How to Sew - Machine Sewing

If you're wanting to learn to sew, the first place to start is simply how to use a sewing machine! This guide will walk you through some of the.
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Flannel and denim are both examples of fabrics that are challenging to sew because they are so thick. There are easier fabrics to learn sewing on. Flannel is certainly for the more advanced sewer, but not because it requires a specific type of advanced stitch.

When it comes to sewing flannel, there are certainly special tips and tricks you want to know, but it doesn't require a separate machine all its own. Before you use a sewing machine, install a needle securely into the post and tighten the thumbscrew, then use the guides on the machine to show you how to guide the thread around the bobbin and through the needle. When the machine is threaded, plug in the machine and guide your fabric under the needle, with the bulk of the material to the left of the machine.

Lower the presser foot onto the fabric, hold both ends of the thread, and gently push the foot pedal to start feeding the fabric through the sewing machine. Featured Articles Sewing Machines. Find the power switch. It may seem silly, but locating the power switch is the most important step! This is located in different places depending on the sewing machine you have, but is normally on the right side of the body. Locate the spool pin. This is a small plastic or metal pin that sticks out of the top of the sewing machine, and holds your spool of thread.

Look for the thread guide. The thread guide directs thread from the spool on the top of the machine to the bobbin winder. It is a geometric metal piece that sticks out of the top of the sewing machine on the left side. To the right of the spool pin on top of the sewing machine is another smaller plastic or metal pin, next to a small horizontal wheel.

This is the bobbin winder and the bobbin winder stopper. These work together with the spool of thread to wind thread onto your bobbin prior to starting sewing. Look for the stitch adjustment buttons. These are in different locations depending on the specific sewing machine you have, but there is typically a small screen next to a few physical buttons on the front side of the sewing machine. These buttons select the type of stitch you create, the length of the stitch, and the direction of the stitch forward or in reverse.

Check the manual for your specific machine to determine the functions for each of the buttons. Locate the thread take-up lever. This is the lever with two cut-in grooves located on the front left side of the sewing machine. There are typically numbers and arrows printed next to it to clearly direct you the way in which to thread the machine.

Look for the tension dial. The tension dial is a small numbered wheel near the takeup lever. It controls the tension of the thread as you sew; if the tension is too tight, the needle will be pulled to the right. If the tension is too loose, the thread will loop on the bottom of the fabric you are sewing. Find the needle clamp screw.

This is a metal piece that holds the needle in place while sewing. It is located under the arm of the sewing machine, looks similar to a large nail, and sticks out to the right side of the needle.

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Look for the presser foot. This is a metal attachment under the needle clamp screw that looks like a small ski. When engaged, this holds the fabric in places and guides it through the sewing machine as you sew. Find the presser foot lever and practice raising and lowering the presser foot. It will be a lever to the right or back of the needle assembly. To adjust the presser foot, move it all the way down and all the way up. Look for the needle plate. Find the feed dog. The feed dog silly name, right?

You can find it by looking for the two small metal rows underneath the presser foot. Locate the bobbin cover and bobbin release. The bobbin is a small spool of thread that is supplied from the bottom of the sewing machine, and supplies thread to the needle for the backing.

Under the metal plate where the needle is is the bobbin cover, and next to that there should be a cover release button or pin. Part 1 Quiz If your needle is pulled to the right as you sew, that means: Your thread guide is misaligned. You need to pick a new stitch adjustment. Your presser foot is loose. Your tension is too high. Place the machine on a sturdy table, desk, counter, or sewing cabinet in front of you. Sit in a chair that is a comfortable height for the height of the table. Arrange the machine so that the needle end is on your left and the body of the machine is on the right.

You will be checking a couple of things first and getting to know the machine a bit, so don't plug it in just yet. Install a needle securely. Needles have a flat side, so they can only go one way, usually with the flat side toward the back. There is a groove down one side of the needle, generally opposite the flat side of the shank——this groove must be facing the direction from which the needle is threaded when installing the needle the thread rides in this groove while going up and down through the fabric. Insert a needle all the way into the post and tighten the thumbscrew securely.

If you are still having trouble, refer to your machines manual. Wind and insert the bobbin. A machine uses two thread sources, a top thread and a lower thread, stored on a bobbin. To wind the bobbin, place the bobbin spool on the bobbin winder on the top. Follow the guides, and wrap the thread from the thread spool around the guide and to the bobbin.

Turn the bobbin winder on, and wait for it to stop automatically when the bobbin is full. When the bobbin has been wound, place it in the bobbin cage below the needle on the lower half of the sewing machine. Sometimes the bobbin simply drops in the bobbin case is built in. In this case it is important to pass the thread through a small notch at the front of the case and then pulled to the left. Leave the end of the thread outside. It will need to be brought up through the hole in the needle plate after you have threaded the top thread. Follow the link above for detailed instructions on winding and inserting a bobbin.

Thread the sewing machine. The spool of thread resides on the top of the sewing machine, but must be unwound and attached to the needle. To do this, take the thread and pull it through the thread guide at the top, and then down and around the takeup lever. There should be small numbers and arrows printed on the machine showing the way in which to thread the machine.

You may also be able to follow the guides printed on your machine. Usually, the thread follows this general pattern: The needle might be threaded from the left, the right, or from front to back. If it is already threaded, that is a clue to the direction; if not, the last thread guide before the needle, is located nearest to the direction from which you must thread the needle. Get both threads out. Hold the needle thread taut, and towards you in your left hand. Now pull up on the needle thread that you are still holding with your left hand. The bobbin thread was caught when the threaded needle went down and up and is now looped over the needle thread.

Pull on one side of the loop to bring up the bobbin thread tail, or just release the needle thread and pass a pair of scissors between the presser foot and plate to pull the looped bobbin thread out. You should now have the ends of two threads, one from the needle and one coming up from below from the bobbin. Plug the machine in and turn it on.

Many sewing machines have a built-in light, which is often a good way to tell whether there is power to the machine. The power switch will usually be on the right side or back of the machine, if there is one. Some machines don't have a separate switch, in which case they're turned on as soon as they're plugged in. Place the pedal in a comfortable spot under your feet. Part 2 Quiz What are the machine's two sources of thread?

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A right thread and a left thread Close! A bobbin thread and a wound thread Nope! A top thread and a lower thread Correct! A spool thread and a needle thread Not exactly! Select a straight stitch and a medium stitch length. Consult your manual for how to do this on your machine. On this machine, stitches are set by rotating the lower knob on the right side of the machine until it clicks into place.

Always set the stitch with the needle up and out of the fabric, since it may move the needle. A straight stitch is used to sew most seams. The next most common stitch is the zigzag, usually used to prevent edges from fraying. Practice on some scrap material. Choose a simple, woven material, not a knit one, for your first sewing experience. Don't use a very heavy fabric for your first attempts at machine sewing. Denim and flannel can be hard to sew because they are too thick when several layers are piled together.

Line up the fabric under the needle. Sew with the bulk of the material to the left of the machine; crowding the bulk on the right side can cause messy stitching. Lower the presser foot onto the fabric. There is a lever behind or to the side of the needle assembly that raises or lowers the presser foot.

If you give the fabric a gentle tug while the presser foot down, you'll feel that the machine grips it pretty firmly. While you sew, the machine uses a feed dog under the presser foot to advance the fabric at the correct speed. There's no need to pull the fabric through the machine; in fact, pulling can bend the needle or damage your project.

You can adjust the speed and the stitch length on the machine. Hold the loose ends of both threads. For the first few stitches, you'll need to hold these ends to keep them from retreating into the fabric. After you've stitched for a short distance, you can let go and use both hands to control the fabric and the machine.

Press the foot pedal. The foot pedal is your speed control. Just like the gas pedal in a car, the harder you push it, the faster you will go. Push it slowly at first, just enough to get the machine going. Your machine may have a knee bar rather than a foot pedal. If that's the case, use your knee to push it to the right. You can use the balance wheel on the top, right side of the machine to get the machine spinning or to move the needle by hand.

The machine will advance the fabric automatically away from you. You can "steer" the fabric in a straight line or a curve by guiding it through the machine with your hands. Practice sewing in a straight line and try sewing some curves. The only difference is how you guide the fabric. Do not force the material or pull the material while it is going under the needle. This can cause the material to stretch or the needle to break, or the stitches to clog up in the bobbin.

If you feel like the fabric is not moving fast enough, press the foot pedal harder, adjust the stitch length, or if you must buy a faster machine. Find the reverse button or lever and try it. It reverses the direction that the machine feeds, so that the fabric travels toward you as the machine sews. Often, this button or lever is spring-loaded, so you must hold it down to sew in reverse. At the end of a seam, sew a few stitches in reverse back over the last few stitches you just made. This finishes the seam and helps keep it from pulling out.

Use the hand wheel to move the needle to its highest position. Then, raise the presser foot. The fabric should pull out easily. If the thread pulls back when you try to remove the fabric, check the needle position.

On many machines, there is a small notch on the back of the post that holds the presser foot. You can hold both ends of the thread and draw it down over this notch to cut the thread. If you don't have such a notch or you would like a cleaner cut, use scissors to trim the thread.

Leave a tail extending from the machine for your next seam. Practice sewing a seam. Pin two pieces of fabric, right sides together, near the edge. You can sew a single layer of fabric and might do so to stop an edge from fraying, say , but since the goal of most machine sewing is to join two pieces of fabric, you should get used to sewing with a couple of layers and pins. If you think something is too hard…break it down piece by piece…my first quilt project was a twin size quilt…started with just doing one block at a time and eventually I had When I first started sewing as a kid, I sewed without any thread in the machine and sewed on a piece of paper to practice different designs.

I used photocopies out of a sewing book for kids, but you could draw designs on paper or even use a coloring book page. Thanks so much for this tutorial. I love your pep talk! I need to practice the special stitches on my machine, and I need to learn to sew a curvy shape on purpose! I love your site and hope to be up to beginners status soon. I just got my first sewing machine and am not really sure where to start. All the project tutorials I see seem to be for people much more advanced then me. Today I will be attempting your drawstring bags,my littlies can use some storage containers!!

And if you bought your machine from a dealer, take the classes they offer. I cannot stress that enough!


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One thing about classes is they teach you a lot and also motivate you to finish your project. Make sure your machine is in good working order if you have had it for a while, get it serviced and put a NEW needle in it!! Good luck to all the new sewers, you will not regret learning to sew.

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Thank you so much for this! I just sent this link to my 11 year old granddaughter. I gave her a sewing machine last summer. This is soooo helpful. Thanks for the pep talk it has me wanting to pull out the machine and give it another try. I have a small machine a New Home it has nothing fancy on it and is just a plain simple machine. That lasted maybe a month! I have tried off and on to teach myself and have made a few different projects but the machine will act up or I will make a huge mistake and the machine gets put up.

I have made some rice pads and my most achieved project was a cover for the machine. Hmmmm… that was the last thing that turned out right and I got frustrated and put the machine away. If you go here http: Anyway now that you have given me inspiration I think I will get that machine out and give it another shot. Please keep giving sewing tips every so often. On your next tutorial, would you mind talking about how to properly cut fabric? The whole bias, selvage, etc. Your tutorials are fabulous, by the way!! Ashley had a great post in the past few months about selvage, bias etc that made it really easy!

I normally fold over, and then sew, but I might try that next time! I have been contemplating learning to sew but have been a little reluctant. This pep talk was just what I needed to gather my courage and just have fun and do it! Thank you SO much for this post! I took Home Ec in jr. I got a sewing machine for Christmas but know nothing about sewing. This gives me a few tips on how to start out. What a great pep talk!!! I am a fairly experienced sewist sounds pretentious, but better than sewer!

I have been sewing for a year now, but this is a great refresher! I never even thought about trying those fancy stitches on my machine! I am going to go try it now. A friend of mine tried to help teach her to sew a couple of weeks ago. Especially with that machine I think practicing on the lines will be a great help to her. As people mentioned it, I now remember sewing on the paper in high school too.

We might try that also. She now wants to make herself a tote bag. I love these back to basic tutorials. Could you or have you do one on needles? How to pick the right one? Types for different fabrics? Also a basics about thread? Just got a sewing machine a couple days ago!! I hated my last machine because it was sooo hard to thread so hopefully this one is much simplier.

This is too perfect! It also says to practice on paper and gives the same sorts of lines to practice with as you did above. I received a fancy machine for Christmas, which seemed a bit much for my novice experience and first sewing machine. Staying positive really is the key to success! Thanks for the words of encouragement! I still have my ancient Singer machine with just the basics, but it does the job. The only thing I wish I knew how to do is to sew on quilt binding on the machine. I tried it recently on my first quilt and it looked so bad I had to tear it all up and redo it by hand…which was definitely not fun.

I was pleasantly surprised to read this post and already know everything you wrote…. Love you the way you present things in simple easy steps. I am a newbie to this thing called sewing. I seriously nearly gave up. Wondering though, what are all the different feet for? Your website was the first sewing website I visited and definitely one of the most helpful! I just did my first invisible hem the other day thanks to a tutorial of yours. I bought myself a machine for my birthday this month, and had no idea how to get started.

Thanks so much for this blog post! I just got a call yesterday from a friend about buying her first machine. When I read this post I immediately posted it t her FB page and then immediately posted it to a crafters page that I belong to. My children know how to sew, but I think some of the tips on here can enhance their skills so much. Loved how specific your title was so that I knew exactly what your post was about. Keep up the great journalistic work! I stumbled onto your blog when I was working on a magnetic paper doll project for Christmas and I just had to sew a cover just like the one you did….

Thanks for the excellent but basic enough for us newbies tips. Thank you so much for posting this. Santa brought me a sewing machine for Xmas and I was a little overwhelmed at where to start! OK a LOT scared. So thankful for Mr Awesome and my spiffy new machine. I will be perusing your tutorials in just a minute ;D. What a great post!

Thanks for being so encouraging! Maybe you could do a blog post on sewing essencials and stuff that is just nice to have. Like, I noticed you have a table that your sewing machine drops into. I wish I had one of those. What type of thread do you love to use? Do you use weights to hold down your pattern pieces or do you pin the pattern to the fabric? What are your favorite scissors to use and how many different types do you have?

Help us be more efficient in our sewing skills! I happened upon your website when searching for beginner sewing projects. I picked up a Dress Maker sewing machine at a garage sale this fall and have had a few ladies tell me I got a very nice machine and here I sit… thinking… wish I knew how to use it! Thank you and please keep the tips coming!!! Wondering what should be my first project? What do you recommend? I also appreciate the helpful comments everyone else made before me!

Thanks and Happy New Sewing Year! Thanks for the great starting tips. I received a sewing machine for Christmas and have what is probably a very stupid question. Do you sew the decorative stitches daisy, turkey feet,Greek keys, leaves, etc. I know this is probably a silly question, but all the sewing tutorials on the web jump right into how you can use the decorative stitching without explaining this.

Thanks for any help you can provide. It shows clearly and concisely with great pics how to get started. So, thank you for that. This was so wonderful and helpful! Thank you for taking the time to post it!! I would love if you made more of these. Being a perfectionist, the crooked lines and messed up edges drive me CRAZY, but reading this gave me a little hope. Thanks so much again! Thank you so much for this little guide! I got a sewing machine for Christmas and I am completely intimidated seeing as how I have never so much as sewed a button on.

But this gives me encouragement! So my machine has decided to poop out on me. Thank you so much for this post. I wish I had it yesterday. I did my first project ever on my new sewing machine. It was a whale stuffie for my 5 month old son and I could not get the tail right and I was almost in tears. I bought my 4 well almost 5 year old a sewing machine for Christmas. I love the idea of drawing on the fabric to practice! My sewing machine will not pull the fabric thru, the machine is used, was given to me by a friend , I have to pull the fabric.

Do you have any suggestions, everything else seems to be working fine? I will try to remember to email pictures when I complete my first project. Thanks so much for these tips! I did get a sewing machine for Christmas, and I just now got back to my RSS feed after all the holiday clean-up. I posted it on my blog http: Can you help me with the manual buttonhole feature, No 9, and the keyhole buttonhole, No.

Thanks so much for this great cheat sheet!! I received a sewing machine years ago for Christmas. Thanks for the motivation! I came to thank you for the sewing tips, and found out about you raising fund to help Dylan. I have bought all 7 patterns though I am a complete beginner in sewing. I truly appreciate what you have contributed so far, you are such a kind artist, mother and as friend. Best wishes to Dylan and his family!

And may you and your family well blessed! Your blog is amazing! But regardless, i just got a Brother CSi for Christmas and this post has given me the courage to start using it! Great info to know. Now I have a 1-year-old and I am loving making clothes for her. Question about bobbin and elastic- my bobbin starts acting weird every time I try to sew elastic.

It bunches up and just stops sewing all together. Any idea how to fix it? I had friends tell me that it might be the tension, but I am kinda afraid to mess with it! Turned out great, and took me less than an hour last night! I have been starting slow and getting to know the ins and outs of my machine before doing anything. The lines are already there more than 20 on each sheet!

Just thought it might be a helpful tip for others getting started as well.