing your stitching out of the way. And so that is what your zipper foot looks like. Okay, so we've talked about the buttons and dials on our machine. Now we've just covered the basic accessories that come with your machine. Now it is time to get going. So let's go to the next part of our class, where we will be threading the machine, whining the bobbin, playing around with all those buttons, dials and accessories that we just learned about. I know you've been waiting for this moment, so let's get to it. 4. SM101WindingTheBobbin: Okay, We're getting closer to the fun part now, so let's get our bobbin wound and the machine threatened. Then we can play with some of the stitches. First thing you need would be a spool thread. So I'm gonna take that and put it on the school pin and using a school cap to keep it in place. Remember, there are dotted threat guides and solid threat guides, and the dotted ones are the ones we want to follow for whining or bombing. So I'm going to go into this guide here. We're going to come in the front of this tension disk and wrap around it. You want to be right in between, they're otherwise. If you just wrap it around loosely, it's not doing its job. What is going to do is hold some tension on that thread so it doesn't wine too loose or too tight. Hey, you notice on the bobbin, there are holes in the top and bottom. What you want to do, once you have your thread through the guides, is put the thread in from the inside from the middle of the bobbin area to the outside. So the threat is coming now you can see when you do that and you pull the thread tight that the threat is now going to go on the bobbin. If I threaded it from the top down, the thread would be winding up above the bobbin so we don't want that we wanted winding once we get going in the middle section here. So once I have my bobbin on the wind, er, you need to push it to the right and that will engage the bobbin winder and will disengage many times the needle. So when you wind a bobbin, you want to do it at a medium speed slow to medium, push on the foot, pedal slightly, and it will begin to go now. Just hold that threat up until it's going good. You can stop and cut the thread. Now you're going to keep going at a slow to medium pace. You don't want to go all the way down. In fact, I've had some bobbins split in half because I have gone so fast in the friction and the heat split my plastic bobbing in half. So you want to go to a nice medium speed until the bobbins stopper stops the bombing from winding. You notice that now it's touching the bobbin stopper. Um, that it's not really spending anymore is kind of hitching and getting stuck. And that's exactly the job of the bobbin stopper. So at this point, you're gonna push the bobbin whiner to the left. You can see that it's nice and full, but it's not spilling out onto the sides. If it were spilling over to the sides of the bobbin, then it would be too full. So we're gonna use of scissors to cut that off. And now I will show you how to place it in the bobbin housing. Here we are down at the better than machine. Gonna pull off the fern to reveal the free arm so we can open the bobbin housing and we're gonna pull out of the case and you'll see in the case there is a little attention. See if I can get it right here. This soul tension and it pulls, it has a path that goes down into this opening here. What you want is your bobbin to be coming off of the school or the bobbin, so that it right it goes automatically right into that. So this if you can see the threat coming off, this isn't number nine. If we put it in as a number nine, it goes immediately into that tension area, and you need to pull down until you hear click. Once it's click, it has a lot. You can feel it has a little tension on. It doesn't just pull out easily. And then you're going to use your thumb to open this little door. What that door does is it keeps the bobbin in the case so that it doesn't come out with the door shut. The bobbin can come out easily, but with a little door open it holds it in place so that you can now put it into the housing. So with that, with the this arm of the bobbin case up and the door open, you're gonna place it in here until it clicks into place. Now, when you pull on the bobbin thread, the case should not fall out. It should be in there secure. It's not going right to left very much, just wiggling slightly. And when I pull this, the whole casing doesn't fall out. That's how you know it's in their securely. The bobbin winding on a computerized machine is exactly the same as a mechanical. But there is a difference in how a drop in bobbin is inserted as compared to the front loading Bob. In this time, you're gonna take your bobbin and you're gonna want the thread to come off looking like a P so you can see the thread here and the P is the bobbin. So you put that down into the machine and then there are some different, um, thread guides here to show you how to get that bombing in. They're just so so it's through all the tension disks and whatnot. So just follow those up around, and then right here, there is a threat cutter right there. So you're just gonna put the lid on and pool and it cuts the thread 5. SM101ThreadingTheNeedle: Okay, so now we're back up at the top of the machine. We've wound are bobbin. We've put it into its case, into the housing it's there and secure. So all that's left is to threaten our machine. So I'm going to take the threat out of the guides for the bobbin winding. And I'm gonna now follow the solid lines to thread my needle So I once again go here. But instead of coming to the Bob Intention disc gonna go to the back of the machine here, which is where the next solid guide tells me and it tells me to go all the way down. It's difficult to see what there is like an embossed arrow here and an embossed u turn here . So those air still considered the solid line guides. I'm going to keep following them back up here. I did mention this take up Lever earlier that this needs to be in the utmost position so you can like the guide shows, make a u turn, and it's caught into the take up lever. The next solid line guide is right here, so I'm going to continue coming down here. And then there is a tiny hook right here that you have to feed the thread from right to left. And I usually make my hands like I'm flossing. So I put the thread between like this and then go into that slot once I'm there. Now you have two options for threatening your needle. If you have the needle threat, er, go ahead and put the presser foot down. What that does is closes the tensions in the machine, so the threat is not continuing to pull out very easily. You don't want a super long thread when you're trying to thread the machine. You don't want the threat to continue coming out. Eso If you put your press your foot down, that closes the tensions, and that'll keep the thread from continuing to come out as you're trying to threaten. So with the threat, er, all the way down, you didn't take your thumb and put it around the hook here on the needle threat. Er, then there's four prongs here. You can put that thread right in the middle back towards the needle and what it's going to do. That little hook we talked about is gonna pull a loop through And now you're gonna pull that thread all the way through and your needle is threaded. If you do not have the needle threat, er, you're just gonna do it the old fashioned way by sticking the thread in the hole and pulling it back. The only thing left to do now is to do what I call going fishing. You need to get this bobbin thread here up to the top. And so the way you do that is by holding the needle thread in your left hand, use your right hand to turn that hand wheel towards you and keep going towards you. No matter whether it looks like the bobbin is doing, it's going to make a loop and is gonna pick up that bobbin thread and you see that loop that came up. So we're just gonna grab that now. Both threads air up on top and the clothes that with the presser foot and put both threads under the needle and out the back. You will always want to keep a good length of thread. Be under your foot in out the back because once you start stitching, sometimes the take up lever will lift up and unthreatened your machine from the needle. And it's really frustrating, and especially for beginning is while you're trying to get the hang of everything. So be sure to leave a real long threat out the back at least the length of the bed of your machine, if not longer than that, and that'll avoid some of that frustration. 6. SM101StitchItOut: So now that you have your needle started robbing wound and units casing, you've gone fishing. You brought up the threads and have him under the foot and out the back. Now it's time to grab some scrap fabric and give it a test drive. So I'm gonna set mine on ST States start, and I'm gonna do about 2.5 or 2.5 on the stitch lane. I have my stitch with that zero, which is the Centre Nino position. And I'm gonna leave everything else how it ISS put your fabric under and always be sure to put your press your foot down and then send it on three. The pressure food and turning around and see the stitch that looks like a stitch on the front and a stitch on the back. So that's a good their intention. You can see how, with the needle down, I could now turn the corner. Let's do this in a long time to see what that looks like on a straight state. So this is a four stitch length real coordinating it back up in the middle position and cutting the threads. Now you can see it was a smaller the 2.5. And here is the longer Stitch the four. So you can play around with that. See how that all effects human, How the different settings if after machine, you know, switched to his exact you can do the same thing. Now you can play with this the stitch length dial and a stitch with Kyle. So I'll show you what a narrows exact. Looks like a few stitches and a narrow needle all the way up. I'm gonna go for number four. Maybe I'll go back down. Teoh too. You know how long? Thread and trim it on a threat cutter. And there you can see it was narrow. It got much wider, Got a little narrower, is there? You can also change the stitch late if you wanted to do an applicator or seven states even put your length almost down to one keep like a mid range with and then you off. And now you can see that's exactly as much closer together. Another thing we want to discuss while order playing with stitches on her machine is the term seam allowance. So the sea Mylan's is the distance from the edge of your fabric to where the needle is actually stitching. So in our project for this class, we're gonna have 1/2 inch seem alone. So what you might want to do is put that a ruler find your half inch and then that's, um, painter's tape or marks in some way, which lying on your stitch plate would be that half inch now, when you so with 1/2 in C Mylan's gonna put your fabric in at the very beginning of the fabric. You don't want to so on air or nothing, so you want to make sure you're right at the very edge of your fabric. And to keep that seam allowance the feet dogs we're gonna feed the fabric through. You want to keep your eye here. The needle is going to go up and down whether you watch it or not. So what you really want to pay attention to is this line here, whether you're fabric edge is touching your seam allowance line, and so it looks when you So what happened to see Mounted will look like this. I'm guiding it out when it needs to closer when it needs to, but I want to be able to see a little bit of that line knowing that the fabrics on it, but not over it. You up by turning the hand wheel, cut my threads and now you'll see not half inch. See Malone's. You want a good straight line. You want to be equal distant from the raw edge, so now is your chance. Go ahead and turn to all the decorative stitches. See how the stitch within stitch length effects, um, most of your manuals will have a suggested stitch with or stitch length. Your computerized machines will automatically make those settings for you. Now you can override them by pushing up or down on the various settings for lit. Lengthen with but a computerized machine. Once you choose a stitch, it's automatically choosing the correct stitch with and stitch drilling that they recommend for that stitch. But push all the buttons so it all out all over your sample fabric get really, really comfortable with stopping your machine, turning the hand wheel if you have a mechanical so that the needle is all the way up before you lift the presser foot and pull it out. That will release your threads and allow you to get your project out from the machine. Don't forget to put your presser foot down each time and pull it up to get your fabric out each time and just have some fun. 7. SM101ToteBagProject: Okay, So now that you've had lots of fun playing with the different stitches on your machine understanding more about stitch length and stitch with and seam allowance, we're going to start our class project, which is a bag a tote. Bad. If you have a specific item you wish to fit in this tote bag, then I wouldn't get in a couple pieces of paper, tape them together and make sure that there's a good margin around all sides of that object because you have to consider seeing allowance. But if you don't have anything in particular in mind for bag, what I would recommend just to make it simple is the grab to pieces of 8.5 by 11 or whatever it is that standard size paper you have and you're just gonna put it together. And so you see a shape that looks good to you for the bag was in size and proportion. I'm gonna go ahead and take my pieces of paper together with this much of an overlap probably about 2.5 inches. But whatever, whatever looks good for you, just make sure that all the edges are even and then take those pieces together. This is gonna be our pattern now far too. So we're gonna take our fabric set that aside, said the tape aside, You will need some pins and scissors. I'm gonna take my first fabric. This is actually gonna be my lining. So I'm going to unfold some. If you just buy about half a yard of each, that will be good for you. I am going to take my pattern piece and lay it down. Now, if you're fabric is directional, if it goes one way and not the other like this one pretty definitely goes vertically. So I can decide at this point whether I want to place my pattern on it this way or whether I want my fabric to go this way. Now, we're considering that the top of this pattern is this shortest edge and that this side, where my hand is is the long edge. So with that in mind, make sure you place it on your fabric, which ever direction You want that to end up being, and you're just gonna pin it in place. I want to make sure and show you the way I pin Um I like to go make sure everything is laying flat and my end goals that my pattern is gonna lay flat just like it is now that it won't be bunched up, um, or buckling anywhere. So the way I do that is by putting the pin and and I put the other a finger from the other hand, kind of in front of it. You don't want to poke yourself that you wanna hold the fabric down and the pattern so that your pin comes out right there. And so my problem is still lanes nice and flat. Sometimes it's tricky if you're tens or bent like I need new pins, but you want to pin just about every hand with you don't have to pin too often, especially with the basic shape like this when you have a shape with lots of curves, and that's a different story. So once you have your pattern, you're just gonna cut right close to it without cutting. You want to keep the integrity of your pattern piece and not trim it. Every time you saw it, cut it. Once I got it free from the main fabric. I turned around to do the same. This'll bad communicate any size miniature for a gift bag. You can use it for library books. You can put your sewing projects in it. Okay, They have it all cut out. Just with shape. You need it. So go ahead. UNP in and you'll notice I cut on two of them. The fabric was folded just off the boat. And so now I have to and that's exactly what you want. You want to cut too, So if you need Thio Thio, cut one and then the next Because of how your fabric is directionally, you can do that, but otherwise you can just fold your fabric in half like it probably already is off the bolt and cut two at a time. So go ahead and cut another set of two just like that out of your main fabric. Now that you have your two main fabric pieces in your to lining fabric pieces all cut out, we're gonna set the lining aside for right now and you're gonna let's talk about right side and wrong side. It's pretty obvious on a fabric like this. It's printed on one side that's known as the right side and the back the UN printed is called the wrong side. A lot of times when you sewing your so right sides together, so what? We're gonna put one fabric peace with the pattern side up, That's the right side. And we're gonna take the right side of the other fabric and lay it on top and you want a line of all your raw edges us the cut edge, and then we're gonna spin together three sides. Um, and this time, instead of painting parallel to the edge, you are going to pin perpendicular to the edge. And so instead of having the 10 this way, you're gonna pin so that you can easily pull them out when you are so mean So I'm gonna pin around battle once again every hand with you want a perpendicular to the edge you're gonna be turning this corner and in there move the fabric around and adjusted. If it means it's not meeting the raw edge exactly. It'll all work itself out. It's better that you have good raw edges together. So you have your three sides pin here, here, in here. We're gonna leave the top open and now we're gonna take it Our machine and some of those three sides with the half inch seam allowance. Here we are at the machine. Gonna lay my fabric soon. So then I can see fabric through the whole of the foot. I'm gonna lay it right along that half inch seeing loans and put it down again. We want that was seen around those, um, fabric, raw edges lining up. So I'm just suggesting that as that one is peeking out, I'm gonna go a couple stitches and then backstage, like we discussed at the beginning of the class backstage on then continue. Now, don't get in the habit of going over your pins pool stop and pull them out. You can stop it any time to adjust. So don't feel like because you're going. You have just keep going. You can stop any time. You're just gonna so down that edge, stop and pull out those needles. They then you want to take your ruler and about 1/2 inch in even kind of mark with a pin. Where that issue gonna so right up to that pin and stop. Okay. I'm gonna put money needle down using my hand wheel. Want to get here? You're gonna pull the pin out. You're gonna make sure your needles down. Lift your pressure foot and turn that corner. Now, don't forget to put that presser foot back down before you. So again, they let you do the same thing half inch. Then you can also market with a pen or pencil That works. Is Justus Well? And take those stitches by hands. If your work but by hand, if you're worried of going over the pin So my needles down lift the presser foot turned that corner and keep going, you're gonna stitch all the way to the end. Once your needles in the very edge of the fabric, we're going to reverse again. The backs, It's three or four stitches. Come forward to the edge again, and then razor needle and take a project out. You either stop and then push reverse on, stop and then release and go. Or you could do it all in one fluid motion like I did. Okay, so the needle is all the way up. I'm gonna pull my project out, keep long threads, cut those threads, and now we can turn it inside out as the start of our bag. Looks like a good maybe I pad back. Now when we go to Pinar lining together, we're gonna do it a little bit differently. We're still gonna have right side up, all right, side down so that they're touching together. But this time, we're going to leave an opening down at the bottom for turning the bag when we're completely done. This is something I learned a while back. I don't even know from who. But when you are Tinning and you want to leave an opening, are you wanted? Tell your brain t to stop. You can put two pins right next to each other and that will help your brain go. Whoa. Something's different here. I'm gonna have I'm gonna need this stop. But sometimes you're sewing. You're just going along. You're not really listen to some music or the kids. Come and ask the question and you're not sure where you were. So this is something that can help you remember, You're gonna leave about about a four inch opening at the bottom of the lining. So you're still pinning those three sides, but we're leaving a gap at the bottom of four inches. We've indicated that to ourselves by putting double pins and each start and stop point And then also you How that sos out. Okay, I thought I'd switched to the computerized machine just to show you how some features on this machine would work. Doing the same project again? I'm starting at the top where I left my opening. I'm gonna use that feature of the automatic back stitch so you can see how that works. See, you can see it stitched in place a couple times. And so now we're ready to go. So I'm pulling the needles out just as before. This is the needle up position, so I'm gonna make sure it's down so that whenever a stop, it's holding the fabric in place. So go as fast or slow is you need to I'm gonna put me on medium speed. The slower you go, the more control you have. So don't be afraid to go slow. Get him at the in point. I mean, used my see engage or my small ruler to mark where that half point is. So I know when to turn around this time was going to go very slow when I get up to the needle on one more way to go up to it. But not on top of it. You really can break, um, a needle up in that way, and it'll sometimes it can fly up in your face, so it's really is dangerous. You really want to take those out before you so over them. So here I'm coming up on my two pins. That means I'm gonna stop in back stitch at that point. And I think I'll do the good old fashioned backstage just so you can see what that's about . Gonna eyeball where I should stop and just go ahead and pull those out. Now on in reverse on Come back. I'm know I'm gonna push my needle up. I don't have to turn the hand wheel on the this machine, Get long threads trim off my projects. And now I'm gonna set down right back there on the next set of double pins. I'm going to line it up so I can see it in the middle of my foot. Pull him out and then set my pressure foot down back stitch. And now go to my corner here I'm coming up to that. Now, if you want a pre mark with a pen or pencil where these turning points are, that is actually probably a really good idea. Um, sometimes I forget to mark those things ahead of time. So I'm just gonna one more lift my press your foot during the corner, put my pressure put down and go the rest of late. Get to the end. I'm going. Get ready, Teoh through my back stitching and I'll do the auto this on this time. So you see it did it a couple of times I've raised the pressure foot or the needle by tapping on the foot pedal. I left my pressure foot and turn the threads. You went under and out the back. Then there I have my lining zone with that opening in the bottom so that we can pull the bag through. Once we've sown the lining and the main fabric together, it all become clear right after this. So now that we have are lining so on three sides with the opening in the bottom and remain fabric sewn all three sides and turned inside out, the next step is to add the straps we're gonna be using on this one inch nylon strap, you can find them in different wits. You can find them in cotton instead of nylon that you could even make your own schtrops or use a bias finding. It's really unlimited. Whatever you have on him there use available to you for schtrops. Go ahead and grab at least a yard. This is a yard cut in half. So each of these air 18 inches was really up to use to how long you want your straps. You could get in a yard and 1/2 or two yards if you want longer straps. So we're gonna take one of our straps that have taken that length that yard and cut it in half. So we have two straps when a hold one up and then just bring the raw edges together and you could see the straw priority for me. I'm gonna take my out of bag and about an inch and 1/2 from that scene that we had sown earlier. I'm just gonna place mice, drop with the raw edges together and pin it in place. You're gonna do that with this side as well, the engine on just eyeballing it. But if you want it to be more precise go ahead, mark that inch and 1/2 with a pin or with a marking tool of some kind. And that way, you know, they're evenly spaced. Turn it around, grab my other strap and do the same I'm gonna use where I put my others my stripes on that side for a guide as to where to put him on the sites of their Even so I'm putting all the layers together and lining that. But then I'm gonna take separate the layers so I only pin through the fabric and one strap one side of the fabric and oneness side of the stop. So get in, line it up, figure out where I put the other one and then separating before opinion. Next, we're gonna based those straps in place and a basting stitches just a temporary stitch. Sometimes it can be ah longer length stitch so it can be easily removed. But in this case, we won't need to remove it, necessarily in order to make it temporary. We're just gonna put it in that half inch seam allowance, so we'll do it. 3/8 or 1/4 inch seem allows just to stitch it down because what the next step is to So the layers together and they will be in in between the two layers. We don't want it shifting as we're trying to sew three layers together at that point. So I will show you the Basin City, and then we'll finish up our back. Okay, I'm coming to my machine, and this will be a really good opportunity to use that free arm. I'm just gonna lift the tape a little bit, pull off that part of the machine, and now I'm gonna grab my bag in. We're gonna based on those straps. Now, this is our half inch seem alone, So I'm gonna pull it away from the tape, maybe even just used the edge of your foot. And so, um, you're just gonna pick the straight stitch and go? I went over my pain. That is a bad, bad habit. Okay, Neil, ab, I'm gonna take it off and come to the next one. You can see how the free arm allows everything else to stay out of the way. Well, like just so in the tube. The part that I need. So I took my neat pin out that time. And now I'm just gonna quickly so over get that in place, Lift this up, cut the threads, move to the next one pin out. You see, I'm not back stitching or anything. It's just a temporary stitch toe. Hold them in place so that when we go to so the rest of the bag, we don't have to worry about it. Match up the raw edges to the feds of the foot. Okay, so now those air basted we're gonna cut our threads and pin the bag for the finishing. Okay, All my threads air cut and out of the way. And now I'm gonna show you how to finish the bag. So remember that we usually so with the right sides of the fabrics together. So it doesn't matter which, but you need one of your pieces with the right side on the outside and one of your pieces with the right side on the inside. And like I said, doesn't matter which one. But you're gonna put those right sides together and line up the seams on the side here. Open them up and put a pin right there in the scene. When do you have that? And go grab the other one. That way, we now are. Bag will be aligned correctly. So I always when I pinned do the start and finish points and then I pinned in between. Okay, so I am just pinning the right sides together. I'm not painting the whole bag together like this. So we're just going to go around and I really want a pin where the strap is, um, and then maybe one in the middle and then turn around in that tube and do it again. Now we're gonna so that around there you may be saying right now Wait, how we gonna get this bag inside out? Remember that we left an opening in the lining, and that will be where we pull everything inside out once we have the top edge zone. So let's so that top edge and pull everything inside out again. It's nice to have that free arm so that we can just put this all in and not have to worry about that. This time we will be using our seam allowance tape or half inch seam allowance. And I'm gonna do, um because this is a tube you don't necessarily have to back stitch. But when we get back around to this section again, we'll just stitch over where we previously stitch and now act the same as a back stitch. Put the needle down, and here we are, back at the beginning. So I'm going Teoh stitch over what I've previously stitch just to reinforce it. Neil up Presser foot up, Cut the threads. And now let's turn this inside out. Reaching that full in the lining and full everything out. Okay, Look out the corners and then stick the lining down in to the bag. And now you have a great looking bag. So we're gonna put some finishing touches on this bag. I'm gonna press the top, so the edges nice and crisp, and then we're gonna top stitch around. That'll help reinforce the straps, and then we will close. Excuse me. We will close this hole in the lining so that everything is neat and finished, So I have my bag on the edge of my ironing board. I have kind of threaded it on just like we did on the free arm. And I'm just gonna kind of fuss with the two layers to make sure that what you see on the outside is the outer fabric and not the inside fabric you want. They're not to be a fold there, but you want. You don't want the insides spilling out to the outside or vice versa. So pull tab, push it down. You don't want the iron too long on that Nylon web ings are strapped. So do your best to kind of work around it while I'm here. Also gonna pull out just briefly that lining part and you can see we did that half inch seam allowance. So 1/2 inch should really be folded to the inside and pressed in place, and you can so that by hand. But I loved a so by machine as much as possible. So I will be showing you how to close that by machines. So here I've got those that half inch talked innately is perfectly straight and nice with the rest of the edge, and I'm just gonna press that in place. Let's go back to the machine and finish up. Okay, let's sew up that lining fabric. We're going to figure out where it the stitching stops and just to help us visually, I'm gonna put a pin there and then we're going to see where it also stops. And I'm gonna put up in there just so I know when to pull on. And when the pull off of the fabric. So right here I'm starting about, I don't know. Half an inch before the opening starts, I'm going to be stitching right on the edge just enough to catch both layers and not too much more. So let's put the needle down. I'm gonna go coming back. Sitch gonna pull out that pin sits right like an eighth of an inch from the edge. If you need additional pins in between the start and finish, that is perfectly fine. Sometimes I get lazy young Finns him right up to the closing. So now I'm gonna veer off and backstage. You know, Presser, foot up, cut the thread and now that's close. We're gonna stick that right back down into our bag top stitch around the edge and we're done once again make sure those threads air long and under the foot. You're gonna want the straps to be up this time. I like to start on a seam start and finish in this scene. That's just and I'm using the edge of my foot this time and not our half inch tape. And this is just top stitching in its functional because it strengthens the bag and it also helps to keep the lining inside the bag. So that's why you're in this case, you wouldn't want to top stitch. Sometimes top stitching could be strictly decorative. And it does do that on this bag, but it is functional is well, so we're just gonna go again all the way around the bed when you So in a circle like this always be pulling the access to the front on is to keep it moving. Helps it not get caught up underneath there. And, like I did before, just gonna overlap. This time you want to make sure you really stepped right over where you started. Since it's seen on the outside, you have overlapped my stitching needle, have cut the threads, and there we have it 8. SM101CleaningMaintenance: Congratulations. You've made your first project. You've learned a lot about your machine and you're starting to feel comfortable. So now I just want to talk to you a little bit about maintenance after a couple smaller projects, like the one we did or ah, large project, like a whole quilt or something fuzzy. You're gonna want to take the time to clean out your machine. The first thing you're going to do is to turn off and unplug it from the power source, and you're gonna open your machine up. So this one, we're going to take out the bobbin. We're gonna take off the foot, and we're gonna take off the Neil just so we don't hurt ourself while we're cleaning around . We're also gonna take off this stitch plate. I'm just using this screwdriver that came with the machine to get part of the way. You can easily get with your just by spending it out. Keep those in a secure location. We know what? Those going anywhere while we're cleaning. You can take off this stitch plate here. We'll just set it there. And this is when you can take your brush. Now you see this machine was clean when we started, and there's really not much here. But sometimes it can get really, really fuzzy and dirty down here, careful to keep it clean and it will work. It's best I'm gonna just take your brush that came with your machine. Or you can order a separate one and just clean out everything. Check the plate for any birds or anything that might be causing problems. You can get a machine service they recommend about once a year if you're using it regularly and they'll take it all part in this part off and make sure the insides air all working as they should. So whatever you can see, you're just gonna clean out. You're going to use a paper towel to get the fuzz off and you never gonna below. So, like, don't you never want to use canned air or or your mouth to blow into the machine just because it's gonna push the debris farther into the machine instead of helping it to get out. So always just brush. It's plenty just to keep it brushed out and clean. To clean a front loading bobbin area, you just remove um, the free arm opened the door and then you're gonna pull and turn to the side. These a little arms, that air holding your hook system in place. You pull that out and you just clean out whatever is there. Like I said, these machines were clean to start, so there's really not much there, but it can get really horrible after sowing for a long time. So we're going to, um, put some oil. My computerized machines. Owner's manual doesn't say anything about oil, but this machine said to put 1 to 2 drops here in this area. So I'm gonna do that and then run it a little bit when I just trained hand wheel cause remember, machine is off and the cords or not in and then you want this hook system to be on the left , you can reinsert this piece here. Now we're gonna put this piece back in once it's in place with those arms back on toe, hold everything in place. Now I'm gonna rotated through just to make sure everything spinning as it should and back in place where it should, and that is that Now it's clean and ready for your next use so every machine will have instructions in the owner's manual on the points at which toil. If your machine doesn't have any instructions, just leave it to the servicer. Or you can always call the manufacturer or do a quick Google search to see how you should treat your machine specifically. But good maintenance keeps their machines going for us and helps everything to work as it should, so really be careful to keep up on regular maintenance. 9. SM101Needles: Okay, so just a little bit more about needles. Needles are important. There's a needle for the job you want to do. Favorite needles Air Schmitz Needles just cause they're most readily available. But organ needles air Great Teoh. And if you have a needle brand that you love and feel free to use as long as it works with your machine. Schmitz needles have a flat back and around it front, and so they fit into the machine exactly how they're supposed to. Some singer machines require a total circle. No flat back at all. So once again, check your owner's manual bait. No matter what brand of needle you have to use for your machine, there will be something similar to the use different types of needles. So there is a universal needle, which most people use for every project and universal Needles air great because they're readily available and they can handle stable knits and all of the wo van's that we So, um, and they come in a lot of different sizes. The smaller the needle, the smaller the number so, and 80 12 is kind of a mid range needle, and then 90 14 is a little larger and 116 is a little larger than that. So the numbers correspond, so you not only have a type of needle like the universal needle of jeans needle ballpoint needle. But then there's also a size to be considered, and the size usually corresponds with the fabric you're using. So if you have a thin fabric you're gonna want, like a seven needs or a 10 needle if you have dinner more really thick fabric 14 16 is more what you're gonna use, so go ahead and Google Schmitz needles. There are denim needles specifically to work with dinners, and they're engineered differently in the tip so that they work better with the specific fabrics they're made for. There's leather, needles of quilty needles, embroidery, needles, metallic needles for when you use metallic threads, those air whole different bear. There's top sich needles. There's a him stitch needle has wings on either side of the needle, and and when you use that with a natural fibre, it pushes aside the fibers of the fabric toe leave almost like an heirloom look when you so with it. So what? The idea would be to go in and out of it. There's quick threading needles if you have a hard time and you don't have a needle threat . Er, there are needles that kind of have a little grooving them that allows you just pull the thread down the side and thread the needle. That way, if you have an over lock machine or a surge, er their needles specifically designed for that. As I mentioned, there's a twin needle that has one shank, and then it has to needles coming out of it so it can go in any standard machine. But then you have the two needles coming down that you can thread and do the him that's mimicking the cover stitch. So I just wanted you to be aware. There are a ton of different types of needles. The sizing matters. You want to change your needle after every like one or two small projects. Definitely. After a big project, you may even use different needles within one project. So I'm a quilt. You would piece with you the quilting needle or universal needle. But then, when you switch to actually quilting the machine instead of piecing where you quilting those three layers together, that might work better with the Quilty, nor the top stitching needle. So don't be afraid to switch out your needle. It's just a turn of a knob or a turn of the screw, and then you take it out and put the new one in its really quick and it can really improve your selling projects. So I hope that was helpful, and I'll see you in the next bonus. All about pressure feet. 10. SM101Thread: Let's talk about threaten. Okay, There are certain brands that are more fuzzy than other brands, and those brands will leave that fuzz in your machine, and they will cause a buildup. And you'll have to be cleaning and out more and intends to be that they're less expensive threatened. So I want to encourage you, Teoh splurge and get maybe a little bit better threat than you would normally. Just because it's gonna make your project turn out better. So many less frustration while you're sewing and it will be better for your machine in the long run. I really like Budiman Thread. It seems to be a good, strong thread, and it doesn't fuzz it my machine at all to go through some trial and error, try out the different ones and watch for one that doesn't fuzz off a lot on your machine and onto your projects. There's different fibers of thread for different sewing applications, so ah, lot of quilters will recommend that you use cotton thread to peace and quilt your cotton quilt. Now, if you're making a patchwork quilt of old clothes or something like that, it doesn't matter as much. I would actually use a polyester that way, but usually the thread could match the fiber of the fabric you're using or all purpose threat is usually Paul yesterday because it's so much stronger and longer lasting. So there is different types of threats. There's even different weights of threads and a higher number. Wait thread is actually thinner threaten. If you have a 50 weight cotton thread recommended for piecing, that's gonna be a mid weight. But if you go down to 20 that's on almost look. 2012 Weight will look like almost hand work because it's such a thick, their entire thread, like the Guterman that I general uses out of 100 weight. And so it's pretty thin. But I still really like it for most applications, so needles are higher. The number, the bigger the needle. But on threat, it's the opposite. The higher the weight, the thinner, the thread. There's also silk thread lattime silk threads used for application A. The one you're most likely going to use most of the time is an 8200 weight polyester all purpose Andi, if your quilting you're gonna use the 50 weight cotton thread, I know that wasn't exhaustive, but I just want to kind of dip your toes into understanding a little bit of the world of thread and how it might impact your projects. So I hope that was helpful on just kind of gets you curious about thread. And what's the right one for your project? I wish you all the best. Thank you for sticking around this class with me and through all the bonuses and everything . I wish you all the luck in all the best in your sewing journey. I hope to see you back in in future classes by