Basic Functions of Your Sewing Machine: Before embarking on the adventure of machine sewing, and more if you are an absolute beginner, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the operation and the different options that are included in your sewing machine.
Functions of Your Sewing Machine
1. Cable and Pedal
Nowadays, some sewing machines are electronic, while others are mechanical. This means that the user can manually choose the settings and different sewing options. This is done by means of keys, wheels, or levers, or that an electronic screen operates the sewing machine.
As far as its operation is concerned, today, modern machines are entirely electric. Functional powered by a small electric motor unless you have in your house an authentic relic of the times of our grandmothers.
Therefore, a cable with a pedal, which is connected at one end to the sewing machine and on the other to an electrical wall socket, is also supplied in the box of the best-rated sewing machine.
2. Stitch Control Wheel
This small wheel allows for regulating the style of the stitch. L more common as are the basic straight stitch or stitch zigzag, the tops of tricot, buttonhole stitch, and overcasting. Depending on the quality and complexity of the machine, there may be many other stitch options.
3. Backspace Key
The key or recoil lever serves so that the fabric we are sewing advances in reverse; that is, instead of moving the fabric forward from your point of view, it will move toward you.
The most common function of which this lever is used is to ensure the last stitches when you have finished sewing.
Thus, you will be finishing and reinforcing the stretch you just sewed by making the fabric move toward you during a couple of stitches. Forget about future fraying or unstitching at your seams.
4. Thread Tension Adjustment Key
This step is very important to avoid that the seams in the garment that we are sewing looking too tight or, on the contrary, so loose that they end up unstitching.
According to Malinda Bailey, the owner of TheSewingStuffs.com, “Depending on the type of machine, we will see a series of numbers that indicate the point of tension. We can start from 0 or neutral tension, trying on a piece of fabric that we want to sew.“
Observe if the stitch is too tight or too loose. In the first case, we will be loosening tension with the – key, and in the second, we will be adding tension to the thread by means of the + function.
5. Stitch Length Wheel
Normally, in a simple machine, there are 4 different types of stitch lengths. In some very simple machines, such as Ikea, more is needed since the same wheel regulates the length and the type of stitch.
The choice of stitch length depends on the type of fabric being sewn and its function. But above all, the particular taste of each user ! For example, the basic straight stitch is usually used with lengths 2 or 3. It maybe of interest to you to pass through our miniguide of stitches.
6. Automatic Bobbin Winding
By means of this function, we can automatically wind the thread of the color that we need to sew in the small metal coil called a bobbin. To do this, we must follow the instructions in the manual of the machine.
Normally there is a key that indicates that the sewing machine will now move in the proper position for the bobbin winding. The thread will also be threaded differently, using the axis of the coil.
7. Threading System
It seems complicated, although, in reality, it is not so complicated. All sewing machines have a very similar system of threading the upper thread (remember that when sewing, there are two threads: the upper and the coming from the bobbin).
Simply follow the instructions manual steps to ensure that you have inserted the thread in all the necessary spaces and in the appropriate way. After a few times, we will do it automatically.
8. Presser Foot
It is about this small mobile foot that is under the sewing needle. Once we have threaded the machine correctly and prepared the fabric under the needle, we must lower the presser foot so that the fabric is properly secured and the stitch is not twisted.
9. Bobbin Device
This is another system that may seem complicated at first glance, but in reality, it is not so much once we become familiar with the way it works.
As we have seen previously, we have to wind the wire in the metal bobbin through the automatic winding system that is in the upper part of the machine ( see point number 6 ).
Conclusion
Once this is done, the small metal coil will be placed in a metallic device as well. I am leaving the thread to protrude as indicated in the instruction manual. Then, you have to place the bobbin in the lower compartment, which is under the needle of the machine, making sure that the thread is in the correct position.