Vote For Our First Big Sewing Project! Sew Fun

So far we’ve learned some basic sewing skills and seeing as you guys preferred to learn skills inside actual projects it’s time to vote on our first major project!

The first 3 that I’ve picked are roughly the same skill level and have mostly the same techniques used.

See the options below and then vote using the form beneath that. Let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments too!

sewfunvote

How To Do An Easy Rockabilly Loop Hairstyle – Tutorial – Violet LeBeaux

Hope you’re all having a fantastic week! Today I’m doing a style which looks quite fancy but is really easy to do. It can be worn very casually or really dressed up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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Shop: http://bit.ly/NknExz
Blog: http://bit.ly/qIKumk
Tumblr: http://bit.ly/oF86Yz
Twitter: http://bit.ly/onCld1
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/pdZ8B5
Instagram: http://instagram.com/violetlebeaux

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A blog and Youtube channel about a girl and her quest to make everything sparkle. New craft, hair and beauty tutorials every week!

Violet LeBeaux spends most of her time trying to think of ways to make life prettier, posting said ways on her blog and drinking very strong tea. She writes about big hair cute things, girly fashion, beauty finds, sometimes Hime Gyaru fashion (姫ギャル) and crafty tutorials.

She lives with her adorable boyfriend Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.

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Music: Garageband unless otherwise credited

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Easy Rockabilly Loop Hairstyle Instructions!

Good morning! Today’s style which is a little rockabilly inspired!
Let’s get started, you can do this with curly or straight hair, just make sure that you brush it before you start.
You want it to be nice and smooth so that the loops are smooth to.
Grab a section of hair from the top of your head on one side and twist it around your fingers to form a loop.
Make sure that the tail of your loop faces the back of your head.
Push the loop down so it sits flat against your scalp like this.
And then pin it in place.
You want the pins to be inside the loop so that you can hide them later.
I used dark pins so that you can see what I’m doing, but I suggest you use pins that match your hair.
Brush the hair so that it hides all the pins and then hairspray in place.
Grab the section of hair underneath the first one you just did.
Make sure that you have the tail of the first loop included in this section of hair too.
Pull it upwards and form it into a loop underneath the first one that you made.
Again, the tail should be pointing to the back of your head.
Pin it in place.
The pink bits of my hair look cool when they are twisted around like this, kind of like candy!
Brush so you can’t see any hair pins, then give it a blast of hairspray.
Tadaa! Really that’s it!
All you need now is a cute hair accessory.
You can add as many loops as you want, but I like to dress it up with a big flower.
You can put in the front like this, but does hide the loops a little bit.
So if you want to show off the loops, pop it at the back.
Very cute!
Now you’re ready for a night of rockabilly music.
Or you know, cam whoring and posting it on instagram!
Follow me on instagram: violetlebeaux.
Hope you enjoyed the video and see you again next week, bye!

The Great Gatsby Inspired Hair/Make Up – 1920’s In 20 Minutes

This is such a fun look and really doesn’t take too long to do! I had way too much fun making this video including doing the Charleston for far longer than I actually included in the video XD

Hope you enjoyed it!

Transcript:
Today I was a bit inspired by the remake of The Great Gatsby so I wanted to do a look suited to that. Neither my look or the looks in the movie are particularly accurate for the time period but they sure are fun!

Music: Rondo Alla Turca http://www.its-called-cumbernauld.com/rondo-alla-turca.html and Garageband .
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Shop: http://bit.ly/NknExz
Blog: http://bit.ly/qIKumk
Tumblr: http://bit.ly/oF86Yz
Twitter: http://bit.ly/onCld1
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/pdZ8B5
Instagram: http://instagram.com/violetlebeaux

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A blog and Youtube channel about a girl and her quest to make everything sparkle. New craft, hair and beauty tutorials every week!

Violet LeBeaux spends most of her time trying to think of ways to make life prettier, posting said ways on her blog and drinking very strong tea. She writes about big hair cute things, girly fashion, beauty finds, sometimes Hime Gyaru fashion (姫ギャル) and crafty tutorials.

She lives with her adorable boyfriend Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music: Garageband unless otherwise credited

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The Great Gatsby Inspired Hair/Make Up Instructions:

Hello, today we’re going to have some fun with a look inspired by the new Great Gatsby movie!
Hey besties! Hmm, that 20’s theme party is in 20 minutes! How can I get ready in time?
I’ve got it!
A cute hat and fake finger waves!
I’m a freaking genius!
Ok, let’s get started!
Separate your fringe and curl it under using whatever method you’re comfortable with.
Part your hair in the middle and then separate a piece of hair on the side.
Brush it around so it forms a wave that finishes just above your ear, then pin it in place!
Using the same section of hair, form a second wave that finished behind your ear like this. Then pin it in place!
Repeat on the other side.
Form a wave that finishes just above your ear, then pin it in place.
My hair was already curled for this but you can do this look with straight or curly hair.
This version is a way to quickly cheat at making finger waves if you have a hat handy.
A hat can cover anything!
Once you reach the back, fold all the remaining hair up and pin it to the top of your head.
This style does work better with shorter hair.
Make sure that all your pins are above the level of your hat line.
Now smooth it all down with some hairspray. You cant have a 20’s look with fly-aways!
This looks alright but just wait until you add a hat!
BAM! Super cute! And that’s how you do super quick/easy/lazy almost finger waves.
Now you just need to top off the look with some make up.
Obviously if this was a real 1920’s look you would start from scratch but this was for a last minute costume party.
The key to 20’s eye shadow is to create a darker line around your crease.
Then a darker line around your lash line as well.
Line your waterline in black and bring some of the shadow down to soften it up a little.
You don’t want a sharp wing, you’re aiming for a rounder shape.
Use lots of mascara on your top and bottom lashes.
These looks are quite bottom lash heavy and that’s how you get that doe-eyed look that was so popular back then.
Add a darker shade of lipstick and that’s it!
Now you’re ready to look out a window pining for your lost love.
Now charleston your way all over that dance floor!
I hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial. Check the link in the description for more photos and other tutorials!
Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of the Great Gatsby remake!
If you liked the video make sure to like, comment and subscribe!

First Sewing Project- How To Sew A Pouch! Sew Fun!

I promised we would get started with our first project this week and here it is! We are going to learn the very basics of sewing by making a cute little pouch.

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These pouches were the first thing that I ever learned how to make, they are very useful and even more so they teach a lot of really useful sewing skills in a way which isn’t too complicated or overwhelming. So let’s get started!

You need:

  • Scissors
  • Fabric
  • Pins
  • Thread
  • Sewing machine

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Cut two rectangles of fabric. You will need to make them around 4cm longer and wider than you want the finished bag to be. This is called leaving a seam allowance.  Because we need room for the stitches to make seams we need to cut all of the pieces larger so it ends up the right size. It doesn’t matter too much with small things like this but seam allowances become very important when you are making clothing that needs to actually fit you 😉

Most fabrics have a “good side” and a “bad side”. The good side just means the side you want to be on the outside when the project is finished. It’s obviously easier to see which side needs to go out on printed fabrics but you can generally tell on most fabrics if you look closely. I am using polar fleece for this project because it’s a good beginners fabric, it doesn’t stretch much and it doesn’t warp easily.

In most sewing projects you will work with the “good sides” facing inside so at the end when we turn everything the right way out you won’t see all of the seams.

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Decide which edge of the fabric will be the top of your pouch and fold over around 1cm of the edge.

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Fold it down again. Now the raw edge is encased inside the fold completely and you won’t need to worry about it fraying later.

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Pin in place and repeat on the other piece of fabric.

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Now let’s sew it in place!

We will be using a straight stitch to begin with so set your machine accordingly.

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Thread your machine. Ideally you should use thread which is the same colour as your fabric. Here I’m using purple thread so you can see what’s going on. If you are a beginner you might find it easy to use bright contrasting thread so you can see what you are doing.

With the needle and the foot up place the edge of fold under the foot.

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Now lower the foot.

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You need to make sure the stitches aren’t going to come undone later so you should begin and end every line of stitch with an anchor.

To create the anchor we stitch overlapping forwards and backwards at the edge of the fabric.

Press the foot pedal gently (or use the hand reel on the side) and sew around 1cm forward.

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Then hold down the reverse button and gently stitch backwards to where you started.

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Now go forwards again and this time continue stitching to the end of the fabric. When you get to the end, secure the stitches by going backwards 1cm and then forwards again.

Sew right off the edge of the piece of fabric.

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When you are sewing for the most part you should have both hands guiding the fabric and one foot on the pedal.

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Lift the machine foot and pull your piece of fabric off to the side so you get a trail of thread. Cut that off.

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Repeat this on the other rectangle. You should now have two rectangles with the ends folded and stitched.

You can see below where I’ve drawn to represent the stitches and the anchors.

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Now we need to put the two pieces together and sew them in place.

Stack the rectangles with the good sides together. The sides with the fold should be on the outside.

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Pin them in place. You can see below where we are going to be stitching.

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Begin on the right side at the folds, lower the foot and anchor the stitches by going forwards/backwards.

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Stitch in a straight line down the side of the rectangles. You want to leave around 1cm between your line of stitches and the edge of the fabric. I find it’s much easier to get a straight line of stitches if I don’t look at the needle, instead try looking where the fabric enters the foot and make sure it’s straight as you go. There are also lines on the machine which can help you line things up well.

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Once you get around 1cm from the edge of the fabric we need to turn the corner. Lower the needle into the fabric, you will probably find this easier by using the hand wheel.

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Lift up the foot with the needle still down through the fabric.

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Rotate the fabric 90 degrees so the machine is now pointing in the next direction you want to sew.

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Put the foot down again and start sewing along the new line.

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Continue until you reach the next corner then repeat the process to turn again. Sew up the last side and anchor at the end.

You should have something along these lines:

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Now we just need to seal the edges so they don’t fray. To do this you could use an overlocker or just zigzag stitch with your machine.

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This time you will need to line up the piece of fabric so that the machine stitches the left side of the zigzag into the fabric and the right side over the edge of the fabric. What this will do is completely encase all of the raw edges and prevent them from fraying or coming unravelled later.

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Begin with anchoring as usual.

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Turn the corner in the same way that you did with the straight stitch.

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Continue around the 3 edges

Remember that this is your first project so don’t stress too much if everything isn’t perfect, you will slowly get a feel for things over time 🙂 I did this pouch while I was crouching balanced on one leg in front of a stool so we could get the photos XD

So you should have something along the lines of this:

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Snip off the extra dangly threads.

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Turn the whole thing inside out.

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Easy!

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That didn’t take too long and is a very handy little pouch to have.

So what sewing techniques did you learn making this?

  • Straight stitch
  • Zigzag stitch
  • Sealing edges
  • Turning corners while sewing
  • Hemming
  • Anchoring

Not bad for a first project!

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What do you guys want to learn in the next project?

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Did you enjoy learning techniques while actually making something or do you prefer to learn each technique individually.

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Let me know what you think and see you next week for more Sew Fun!

Crochet Spiral Pillow Tutorial – Home Sweet Home

I’m going to be honest, I thought I had already posted this spiral pillow tutorial from Home Sweet Home. It wasn’t until someone emailed me and asked where it was *_* My bad!!

So I made this pillow quite some time ago for the Home Sweet Home project, it’s one of my favorites of the pillows I made because spiral crochet is really fun to do. I would actually like to do another version of this where the spirals are 2-3 rows wide so they look really huge!

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Especially because some random puppy claimed it as hers the minute I finished it!!!

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You need two colours of yarn, I used pink and white.

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I doubled the yarn over and reballed it for a thicker look. Is it weird that I find reballing yarn to be one of the most relaxing things ever?

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The yarn I used is 8ply and the hook size is 5.5mm.

They way that this spiral is worked is that you will be working with both colours at once and going around the edge of the piece one at a time.

Start by casting on the pink.

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Do 5 chains.

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Single crochet into the first chain so it makes the start of the spiral.

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Now we need to add in the next colour. To do this, single crochet into the same stitch that you just single crocheted the pink into. Do one more single stitch into that hole with the white and then do the next SC (single crochet) into the pink stitch after that. You should have 3 white stitches now and the pink and white should cross over and form kind of like a yin-yang symbol.

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Continue the line of white by SC into the top of the pink row. Continue until you only have one pink stitch left. Every 3 stitches, do two stitches into the same hole, this will make sure the spiral stays flat rather than being a big weird ice cream cone shape in the end!

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After you’ve gone as far as you can with the white, pick up the pink yarn again and continue SC, this time you should be going into the top of the white stitches. Every 3 stitches, do two in the same hole so it stays nice and flat. Continue until you’ve got one white stitch left.

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Now pick up the white and continue the pattern of SC on top of the pink, and 2 in one hole every 3. Once it gets a little bigger, you won’t need to double up every 3 stitches so change to every 5. The further out you get the less often you will need to double up, so use your judgement as to what you need to do to keep the shape.

And that’s it, just keep alternating between stitching the white and the pink around.

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Eventually you will get something like this! Finish the circle by tying off the white and continuing the pink around past the end of the white so it has a few stitches into the previous row of pink.

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Now make a back piece which is the same size as the first circle.

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Here they are front and back!

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Next you will need to join them together. Pick one of the colours which you want the side to be (I went with pink) and SC a row around the edge of the spiral. Spiral-Crochet-Cushion-Pattern765

To give it a ring around the edge and make the side stick up, crochet into the inner loop of the stitches rather than the outer.

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I decided to make it 5 stitches wide, you can do whatever suits you.

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Now stitch the back piece on. You can either sew it on or crochet it on. I went with crochet and I did it by doing another pink row and crocheting directly into the white holes.

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Leave a little gap and don’t tie it off yet because we need to stuff it!

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Once it’s stuffed just finish up the hole.

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Finished!

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It can be pretty hard to finish crochet when you have a very mischievous puppy!

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I can’t believe how little Lottie looks here *_*

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When you finally finish the pillow and put it down for the last photograph you’ll notice that the second you turn to get the camera it’s been usurped by the puppy.

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Then when you tell her to get off she’ll make this face at you… -_-

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I decided to put a stitch through the middle of mine to make the shape more interesting.

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At least all of that hard work was appreciated!

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Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you give it a try!

 

Getting To Know/Threading Your Sewing Machine! Sew Fun

I ended up having to split this post into two because I didn’t realise how much there was to learn here or how involved it actually was >_< Once you’ve been sewing for a little while all of this becomes second nature so you won’t even think about threading a machine, it will just kind of happen. So when you see how complicated it looks don’t be discouraged, I promise it gets a little easier every time and soon you won’t even need to look at the instructions!

So threading a sewing machine can be kind of scary for beginners but it really shouldn’t be! First let’s get to know about sewing machines a little bit.

Keep in mind that during this guide I will be using a Singer, your machine may be different to mine. Most sewing machines thread roughly the same way but it’s always best to see if you can find a manual specific to your make and model. I will be giving tips which are specific to my Singer and also fairly general so please take this as a guide rather than concrete instructions and use your imagination to apply it to your own situation. Also keep in mind that I’m only going to be explaining the basics for the moment. There will be other functions that the machine has that I will ignore for the moment because they aren’t needed for what we’re going to do as beginners. I will cover them in the advanced classes later.

A note on safety first:

BE CAREFUL. It REALLY hurts if you accidentally sew your finger. Seriously. Keep your fingers away from the needle when your foot is on the pedal. It seems obvious but I have seen a lot of injuries because people weren’t paying attention. If you have animals make sure they are in another room. I had a friend once who caught her finger in a machine because her cat jumped on the petal.

If you are threading your machine, turn it off at the switch or at the very least take your foot off the pedal. I cannot stress this enough. It also can’t hurt to have someone who already knows what they are doing around a sewing machine to help you if possible. You can’t be too careful!

So let’s look at our machine!

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The first thing you’ll notice is that there are two big dials on the right of the machine. Most machines have several dials which control different aspects of how the finished line of stitches looks. The location of these dials varies a lot, my previous machine had all of them on the top where as this one has two on the front and two on the top.

The two on the front are for stitch length and stitch type. They are basically exactly what they sound like.

The top dial controls stitch length, depending on the number you choose the stitches will become really long or really short. If you choose 0-1 you will get super tiny stitches which are used for things like button holes. I usually have mine set on 3, that gives a very standard length.

The bottom dial controls the kind of stitch the machine will be sewing. We will be using straight stitch and zigzag. We may use the button hole stitches at some point too. All of the other stitches are fancy and to be honest a little pointless. For the style of clothing we’re going to make the designs just don’t need that kind of stitching.

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Now let’s look at the top of the machine. You can see there are two more dials here which control the stitches.

The one on the left controls the tension. Tension means how tight the thread is pulled while you’re sewing. Different tensions are used for different fabrics. For the most part you’re probably going to be sewing medium weight fabrics (cotton etc) so pick a medium tension. You will need to change the tension to tighter if you’re doing heavy weight fabrics (eg. denim) and looser if you’re doing light fabrics (eg. chiffon). I will also make the suggestion that if you’re a beginner learning from this series, you should put that chiffon right back on the shelf and walk away from it because chiffon is an absolute bitch to sew!!

The other thing the tension dial is useful for is making ruffles. You can make very easy ruffles by turning the tension really tight, I will do an entire post dedicated to that technique in detail later though 🙂

The dial on the right controls the width of stitches. This is important when you are using zigzag stitch but not really when you are using straight stitch. The little diagram next to it explains it!

Above that you will find the pointy stick which holds the thread. This should also have a little stopper on the end which keeps the spool of thread from flying off when you sew. If you are using an old machine this piece may be missing… just use a piece of blutac!

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Lastly on the far right there is the bobbin winder. The bobbin is the second mini spool of thread that your machine uses. Rather than winding them by hand or using a separate winder, most modern machines have a little stick here that you put the bobbin on to wind more thread onto it from the thread spool.

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How it works depends on the machine but on mine:

  1. You pull the thread around the metal part (which controls the tension)
  2. Stick the end of it in the bobbin (plastic/metal thread holder)
  3. Put the bobbin on the metal stick
  4. Push the stick to the right so it locks in place and switches the machine to bobbin mode
  5. Then press the foot pedal and the machine spins you a full bobbin
  6. When it’s full you can stop or mine had a little stopper which pushes it back automatically when it’s too full

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Now let’s look at the side of the machine.

Here you have the power switch, the cord which attaches to the power plug and the foot pedal and the air vent. Pro tip: don’t cover the air vent and make sure you clean it out occasionally otherwise you run the risk of having your machine overheat or need servicing.

The most important part here is the hand wheel. By turning this you  can sew forwards or backwards manually. It is useful for doing small details, turning corners and other things that you need precision for. It is also useful to turn it a few times and look at how all the parts of the machine actually work slowly so you can understand it better.

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Now let’s look at the back!

There are only two important things here: the lever that raises and lowers the foot and the lever which releases the foot completely so you can change it to a different one eg. a button hole foot.

You won’t use the foot release much but you will use the raise/lower lever all the time. The foot needs to be down when you’re sewing so the fabric is sandwiched between the foot and the little teeth on the bottom. The teeth move when you sew and feed the fabric through automatically.

If your fabric isn’t going through or it looks weird, make sure you have the foot down, I’ve made that mistake several times before XD

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Ok finally let’s look at the front where all of the action takes place!

There will be a lever here somewhere which is the reverse switch. By holding this down the machine sews backwards. This is really important because it’s the easiest way to start and end lines of sewing securely.

The machine will have a track like the one here which is where the thread goes. Inside the track is a metal hook which pulls the thread along, it goes up and down every stitch and if you move the hand wheel you should be able to see it move inside.

Down towards the needle there will be another little metal hook which holds the thread in place so it’s close to the needle. Around that area is a screw which you untie if you need to change the needle on the machine.

Below that you have the needle itself and the foot.

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Here is a clearer image of where everything sits. You can see the gripping tread under the foot and the hole in the middle where the second piece of thread (from the bobbin) comes out from.

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So speaking of bobbins, they go inside the machine below the needle.

Every sewing machine I’ve used has a different way of loading the bobbin so I really suggest that you read your instruction manual or google the model number for specific instructions. Some machines don’t have bobbin casings and you just put the bobbin straight into the machine.

So to get inside my machine a piece of the front slides out and another bit flips down and inside you can see the mechanical workings.

The metal round bit you can see in the middle is the bobbin casing. There is a little metal stick which lines up with the top to lock it in place and a metal tab which when pulled releases the case so you can pull it out and replace the thread.

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When you remove the bobbin you can get a better look inside. The way it works is that there is a spinning bit which grabs the thread inside, twists and pushes it up towards the needle. that creates stitches 😀

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This is what the bobbin looks like inside the case.

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And apart!

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So now that you’re more familiar with the parts of the machine let’s actually thread it!

First step is putting the bobbin back in the case. The thread should come out of the hole in the side of the casing in this direction.

Next align the little metal spike  on the casing upwards and place it back in the machine until it clicks in place.

 

Again, all machines have different ways to do this so read your instructions for this part!

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Once it’s in the machine just leave the bobbin for now and let’s thread the top of the machine!

This is how the threading on my machine works. Looks complicated right? Let’s look at it step by step!

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The steps are:

  1. Use the hand wheel to make sure the needle is as high as it can go and put the thread on it’s stick.
  2. Pull the thread through the little metal loop on top and then follow the gap down the front of the machine, around the U shape bit and up to the top again.
  3. If the needle is in it’s high point you should be able to see the metal hook inside the machine. Wrap the thread over that (right to left) so it catches on the hook and the back down to the botom of the machine.
  4. Push the thread through the little metal hook here so the end hangs where the needle is.
  5. Thread it through the needle.
  6. Pull 20cm or so extra thread and put it out of the back of the machine.
  7. Insert the bobbin into the machine.

Now we need to get the end of the bobbin out of the machine.

To do that, hold the end of the top thread to the side and rotate the handwheel one full turn. When the needle goes in and out of the machine it will catch the bobbin thread and drag it back upwards. Now that it’s on the top side too, you can grab it with your fingers or tweezers and pull both loose ends of thread off to the side.

DONE AND READY TO SEW!

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That seems really complicated in one photo though so let’s look at each part.

From the top follow around the metal holder and down the gap to the front of the machine.

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Continue following the gap down the up to the metal hook. Put the thread through the hook then follow the same gap back down.

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Push the thread through the holder at the top of the needle then through the eye of the needle and out the side!

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Thread your bobbin through and make one stitch with the hand wheel to bring the bobbin thread up to the top and you’re good to go!

Conclusion.

That is a lot of information to digest in one sitting so I suggest all of you go and have a play around with your machine. Being familiar with your sewing machine  is really important because you will get to know it’s quirks and limitations. That will help you later in the course when we are doing more complicated things! You have to learn the rules before you can break them ;D

Hopefully this was helpful to you guys and as always please leave questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to help there or answer them in the next post.

This ended up being super long so I’m going to wait until next edition to do our first mini sewing project. Next week we will be learning about the different types of stitches, how to actually sew with the machine and making our first mini project: a mini bag!

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