Basic Stitches

Here is the monologue I wrote for the most basic stitches on the sewing machine. The zigzag and the straight stitch. I intend on making a video with this as the narrative, but thought I'd let you read it too. A video will follow shortly, in the coming days.

"There are 2 basic stitches in machine sewing. They are all you really need to make anything. There's the straight stitch and the zigzag stitch. These stitches will be on any sewing machine since the 1870's. In the newer machines, there are fancier stitches, some have more some have less. The basic sewing machines being made today could have from 7 basic stitches to over 20 elaborate ones.

The machine I am working on has 26 stitches on it. I am only demonstrating the basic stitches today; the zigzag, and the straight stitch.

In order to start sewing the straight stitch, you need to make sure that your machine is set to sew the straight stitch, and we can do this by simply turning a wheel. Sometimes this wheel is on the front of the machine, mine just happens to be on the side.

There's usually an indication telling you which stitch the machine is set on, whether it be an arrow on the wheel, or on the machine pointing to a diagram, or like on my machine, there's a red dot which slides to tell me which stitch I am about to sew.

Once you've set your machine for the straight stitch, you need to set your tension based on the fabric, thread, and needle you are using. All of these things are important. I suggest using a constrasting color for your bobbin in the beginning.

Basically, here, if you see your bobbin thread peeking up on the top side of the fabric, the tension is too tight. If your spool thread is showing up on the underside, the tension is too loose. The lower the number, the less tension (pressure) there is, and the higher the number, the more tension there is. There are other reasons for poor tension, such as the wrong needle, the machine's timing is off, or the thread is poor quality or too thick/thin for the fabric or needle."