Sewing Secrets

Can you keep a secret?  Sometimes people say, “I know a secret but I’m not telling”, while others just can’t seem to hold on to it.  Well today I’m going to tell you about my sewing secrets!  If you are a sewer, you may already know these but if you are a newbie, I hope they will help you out.

It can be very frustrating when your machine is sewing fine then a needle breaks.  This is no major problem but when you change the needle, re-thread it and start sewing, your stitches are all glubbed up!  You usually re-thread the needle only to have it do the same thing.  Usually this is an easy fix.  you may have inserted the needle in the incorrect position.

 

     On home machines, most needles have a flat side on the top of the needle with a little “scoop near the eye of the needle. The other side of the needle has a groove down the needle to the eye. Depending where the thread comes down your machine, whether front or side, determines the position of the flat side of the needle.

 

If your thread comes from the tension and down the front of the machine, you will want the flat side of the needle toward the back.  If the thread comes off the left side of the machine, the flat side will be facing the left of the machine. The top picture is a front threading needle and the bottom is a side threading. If you look close, you can see the little thread guide on the left side just above the needle.  Make sure the needle is pushed up in the needle slot and tighten all the way.  If you have the flat side in the wrong position, it will make your thread glubbed up!   If you have commercial machines, they are rounded but still have the “scoop” and groove.

 

Now comes the fun part of trying to thread the needle.  The smaller the size of the needle, the smaller the eye is, making it harder to thread.  Another secret I do is cut the thread at an angle. If you look at it under a magnifying glass, you can see the angle cut instead of straight across. This is also how fisherman cut their fishing line to thread through their eyes, lures and hooks.  The top photo shows the pink thread cut at an angle and the gold thread cut straight.  Check the positions of how I hold the scissors when cutting angled or straight.  There are two secrets to this, besides cutting the thread at an angle, it’s best to have super sharp scissors so the thread cuts clean.

 

Many sewers may have computerized machines and they don’t need oiling, but you still need to make sure to clean the lint out of the bobbin case.  If you have a non-computerized, you need to clean out the lint and oil it.  Some of the machines have the oil ports color coded to make sure you get them all.  Most of our machines came from the dark ages and they are not marked. But it’s easy to figure out what to oil.  I drop oil down the needle shaft, around the bobbin case and anywhere that has metal on metal moving parts.  Make sure after you oil your sewing machine, you run scrap fabric through you sewing machine a few times to remove any excess oil so it won’t get on your fabric.

There are different ways sewing machine oil is available.  Some are small metal cans with some are plastic bottles.  On these you have to snip the tip for the oil to come out.  If you snip it too much, you wind up getting more oil than needed and you will end up with an oily mess.  I like to use an oil pen, I fill it with machine oil, just like a fountain pen and click the top to release just the right amount of oil.  There is no mess and easy to control..

This is the oil pen I use to oil my machines, there’s no mess and it’s easy to get just the right amount of oil where needed.

 

      My last sewing secret for today is silicone spray!  Have you sewn a bonded fabric such as upholstery, suede or room darkening drapery lining?  Some have a “rubbery” or “fuzzy” backing and drags when sewing a seam.  I remedy this by spraying silicone spray (DO NOT USE AN OIL BASED SPRAY) on the edge of the fabric seam or on the throat plate of the machine.  Again, I have non-computerized machines, so the silicone won’t hurt any of the working parts of the machine.

For all of you that sew, I hope my sewing secrets have helped make your sewing projects easier.  Oh, and while these are my sewing secrets, you can share them with other sewers!!