How to Use a Sewing Machine

Transcript So, now that we have our zipper all pressed, we need to go our fabric. And for this demonstration, I’m just going to mark the wrong side of the fabric so it’s a little clearer to see what we’re doing. So, X is wrong side of our fabric. So, what you want to do …

Transcript You want to go to your sewing machine and install a zipper foot. Now, the zipper foot allows for zipper teeth to go underneath the presser foot. So, in this case, I’m sewing with my zipper teeth to the right. I’m going to be sewing on the fabric. So, I want to place my …

Transcript So, now that we have our zipper pinned in place, it’s time to sew. To sew this zipper, I’m going to use a zipper foot, and I’m just going swap out the foot that I have on my machine for a zipper foot. And this zipper foot, it can be used on the left …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer Wiese from Workroom Social. I’m a pattern maker and designer. I’ve been sewing for 15 years, and I’m really excited to do this basic sewing machine video series for Howcast.com. For the series, we’re actually using this sewing machine, which is the first-ever sewing machine I’ve owned. I learned how to …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and today I’m going to show you how to apply bias tape. So, we have our bias tape made. You can either make this at home or you can buy pre-made bias tape at any Notions or sewing store. The first thing you’re going to want to do …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workerm Social.Today, I’m going to show you how to make bias tape. Before I show you how to make bias tape, let’s just talk really quickly about what bias tape is. Bias tape is a tape that you can make or buy pre-made in the store. It is cut on …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today we are going to talk about fabric puckering. So, sometimes you’re sewing and you think everything is going really well, and then you pull your fabric out from behind your machine and you look at it, and the fabric is all puckered. So, let’s talk about …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and today we are going to talk about why does my top thread keep breaking? I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced this, I know I have. You’ll be sewing and all of a sudden your top thread will just break right in the middle of a seam. …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I am going to talk to you about thread jams. So, as a new sewer, when I was first learning to sew many years ago, I would always experience thread jams, meaning I would just have these big balls of thread that would get stuck in …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to help you troubleshoot your bobbin problems. So let’s go ahead and look into our bobbin area. I’m just going to remove this case and get into our bobbin area. I open this up and I see here is my bobbin casing. Sometimes when …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to talk to you about sewing machines. There are several types of sewing machines that you’re probably going to look to if you are looking to buy a sewing machine. For home sewing users, there are mechanical machines, electronic, or often called computerized machines. …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and today I’m going to show you how to stitch in the ditch. So stitch in the ditch is a great technique to know and to use. A lot of times you’ll use it when attaching waistbands to skirts, so I’m going to show you today. Today we …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to use a double needle on your sewing machine. Here is the double needle that I’m using, and a double needle is exactly what it sounds like. It’s two needles connected to one shaft and it makes two lines of …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and today I’m going to show you how to gather fabric. We have our fabric piece right here that we want to gather and the first thing we’re going to do is go to our sewing machine and make sure that we’re on a straight stitch. Then we’re …

Transcript I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to make a bound seam. We have prepared our seam with our seam allowance, and the first thing you want to do when you’re making a bound seam is just kind of finger press your seam allowance open a little. You …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and today I’m going to show you how to sew a flat felled seam. A flat felled seam encases the raw edge of the seam allowance and this is a very common way to finish seams that you see on jeans and on sportswear. To demonstrate that today, …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to make a French seam. We have our two pieces of fabric here that we want to sew together, and we want to sew this with a French seam. To get a good idea of what that would look like, …

Transcript Hi. This is Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show us how to make a double folded hem. The the first thing you want to do is to take your fabric out and grab a seam guide or ruler. Now, in this example, we have a 2-inch hem allowance. That means …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to make a narrow hem on fabric. We have our fabric here and we have our raw edge. The first thing you want to do when you make a narrow hem is to sew a narrow seam allowance just on …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to install an invisible zipper. So, here we have our invisible zipper and the fabric that we’re going to use to sew our zipper into. The first part of sewing an invisible zipper is to press the zipper. So, we’re …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today I’m going to show you how to install a left zipper. So, the first thing you want to do is take your fabric and take your zipper and mark the bottom of your zipper. So, to do that, I’m just going to lay my zipper where …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and I’m going to show you how to install a centered zipper. The first thing that we want to do when we install a centered zipper is we want to measure and mark the placement of the zipper in our seam. I’m just going to line my zipper …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and I’m going to show you how to use a blind hem foot on your sewing machine. Before we start, we need to prepare the fabric that we’re going to use when using this foot. I have this piece of fabric and I just want to make a …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social and I’m going to show you how to use a buttonhole foot. This is a buttonhole attachment and it’s used to make buttonholes in fabric. My buttonhole attachment is an automatic one-step process, and what I’m going to do is the first thing I’m going to do is …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and I’m going to show you how to use a walking foot on your sewing machine. This is a walking foot, and a walking foot has feed dogs, these little teeth, that move up and down with the feed dogs that are on your sewing machine. You’ll see …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now, I’m going to show you how to use an edge stitch foot to make an edge stitch on fabric. So, we have an edge stitch foot right here, and the first thing I’m going to do is just attach it to my machine. Okay. Now, you notice …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Let’s talk about sewing zigzag stitches. The first thing that you want to do when you’re sewing a zigzag is to change your machine from straight stitch to zigzag. On my sewing machine, I have a section here called pattern, which is the different stitch types, and I’m …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now, let’s talk about stitching. So, once your machine is already set up and you want to start sewing, this is what you do. We’re going to do a straight stitch right now. We’re going to start with a basic stitch length. We’re going to go 2.5 on …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now, let’s talk a little bit about basting with your sewing machine. So, basting is a temporary way to hold two things together, or more, while you’re sewing. It could be two pieces of fabric. It can be a zipper to fabric. It just depends on what you’re …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now let’s talk about how to use a seam guide on your sewing machine. Whenever you’re sewing, the goal is always to sew a straight line, right? You don’t want to be kind of wavy and zigzaggy all over the place. On your sewing machine, on your throat …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now let’s talk about thread tension. Thread tension is really important on your sewing machine because you want your stitches to be really nice and even, meaning that the stitches on top and on bottom are the same. This is your tension adjustment right here, and every sewing …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and we’re going to talk right now about stitch length. So, every sewing machine has a dial to control the length of your stitches. On most modern machines, the stitch length is measured in millimeters and so we go from 1 to 4 millimeters. For most garment sewing, …

Transcript Hi, I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now let’s talk about presser feet. I have several different presser feet on the table here with me, and the first thing you should do when choosing presser feet is to go to your sewing machine’s manual and just see what kind of feet your sewing machine uses. …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and I’m going to show you how to load a bobbin into your sewing machine. So, the first thing you want to do is thread your sewing machine. After your sewing machine is threaded, you want to take your wound bobbin and you kind of want to just …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and right now I’m going to show you how to thread your sewing machine. So, you should always look at your sewing machine’s user’s manual for exact instructions on how to thread a machine. But there is kind of an intuitive way that you can think about it, …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and we’re going to talk a little bit about sewing machine needles. So, there are lots of different kinds of sewing machine needles. The three that you’ll probably primarily work with are ball-point, universal, and sharps. Today we’re going to use with sharps, and sharps are used for …

Transcript Hi. I’m Jennifer from Workroom Social, and today we’re going to talk about how to wind a bobbin. So, what is a bobbin? These are a couple of bobbins. Every sewing machine has a different bobbin that is specifically made for their machine, so you should refer to your manual to see what kind …