Video Transcript for: Sewing Machine Basics (Page 2)

Continued from Page 1:

Dawn: That is correct. Thread doesn’t actually rot, but we can take the thread and try to break it, if it breaks we don’t want to use it.

Marci: We don’t want to spend time with something that’s not going to be good quality.

Dawn: That is correct. The thread may break as its in the machine. And we’re going to get frustrated and we don’t want that! So we are going to get out a new spool.

Marci: Okay, so we have out needle installed correctly, we have our thread that we know is going to work for us, now lets look at threading the machine.

Dawn: First step is to wind the bobbin. We always start with a fresh bobbin, one thats empty without any thread. If all of our bobbins have thread on them we are going to unwind the thread or we are going to get a brand new bobbin. My motto is “you never have enough bobbins”.

Marci: I agree with that. You always need a new one. But go ahead and take off any old thread, if you’ve gotta get the project done and change out the old thread.

Dawn: And then you want to make sure that the bobbin is the proper bobbin for our machines. It should fit in the bobbin case correctly.

Marci: And winding the bobbin is important.

Dawn: Oh yes, we want to have to have the thread wound evenly on the bobbin. Here’s a bobbin right here were you can see it is smooth up and down.

Marci: And what parts on the machine do we need to look at?

Dawn: Basically all machines are going to have a bobbin winder and a bobbin winder tension.

Marci: And on my machine; here is my bobbin winder and here is my bobbin winder tension.

Dawn: That is correct.

Marci: You can look at the manual because each machine is a little bit different. Verify what your manual says to make sure we have the right tension, and if there is anything special we need to know about the machine.

Dawn: That is correct.

Marci: Like the bobbin route. I have a lot of students that I watch that they struggle with winding the bobbin. It’s common to want to know which direction the thread is going, but you don’t have to do that. Could you show us a close up of how you thread the bobbin and get it wound so that you don’t need to stress over it?

Dawn: Sure. To wind the bobbin:

1) take the thread and place it through the hole from the inside out, between the two plates.

2) Place the bobbin on the bobbin winder. Go ahead and engage the bobbin and hold this up and very tightly as I begin to wind.

3) After this is wound up and down a few time, stop, cut the thread and continue to wind.

Marci: So we’ve wound the bobbin, now we are going to put it in the bobbin case. What’s the difference between the two machines?

Dawn: This one has what we refer to as a drop-in bobbin case. Your bobbin case, is located right inside and we simply drop the bobbin in. The older machine has a metal bobbin case that comes out.

Marci: And as we’re using our bobbin in here I know for this style of machine that it should be most likely go clock wise. So as I drop this in I want the thread coming off it clock wise and I put that in there and there’s some spring that I need to thread that through and when I pull it, it should be going clock wise.

Dawn: On the drop in bobbin system, the thread is going to be going counter clockwise. I’m going to drop it in and then it will also have a tension spring that I need to put it through. Refer to your manual for the specifics.

Marci: Each machine is very different, but very similar too.

Dawn: Exactly

Marci: So we have our bobbin in, now where do we start with the spool of thread.

Threading the Sewing Machine

Dawn:

1) Begin threading the machine by placing our thread on the spool spindle.

2) After the spool spindle, the thread is going to go into the thread guides and there might be one or two depending on your machine.

3) After the thread guides, it goes into the tension. On this particular machine it is a lay-in tension.

4) Next, it is going down, then up, to your take-up leave, and then down into another thread guide.

5) Then we are going to thread the needle. On this particular machine we are going to thread the needle from front to back.

As a general rule, because my bobbin is located in the front of the machine, I’m going to thread from front to back. When we get to the older machine, with the thread located on the side, we are going to 95% of the time we are going to thread the eye of the needle from the left to the right.

Marci: And the other 5%, in any case check the manual.

I like that on the new machines that often have numbers that take you step by step, on where to thread.

You pointed out that you use the take up leaver up here, and have the thread go through here, that’s why you need the lever up so you can see it. And on the older machines just get the manual out and make sure that your going through each thing. Now this has a different kind of tension disk, I think what would be best if we just get the manual out and check it.

Dawn: That is correct. But again we have our thread on the spool spindle, we have thread guides, we are going down into the tension, up to the take up leaver, down again through the thread guides and then into our needle, from left to right on this machine. So once we realize that we have these general parts set to go, there is nothing really scary.

Marci: Okay and once it’s all set up we’re going to be successful with it. So we want to check our thread, make sure we have good thread, we want to have a new needle, and then check the threading.

Dawn: We want to have the proper threading.

Marci: And remember, if your having trouble:

1) Check that thread

2) Check that needle

3) Check your thread path.

Get those three right and you’ll be set up for success. If you keep having trouble getting it to work, have a friend take look at it.

Okay great! Thank you Dawn for helping us today and going through all this detail.

And thank you for joining us at Quilt with Marci Baker, hopefully you’ll enjoy your quilting and sewing and find success in your projects.