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I am teaching myself to sew and frankly I am not doing too bad at it. Unfortunately, I have hit a snag (pun intended) and I need some help. I redoing an old pair of my daughter's jeans for the holidays on my very basic bottom-of-the-line sewing machine. I split the side seam and have already attached some blue sparkly fabric (snow)around the ankle using a satin stitch and now I am trying to do the same stitch for a fleece snowman. I heat set the fleece to the jeans to make it stay until I've stitched it. The problem is every time I try to sew the fleece down, the fabric gets stuck in the machine. It doesn't glide along since the fleece is thicker than anything else I have sewn and when I try to guide it a little more forcefully, it skips and the stitches aren't even and often it skips off the fleece altogether. The first thread I used was cheap polyester and it kept breaking after just a few stitches. Last night I bought nylon thread and a new denim needle for my machine as recommended by the store associate but it is still not working. The stitches are too thick on the underside of the jeans and it is still nearly impossible to sew. My old needle and cheap thread did fine for jeans and other fabric and was ok on the fleece by itself when I stitched a face for the snowman. It just doesn't work putting those together. So is there something simple I could be doing differently or should I give up the fleece altogether? I would hate to do that because it is so cute! Please give me some ideas. Thanks!
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You could use tissue paper (or adding machine paper, or toilet paper) wrapped on either side of teh fabric like a sandwich - tissue paper being the bread, the fabric being the sandwich meat) and sew through it.
If ever you have a difficult fabric that the feed dogs either catch too much or don't catch at all, that's a good solution. I use it on really fine slippery fabrics and it works like a charm.
Let me know if that helps. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Also, it's possible you have your tension set too tight. Have you checked that? Do you have a manual for your sewing machine? There's a thread tension (upper tension) and a bobbin tension (lower tension). You need to check tension for each different fabric you sew to make sure the tension works for that fabric/fabric combination.
If it's set correctly, the stitches will be neither too loose nor too tight, won't pucker, won't have excess thread hanging out, and the "knots" (where the needle meets the bobbin below to form the stitch) meet halfway between the two fabrics, not on one side or the other. You can find some more info on that here.
If you have anything wonky happening, try to describe it in as much detail as possible and/or take a picture and post a link for us here so we can help you diagnose it better. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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My first thought was adjust the tension as well. You've already done my other suggestion, which was to get a denim needle.
Can your machine "drop" the feed dogs? It's usually something done when you're machine quilting, because the quilt "sandwich" can be too thick and also so you can freely turn the fabric to make designs. That might help, but then you'd really have to practice feeding the fabric through at the right rate, which I wouldn't recommend for a real beginner (though you sound like you're past true beginner stage)
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:The first thread I used was cheap polyester and it kept breaking after just a few stitches. Last night I bought nylon thread and a new denim needle for my machine as recommended by the store associate but it is still not working. The stitches are too thick on the underside of the jeans and it is still nearly impossible to sew.
This really sounds like a tension issue. My first guess would be that the bobbin tension is too tights because you note that the stiches are too thick on the underside.
If you have a machine with a bobbin case, there is generally a screw on the case which can be used to adjust the tension. Before you adjust the screw, be sure to mark its current position. Start be making very small (1/16 of a turn or less) adjustments to the screw.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I will definitely try the tissue sandwich. My machine has a tension knob labeled 1-10. I know it is currently set on 5 and I usually set it to 2 when I want to do gathers. I will play with it more tonight and see what happens. I was also thinking that now that I have a denim needle, I may try the other thread again since it didn't get as bunched up as the nylon thread or maybe use the nylon thread with the new needle. If I keep having problems, I will take pictures. Thanks so much! Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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By the way, this was my first sewing attempt a few weeks ago. I made a skirt out of some jeans that were too short. ALL of her jeans are too short and the next size up falls off of her so I am trying to come up with creative things to do with her old jeans so she can still wear them. When I took the pictures, she would not stop twirling which was pretty cute. I have since hand frayed the edges where the jeans meet the fabric. I am hoping to join a friend of mine who is making cute ribbon shirts to sell at craft shows.
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Mandy-Looked at the pictures- I'm pretty impressed if you are indeed as inexperienced as you claim.
What really caught my eye, however, was your beautifully manicured toes (assuming you are the one who took the picture). I love the color. Posts: 293 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Those are my toes. They are the only really girly part about me. Thanks!
That is the first actual garment I have ever done. The ruffle is prebought; I just attached it so it is not as cool as it looks. All I have done before is curtains for my classroom. I tried making baby clothes with a pattern once and it was a disaster. This is the first time I have used my sewing machine since then.
I am off to try the tissue sandwich now. I'll let you know how it goes.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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That tissue idea is a really good tip, quid. I wish I'd known about that when I was making a chiffon dress back in my 4H days; it would've made things a lot easier.
MandyM, I have pretty much zero applique experience, so I don't have anything helpful to add. But I agree with DaisyMae - that skirt (and your toes) look really good! Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Hey, I didn't come up with it - I stole it from someone else who brilliantly suggested it (was it kq? I don't remember - might have been). And I've used it quite a few times with great results. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yup tissue does help for chiffon or silk dresses for 4-H. Black silk is hard to see on, and unstable.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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OK I have success. The tissue wasn't working with this fabric; I think it was just too thick. I played with the tension but the stitches were still knotting up underneath no matter what setting I tried. I changed back the regular needle and used the nylon thread since the denim needle was starting to tear up the jeans (well, that at my frequent seam pulling). Finally I decided that the satin stitch wasn't that important and tried a looser zigzag stitch instead. Eureka! The stitches are a little further apart than I had hoped initially but I could move the fabric much more easily and the thread underneath is neat and even. The top still looks OK and the stitches even cover up all the holes from my previous attempts at hacking, I mean seam pulling.
Here are some pictures of the leg I am working on and some close ups of the stitching. My husband says he needs a hat but I don't have any black fabric. I'll have to think about it. I may just cut up an old sock or something. What do you think?
Thanks for all your help! I am doing the happy dance!
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Oh and the carrot nose is sewn with variated orange, red, and green thread. It looks weird in the picture but it is much cuter in person.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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For someone who claims no sewing skillz, you is doing awesome! That looks great!
Glad you got it figured out. I'm not sure about the hat - I think he looks grand as is. If you do decide for a hat, the toe of a black sock would probably do just fine. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I bought some fabric and am working on making myself a dress, but I don't have a sewing machine at school, so it might take me a while. Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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Thanks! Quid, especially coming from you (such a seasoned seamstress capable of tackling bra-making), that is quite a compliment! I am encouraged now to keep going!!
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Cute!! I actually quite like the look of the zig zag stitch. Makes him look fuzzy and cool. You're doing great!!
I disagree with your husband that he needs a hat. Stick-like arms (wandering zig zag stitch in a couple shades of brown) would be much cooler than a hat.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Aw, shucks, Mandy! Tackling a bra isn't that hard - I think it takes more confidence than actual skillz, ya know? But seriously, you're doing great. I'm looking forward to seeing your next project.
Oh, and I will post the other leg of those jeans when they are finished. I am putting Frosty in blue letters down the leg but I ran out of blue thread today. I have never seen anyone run out of thread before! Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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A little random - but I dig on my vacuum... And it's funny how you can see where people travel in the tv room of your house... : )
All that silliness aside - good job!! I'm not so domestic, aside from freak-like cleaning habits, so I'm fully impressed.
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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(And seriously, I wouldn't care even if you were an experienced uber sewer - I love it when people share stuff like this! So, please, please, continue. )
And I've run out of thread plenty of times with the small thingies. Navy, royal blue, black, and white are the most common. Now, however, I use the huge spindles of thread for sergers. Don't run out anymore. I buy those big things of thread for my most common colors. Oh, including light blue, bright yellow, and bright red. Seriously, get used a lot, just makes sense.
If you decide to go that route, though, make sure you do something to keep the tension on the thread coming off the spindle even. A cheapie method is to cut off the bottom of a 2L bottle of pop, put the thread in the bottom and thread the thread through the hole at the top, and that keeps the thread coming out okay. Does that make sense?
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yeah it does. I am already having the hold the spool with my hand when I am refilling the little bobbin spool because I lost my adapter and the last two stores I looked at were out of them. It is no big deal though. The spool I ran out of was one of the tiny ones, not even a full size spool. I jsut didn't realize I would go through it so fast! It just means I have to take a trip to the fabric store tomorrow. Oh, darn.
On that pumpkin dress, I stuffed the pumpkin with pillow stuffing to make it poof out which is why it look so puckered in the pictures. I got that little fleece dress and top at Old Navy on clearance for just $9 for both! Why do I keep trying to sew fleece. My machine doesn't like it! Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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