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Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s topic: Machine Stitches.

Caroline: Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I’m great. How are you?

Caroline: I’m good. Excited to talk about machine stitches. Very excited.

Helen: Me, too. The opposite.

Caroline: Very exciting topic.

Helen: It’s the opposite of hand sewing. It’s machine sewing. Yay.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It may not seem like an exciting topic, but there is a lot of meat here. Let me tell you.

Caroline: There really is actually.

Helen: There’s so many stitches.

Caroline: There are so many stitches, and I feel like this is a very beginner-friendly episode because if you’re just getting into sewing and you’re looking at your machine, you might be like, what the heck do all of these little symbols mean?

Helen: Yeah. And when am I supposed to use them?

Caroline: Yeah. And we’re gonna get into it today. We’re gonna talk about it.

Helen: Yes, but we have some feedback first that we got after our History of Sewing Patterns episode about various sewing social medias. Jill wrote, “I wanted to mention a webpage that is a social group of sewists that may be of interest. It’s called Stitcher’s Guild. I’ve been on it for many years, and they have so many experienced sewists there.”

Caroline: Awesome. Thank you for recommending this, Jill. Stitcher’s Guild is a discussion board or forum that is made just for sewists.

Helen: Yes!

Caroline: And Molly wrote in and said, “Helen was saying how she wishes there was a sewing specific social platform for people to share their makes, without all the drawbacks of Instagram life. It’s not sewing specific but I recommend checking out the Making App. It’s an extension of the glorious Making Magazines that are full of beautiful projects of all varieties; sewing, knitting, crochet, natural dyeing, embroidery etc. The Making App is a place for people to share what they’re working on – it’s beautiful and inspiring, without all the noise of ads and perfectly curated feeds and exhausting pressures that Instagram perpetuates. Also, Making has a podcast called Making Conversation which is my second favourite podcast on creative work and play, after yours of course! It’s thoughtful and inspiring, and the guests all have interesting stories.”

I have not heard of this podcast, and I’m really excited to listen.

Helen: Oh really? Yeah, it’s a great, it’s a great podcast, and I’m, like, a big fan of the magazines, although I’m pretty sure they’re discontinuing the print magazine, they just put out, like, their last issue. Yeah. But they’re moving all of that, like, creative energy into this app, and it sounds so cool. It actually just sounds like exactly what I’m looking for. So thank you so much for recommending it, Molly, and thank you for listening to our podcast. We’re so glad you enjoy it.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Jan recommended Pattern Review, which has been around for years – she said she couldn’t believe we missed it. And I’m ashamed to say I can’t believe we missed it, too. I think we skipped over it because we were thinking more of, like, an image-based platform with a feed, rather than message boards and forums. However, we shouldn’t sleep on message boards – they’re still around ‘cause they’re full of great information and people do love them! So go check out Pattern Review. The sewing subreddit is super active as well if you’re looking for a place to have sewing conversations.

Caroline: And then Patti wrote in and said, “I just listened to today’s episode and you mentioned a place other than Instagram to share makes. Knitters and crocheters have Ravelry. When I started sewing this past year or so, I went looking for the sewer’s version of Ravelry and was surprised to find it didn’t exist! Something like this would be the perfect solution for sharing makes, and Ravelry allows knitters to create a library of patterns they own, keep an inventory of yarn owned or used, keep track of needles, and track projects. This is exactly what sewists need.”

Thank you, Patti. I mean, it would be so amazing to have all those functions on a single website or app. I mean, you could catalogue your fabric stash and patterns and review them, share your makes, ask questions, have discussions, make notes about your makes, help other sewists. I mean, the possibilities are endless. I am a Ravelry user, and I absolutely love it. We will cross our fingers that some enterprising person will make this happen in the future, and I do believe it has been attempted. There are definitely online communities like this. There’s Textilia comes to mind. I think The Fold Line was, kind of, going in this direction for a time. I’m not sure if they are still, um, hosting people’s makes in that way, but there’s definitely been communities that have popped up over the years, and it would be so cool to see one really take hold the way that Ravelry has. Um, and will it? I don’t know. This is the future of sewing. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s, kind of, exciting to wait and see what happens.

Helen: Yeah. Shem wrote, “Your good friend Saremy of Sew Sew Live launched Sew Sew Guild on Mighty Networks about a year ago. It is an amazing place for sewists. It’s a tiered platform so to join and interact with the community it’s FREE! However, Saremy also offers two tiers of paid subscription where you can get a monthly themed tutorial (Everything you wanted to know about fitting sleeves? Sewing buttons? Sewing pockets? Fitting pants and SO MUCH MORE!) each month she offers videos and written content to teach what she calls a Skill Building Session. And best of all? There are even Zoom Workshops! Sewists from all over the world come together, hang out in their sewing rooms or wherever, sew, talk, and get help! Stuck on a tricky collar? Sarmey and the rest of the sewists are on hand to see if they can get you unstuck! The community is so supportive, encouraging, and diverse! Go check it out!”

Caroline: Yes! This sounds like a great place to be on the internet. Thank you so much for the recommendation, Shem. Okay. That’s all of our feedback for today. I think it’s time to get onto today’s topic.

Helen: Yes! Okay. First of all, let’s explain what we mean by machine stitches. We’re going to explain the stitch options that come on regular sewing machines – how they work, when to use them, and general tips for getting great results no matter which stitch you choose.

Caroline: And we’re not covering serger or coverstitch machine stitches today. There’s so much to cover with all the regular machine stitches available, so we’re not going there.

Helen: And if you have a straight stitch-only machine, it probably only does straight stitch. And I’m sorry.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But it probably does it really well, so that’s good, too. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, machine stitches are different from hand stitches. The very first sewing machines invented, they actually tried to replicate hand stitches by inventing a mechanism that would put the needle down through the fabric and then back up again. The needle had an eye at the blunt end, just like a hand sewing needle does, and the machine used a single thread. These machines did not work super well. Uh, they were inefficient. I’m having a hard time even visualising how you get a needle down and back up again. So it’s not surprising that we moved on from there.

Caroline: Yeah, seriously. And several breakthroughs were made in sewing machine design leading up to the style of machines we have today. It was patented by Massachusetts mechanic and tinkerer Elias Howe in 1846. It used a top thread, a bobbin thread, and a needle with an eye at the sharp end to make a lock stitch.

Helen: And a regular sewing machine stitches are all lock stitches. This is how it works. The needle puts the top thread through the fabric. Then, the bobbin hook hooks onto the top thread, makes a loop, and loops it around the bobbin thread. Then, the top thread is pulled back up through the fabric. So on each side of the fabric, there’s a stitch of the same length. At the end of each stitch, the top thread has looped around the bobbin thread to lock it in.

There’s a great video on the Threads Magazine website that has an animation of how this works. It’s, kind of, hard to visualise, but it’s really cool. And it’s even cooler when you think about how fast that’s happening. Like, when you really are going fast on your sewing machine, that bobbin is spinning around and around and around under there. And it’s just amazing that it can make all those stitches so quickly.

Caroline: Yeah. It’s, kind of, funny ‘cause we’ve done a whole episode on sewing machines. We’ve definitely talked about this type of thing before, but I don’t often think about the real mechanics of how our sewing machines work and what has to happen underneath that plate…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …to make the stitches actual stitches.

Helen: There’s just little gnomes down there.

Caroline: Like, if I needed to explain it to someone, I would not be able to. It’s just magic.

Helen: It’s just magic. Yeah. Whatever happens down there, I mean, it’s great.

Caroline: We don’t need to know. We don’t need to know. Okay. Before we get into all the different stitches, we’re gonna share some general tips to get the best results on your machine. So our first tip is that it’s a good idea to test on a scrap first. You don’t have to do this every single time.

For example, if you sew with a lot of cotton lawns, you probably don’t need to test every single time. But if you’re making one project in a wool melton, and then your next project in a rayon challis, you’ll wanna test on a scrap to make sure you have your tension and stitch length right.

Helen, do you do this?

Helen: Why are you asking me? I mean, I don’t, I, I, I often regret it though because I’ll start on, you know, you start on, like, folding the top of the pocket over or something. You’re doing, like, a little, like, just getting going or, like, stay stitching an armscye and, like, the tension’s all wackadoo, and you’re like, oh, I should have tested it first.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But I often just jump right in, and I have to get out my, my seam ripper sometimes, but that’s life. How about you?

Caroline: Yeah, I get that. I usually do. I do like to test my machine and my serger on a scrap of fabric. I’ll, like, double up a piece of fabric that’s, like, in my scrap bin from the project and then test it out just to make sure the colour looks good and all my stitches look good. And, yeah, I’m in the same boat. When I don’t do that, I usually regret it. So it’s worth the two seconds that it takes to test it out.

Helen: Yeah, and that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. So, good for you.

Caroline: Thank you.

Helen: Our second tip is to pay close attention to the tension. A line of stitches with perfect tension will look like an even line without any little loops or bumps pulled to either the top or the bottom of the fabric. If the tension is off, you will have too tight or too loose stitches with either puckering or thread loops in between the stitches. There are several things that can throw off the tension, so here are a few things to try if your tension doesn’t look quite right.

Caroline: So you wanna change your needle. A blunt needle, the wrong size needle, or the wrong type of needle can mess up your stitches. It’s recommended to change your needle after eight to 10 hours of sewing. That’s probably a medium length sewing project. And use a size 70 or 80 needle for medium weight fabrics, a size 90 for heavy weight, and a size 60 for lightweight fabrics. If you’re sewing wovens, use a regular point needle; if you’re sewing knits, use a ballpoint or stretch needle. For delicate fabrics, choose a microtex needle. And once you have the right needle for your project, try sewing again and see if this should just come out better.

Helen: And that sounds like a lot of needles, but trust me, as you get more competent with your sewing, and you’re just gonna have these on hand, and you’re gonna know exactly which one you’re gonna put in your machine.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Another thing you can do is re-thread your machine. Let me tell you, re-threading has fixed the problem so many times. Like, it’s often just that it didn’t quite thread properly, or things have slipped out of place, or it’s caught on something. Um, it’s always the first thing I try when things look wonky. And I rethread the top and the bobbin. So make sure your top thread is hooking on whatever it needs to hook on, and then, just take your bobbin out and put it back in again and make sure that it’s all sitting properly.

Caroline: And sometimes your bobbin gets threaded or even, like, inserted into your machine in a weird way, and it throws the tension off, so you can try undoing it and rewinding it. So, literally, undoing the whole bobbin and rewinding it. Or just maybe grabbing an empty bobbin and starting over. And again, make sure you’re putting the thread through the tension discs correctly so that it winds right when you’re winding that. And you might also just need to take out your bobbin and put it back in. This is an easier fix than totally rewinding. I would usually try this first before rewinding a whole bobbin ‘cause that’s, kind of, annoying.

Helen: Or just grab another bobbin full of thread and try that, and then you can see, okay, it’s not the bobbin…

Caroline: True.

Helen: …it’s something else.

Caroline: That’s a good point.

Helen: Yeah, of course, you can also adjust your machine tension. Most tension problems can be solved by adjusting the top thread tension. If there are loops on the top of the fabric, you’re gonna turn that tension dial down, and if there are loops underneath, you’re gonna turn that tension dial up.

Caroline: And bobbin tension is a little bit more complicated to play around with. Some people say to never try to adjust the bobbin tension, but we think that you’ll probably be okay. You can only adjust the bobbin tension if you have a removable bobbin case. So to test out your tension, thread your bobbin into your bobbin case. Hold onto the thread and drop the bobbin.

If it drops a couple of inches and then stops, the bobbin tension is just right. If it barely drops at all, the tension is probably too tight. And if it drops more than a couple of inches, it’s too loose. Just make sure that you do this over a soft surface or maybe a towel on the ground, so that the bobbin case doesn’t get damaged if you drop it.

And if you need to adjust the bobbin tension, you can get a screwdriver and turn the screw on the bobbin case, only a quarter turn at a time. Think of it as a clock that you’re turning only 15 minutes at a time. A tiny adjustment can make a really big difference.

Helen: Yes, and, you know, most machine maintenance professionals will tell you not to do this. So if there’s any listening, I wanna put this huge caveat on here that this can mess with your machine. So if you are having a lot of machine issues, it might be time for servicing rather than time to break out that screwdriver. Um, but if you have a vintage machine and you have messed with it before or you’re comfortable messing with it, then I think it can be, kind of, cool to be able to take things into your own hands. If you have a brand new computerised machine, maybe not a great idea to go messing around.

Caroline: I feel like I remember on a really early episode of Love To Sew, we had, like, a little bit of a standoff where I was like, never touch your bobbin tension. And you were like, I do it all the time! And now I’ve come around, and you’re like, actually, maybe don’t.

Helen: The thing is I was sewing on, like, a ‘66 metal Kenmore, right?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So, like, I was changing all those dials all the time.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: They’re all, like, there on the front of the machine. Now I have this fancy new Pfaff machine, and I’m, like, scared to mess with it, and it does such great auto tension, too. So I don’t usually have tension issues. So, yeah, I mean, I think it’s up to the individual.

Caroline: Yeah. No, so, so true.

Helen: Another tip we have to get nice machine stitches is to use the right foot for the job, not the right human foot, the right machine foot. Your universal foot is gonna work for many stitches. It’s also called a zigzag foot because it has a wider opening for the needle to go through. A zipper foot, on the other hand, can get you right up to the edge. It’s great for zippers, of course, but you can also use it for piping or just for hard to reach areas where you need to get in against something. Zipper feet can come in handy for things other than zippers.

Caroline: Definitely.

Helen: And there’s also invisible zipper feet, which are nice for getting super duper close to the teeth on those invisible zippers, so you can’t see any of that zipper from the outside.

Caroline: A straight stitch foot has a much narrower opening so that the needle can pretty much only go one place. This foot also helps prevent lightweight fabric from getting sucked into the machine, which we’re gonna talk a little bit more about later.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: An edge stitch foot is our favourite for top stitching and understitching. It has a guard so you can get your stitches the perfect distance away from the seam.

Helen: If you’re doing free motion embroidery, an open toe embroidery foot is a good choice. It lets you see what you’re doing.

Caroline: And a nonstick or Teflon foot is good for helping the foot glide over sticky fabrics like vinyl, leather, and suede. You can also dupe this foot by putting scotch tape under a regular foot. The only thing is it can be hard to get the tape off. Acetone will help remove any residue from the tape in this case.

Helen: A walking foot, also called an even feed foot, adds a set of feed dogs on the top of the fabric so that both the layers feed through the machine evenly. This is great for shifty, slinky fabrics or projects with multiple layers like quilts. We’ve heard from some sewists who just leave this foot on their machine for every project because they love how it works.

Carolina: Yeah, I recently got a walking foot for my trusty Bernina, and boy, boy, oh, boy, does it make a difference.

Helen: Pretty great, huh?

Caroline: Worth the investment. But there are so many different machine feet. You don’t necessarily need to collect them all. But if you try out stitching on some scraps and you’re finding some issues that could be solved by a specific foot, go ahead and try it out.

Helen: Yeah. Another tip we have is to backstitch at the start and end of your seams. It locks the stitches the same way a knot does in hand sewing, and it keeps the seams from coming unravelled as you handle the garment, test for fit, get to that point where your sewing seams together. Do you always have to backstitch? No, not technically. But if you make it a habit, it, kind of, becomes muscle memory, and you just always do it. So I think if you’re starting out, just backstitch all the time, and eventually, you’ll just backstitch all the time.

Caroline: Yeah, it really does become, like, second nature, just used to pressing that button. An alternative is to tie a knot at the beginning and end of your seams. To do this, you pull on the top thread to pull up a loop of the bobbin thread. Hook that loop with your finger or a pin, and pull the bobbin thread through to the top, then, knot the threads together. At the end, you could also sew off the end of the fabric, trim the threads to be about six inches long, and knot them together.

I usually do this at the pointy end of a dart instead of backstitching. Another alternative is to just, like, reduce your stitch length to almost nothing at the end of a dart, or even at the end of a seam, if you don’t wanna backstitch or knot your threads. And some machines have a button that you can press to lock your stitches, so you can press it when you start and when you wanna end a seam. And it basically just stitches in place a few times, which I think is also a decent alternative to backstitching.

Helen: Yes, definitely. Let’s talk about those issues with machine stitching that you get at the start of a seam. I hate these problems. On my old machine that I was talking about earlier, that Kenmore, it used to eat fabric and thread like crazy. I had to be diligent with these tips that we’re about to give you. So if this is something you struggle with, these are for you.

First thing is thread nests. These are so annoying. It’s when your thread makes that loopy, knotty mess of the thread at the start of your seam. So you can hold your thread tails and gently, gently pull on them as you start your seam so that they don’t get sucked down into that bobbin area and get all knotted up. Again, this is something that will feel annoying at first, but it will become muscle memory over time. You’ll just naturally reach for those thread tails, and you won’t even have to think about it.

Caroline: Yeah. Another way thread nests can happen is if the machine needs to be rethreaded. So do the top thread and the bobbin thread ,and try again.

Helen: Thread nests can also be caused by tension issues, so you can adjust your tension, test on some scraps, and then, try again.

Caroline: Yeah. I remember when I bought, um, my Bernina machine, one of the selling points was they were like, no thread nests. Like, you’ll never get thread nests on the, that machine, which is like…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Such B.S. Like, it’s not possible. Every machine gets thread nests, and you just need to get used to holding onto your threads when you start sewing, and you’ll avoid so many headaches.

Helen: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I feel like I’ve lost this muscle memory a bit ‘cause my Pfaff has way less thread nests. And I’ve also started starting a little bit further in on your fabric, which is our next tip.

Another issue that can happen at the beginning of the seam is that your machine sucks your fabric down into it. And this can really happen a lot with stretchy or lightweight fabrics. And sometimes it gets so jammed in there that you have to lift up the foot and, like, yard it out, which you’re probably not supposed to do, but let’s be real. You’re like, I’m not stopping tonight, so you just yank it out of there, and you can try again.

But one way to solve this is to start just a little further in on your fabric instead of right at the edge. As long as you’re within the seam allowance, you’re gonna be fine. And you can backstitch close to the edge and then sew forward again. So it’s, kind of, starting ahead, going back, and then, going forward. And that solves a lot of those problems.

Caroline: Yeah, and you can also use a leader, so this is a scrap of fabric that you butt up to the edge of the fabric that you’ll actually be sewing. If you’ll be trimming the seam, you can even overlap the leader a little bit. You start sewing in the middle of the leader, and then, sew smoothly onto your actual project. And after you’re done, just trim away the leader.

You can use a tightly woven fabric like quilting cotton for your leaders, or you can use an ender to end the seam the same way. One thing about this one, though, is, like, if you’re cutting off the leader, and then, you don’t have that backstitch anymore at the beginning of your seam. So you might wanna, like, use your leader, get to the beginning of your actual fabric, do a little backstitch, and then keep sewing so that you’re not having your seams unravel.

Helen: Yeah, that’s true. You could totally do that. We just said this, but it’s a good tip, so we’ll say it again: gently pull on your threads as your machine starts to sew. This just helps to keep that fabric moving right along.

Caroline: And you can use a straight stitch plate or a straight stitch foot. These have a smaller opening, so it’s much harder for the fabric to get pulled down into the machine. Just know that you can only use this with a straight stitch. You’re gonna break your needle otherwise. I’ve definitely been there where I’ve had the wrong foot on my machine, and I start to zigzag, and it’s like, woo! Dodged a flying needle.

Helen: Yeah, it happens so fast. It’s so loud. Caroline, you and I have the same machine now, the Pfaff…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …710, right? Great machine. If anyone’s looking to upgrade, and it does this cute thing when you break a needle or something where it’s like, the machine needs to rest. Stop sewing. And everything, kind of, goes, like, dark on the screen, and it just makes you sit there and, like, think about what you did

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. It’s, like, you’re in a timeout now.

Helen: I love it. Um, you can starch your fabric so it’s not so slinky. This will also help with it getting sucked into the machine. You can buy or make your own spray starch. Uh, you can also soak your fabric in it. Test starch on a scrap before doing anything to your yardage, just in case.

Caroline: Yeah, and you can also put a small piece of tissue or paper under where you’re starting to sew. This can just be ripped off afterwards, but it’s gonna act as a barrier so that your lightweight fabric or knit fabric doesn’t get sucked through into your machine.

Helen: Smart. Okay. If we could distill all our advice for sewists who are new to sewing on a machine, it would be this: it takes time and practice to get used to your machine pedal speed. You will master it. This is also adjustable on many new machines, which is awesome. So check out your manual to find out how. It’s usually through a dial or a slider on your machine, but it could also be on the pedal itself.

Caroline: Tension issues are normal and happen to everybody. I definitely remember having more big tension issues in the beginning, but even now, it happens from time to time. Just take a breath, rethread your machine, test out, and adjust your tension on your scraps. What seems like a big issue now is gonna be much easier to fix as you become more experienced.

Helen: And finally, you need to use the right needle and thread for your project. We’ve mentioned some advice about that in this episode, but we have an episode all about pins and needles and another all about thread if you wanna do a deep dive. Just keep in mind the fabric you’re using needs to have the right needle associated with it. And, like I said, you are going to get used to what is for what, and it’s going to become all very clear.

Caroline: And here’s a tidbit of advice even for experienced sewists. Got a new machine? Take some scraps and try out the available stitches. You’re allowed. It’s a practical way to get to know your machine. It’s also super fun to see what it’s capable of. You can also make a stitch library for future reference. Sew a line of each stitch across a big scrap of fabric, and write the number of the stitch next to each one. Then, when you’re interested in using a pretty decorative stitch, you can look through your stitch library and see how it looks all stitched out. It often looks a bit different than it does in your machine’s illustration of it, so this is a really fun thing to try out when you have a new machine.

Helen: Yeah, try out all those cute, little elephant stitches and snowflakes and lattices.

Caroline: And little hearts. Yeah.

Helen: I mean, some machines have, like, 500, so maybe not all of them, but…

Caroline: I don’t know. That sounds like a fun Friday night to me.

Helen: Oh, I love it. Okay, we’re ready to talk about specific machine stitches. Of course, the most basic stitch, but not basic in, like, a basic way, is the straight stitch. It’s the workhorse for wovens and the main stitch you’re gonna be using when you sew.

Caroline: Yeah, stitch length is gonna be your main variation on a straight stitch. A standard stitch length is usually around two and a half millimetres. You can go a little bit longer for heavyweight fabrics, maybe about three millimetres. And for lightweight fabrics, you can go a little bit shorter, like two or 2.5 millimetres. And it’s a good idea to do a slightly shorter stitch length for going around curves so you have a really smooth result and a little bit more control, and it’s stronger if you need to clip into that seam allowance.

Helen: So true. For darts, you can also reduce that stitch length at the end, near the point, like Caroline had mentioned earlier, to secure those stitches really well and reduce any bubbling. For example, if you’re starting with a 2.5 millimetre stitch, slowly reduce until your stitch length is 1.5 millimetres in the last couple of centimetres or so, and sew slowly here, of course.

Caroline: And use a long stitch length for basting stitches and gathering stitches. For gathers, a shorter stitch is gonna make finer gathers. However, the shorter the stitch is, the more likely your thread is to snap. So be careful and split your gathering into sections if you go on the shorter end. Gathering and basting stitches should be anywhere between four and six millimetres.

Helen: On many machines, you can also move the needle to the right or the left to do your straight stitching. This is sometimes listed as a separate stitch, and sometimes it’s just a dial that you can change. It’s good for getting right up there to the edge or just, like, changing the seam allowance gauge if you prefer to, like, always work from a certain line on your machine. You can customise that based on where your needle is. Although, it might get a little confusing based on what the markings say, so you just have to keep that in mind. But if you’re using, like, tape or something to always be your marker, then you can move your needle instead.

Caroline: Yeah, I’ve definitely been there where I’ve had my needle position, let’s say, really far to the right, and then I start sewing a seam using my guides on my machine, like, oh, yeah, I’m sewing at five-eighths, and then, all of a sudden, I’m like, this doesn’t look like five-eighths. What am I doing wrong here? So pay attention to that. When you change it, you always wanna change it back.

And straight stitches can look slightly angled on many machines. This is because of how the top thread twists to loop around the bobbin thread. A straight stitch plate and/or a foot can help make them look less angled. If it’s important to you to have a very straight straight stitch, you can also try out machines in person when you’re shopping for one. Also, if you’re cool with having more than one machine, machines that do straight stitches only, generally, have neater straight stitches than machines that also do zigzag stitches.

Helen: Yeah. This is a real thing that I never fully understood when I was getting into sewing is, like, people would be like, oh, this machine, it does a beautiful straight stitch, just beautiful. I’m like, aren’t they, like, is that not what they all do? I don’t understand. They’re not all created equal.

Caroline: You’re like, chef’s kiss. Amazing straight stitch.

Helen: What a gorgeous straight stitch. I just love it. I mean, it’s, like, imperceptibly different, like…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …to the average user, but you know, we’re sewists. We see these things. Okay. speaking of the zigzag stitch, zigzag stitches are also a major workhorse. You can use them to sew seams on knits, finish seams, do machine appliqué, even make your own buttonholes and bar tacks.

Caroline: Zigzag stitches can be adjusted by width and length. Width refers to how far to the right and left the zigs and zags will go, and length refers to how far down the fabric each stitch is gonna go. So a wide width, short length zigzag stitch will look like an embroidery satin stitch. And a narrow with long length zigzag will look like a wavy straight straight stitch.

Helen: A zigzag stitch is great for sewing knits without a serger. It stretches with the fabric, whereas a straight stitch would snap if you tried to stretch it. Tilly and the Buttons recommends a 1.5 millimetre wide by 2.2 millimetre long zigzag stitch for joining seams and a 2.5 millimetre wide, 2.5 millimetre length for top stitching.

Of course, this is up to you, personal preference, and your particular fabric might need slightly different dimensions depending on its weight and fibre and stretch percentage. So test out a few lines of stitches on some scraps first. Adjust the tension the same way you would if you were testing out a straight stitch and look out for puckering or loops and adjust the top thread tension and just keep trying until you find something that stretches enough for your fabric and you think looks good.

Caroline: Mhm. And you can finish woven seams by zigzagging over the edge or very close to the edge of the seam allowance. And you can use zigzag stitch for machine appliqué as well. Use a narrow length zigzag to make a satin-like stitch over the raw edge of an appliqué piece.

Jane from Projects by Jane has a clear tutorial and some advice for doing this. She suggests using an open toe foot so you can see what you’re doing. And she uses a zigzag with a stitch width of three millimetres and a stitch length of 0.4 or half a millimetre, and she shows where to have the needle when you’re pivoting on an inside curve, an outside curve, and a point. It looks really great.

This would be so cool for patches on a chore coat. I’m sorry, every time I hear open toe foot, I think about, like, sandals.

Helen: Yeah, I know. And then you think the combination of open-toed shoes and, like, needle stitching it…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …like, gives me, like, yeah. Skin crawl.

Caroline: I know. Yeah.

Helen: Same. You can also use the zigzag to make your own bar tacks and buttonholes. A bar tack is really simple. It’s just a regular width, low length zigzag stitch that you sew for half an inch or so. You can pass over it two, three, or four times to make a really strong and thick bar tack.

Alina from Alina Design Co. recommends a stitch width of between two and three millimetres and a stitch length of between zero three and 0.5, basically, as low down as you can get typically. Um, we’ll link her tutorial as well as other resources we’ve mentioned in our show notes on our website.

Buttonholes are a little more complicated. You really have to try out the settings on scraps until you figure out the right ones. It’s, kind of, hard to explain on audio medium, but basically you’ll measure your button, draw on little legs, so it looks like the buttonhole marks on patterns, and then you mess around with your settings to create the top, bottom bar tacks, and the sides of the buttonhole.

And don’t stress too much if it doesn’t look perfect or you overshoot it a little bit and you’ve got some zigzag coming out one end, that’s not coming out the other. If it’s a matching thread, and ‘specially, like, no one is going to notice. Megan Nielsen has a great tutorial for how to do this, so we’ll link that up.

Caroline: I’ve done this out of sheer desperation because when you’re doing buttonholes, it’s, like, the end of your project, right? So I’ll be at the end and I’m like, I wanna wear this tomorrow. My buttonhole attachment is lost, or my machine is messing up, and it’s not working. I’m just gonna do it manually, and it does work, and it might look really messy, but honestly, there’s gonna be a button on top of it, so you’re not gonna notice. Just remember that.

Helen: I’ve definitely done this, too, because buttonhole attachments are finicky…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …and they don’t always cooperate. And if this is your experience, you are not alone. Like, even high-end machines, they just don’t always work. It can get really annoying. So I’ve definitely done this as well, and it works really well. It just takes a little bit more time.

And one more thing I wanted to mention about zigzag stitch and knits is I have had people ask me about the laddering that happens. So when you sew a t-shirt or something with a zigzag, then from the outside and you pull open that seam, you get like a little bit of a stitch ladder that happens because there is give in those stitches. So the fabric pulls apart, and you can see the stitches inside the seam, especially if you’re using a wider zigzag.

The narrower the zigzag, the less of a ladder. The wider, the more of a ladder. So that’s something to keep in mind. You wanna go as narrow as possible while still having enough stretch for your fabric, and you can change that stretch based on whether you’re doing a horizontal seam that needs a lot of stretch or a vertical seam that needs a little bit of stretch. And unfortunately, that little ladder is just a part of the home sewing game, so you’re just gonna have to embrace it.

Caroline: It’s so true, and we’ll talk about some alternatives for other stretch stitches that you can try out on your machine. I feel like some machines do these better than others, so you might find there’s a different stitch that you prefer for sewing your seams that might not have as much laddering, but it’s so true.

It’s, like, you’ll never get that perfect ready to wear look when you’re sewing seams on a home sewing machine on a knit fabric. Like, it’s pretty hard to do. But you, kind of, just have to accept that and really realise that you’re probably the only person that’s ever gonna notice.

Helen: Oh, no one’s gonna notice. And just make sure you have a good matching thread.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay, so those are your two basic stitches: zigzag and straight stitch. And with these two you can sew almost anything. But with that said, there are a bunch of special stitches that can definitely come in handy. We can’t name them all, but we’re gonna go through some of the main ones.

Helen: First up is the Multi-Stitch Zigzag. It’s also called a lingerie stitch or a three step zigzag or a triple zigzag. It’s like a zigzag, except it’s made of three small straight stitches for each zig and zag. So the small stitches make it a strong way to attach elastic to swimwear or lingerie. You can also use it to make bar tacks or mend rips. This is a great little stitch, um, and I definitely have used this, especially in bra making.

Caroline: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It really does stretch a lot, so it’s a really nice alternative or a nice, not alternative, just a go-to stitch for sewing lingerie.

The Straight Stretch Stitch is represented by three parallel lines of stitches. It looks like a thick line of straight stitches, but it actually stretches with the fabric. It’s a very strong stitch. Each stitch has gone over three times, and you can also use it for embroidery since it makes such a bold stitch line.

Helen: Yeah, this is a really cool one that, again, I didn’t know what it was for the longest time on my machine, and then, I finally tried it and I was like, oh, it stretches. Unexpected stretch, that’s cool.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah.

Helen: A Blind Hem Stitch is usually represented by a few small straight stitches with big V’s in between them. And for this one, you also need a blind hem foot. It’s a bit of a learning curve, but it looks really nice because only a few tiny stitches show up on the outside of your hem.

You can also use this stitch without the blind hem foot to do appliqué. You use a thread colour that matches the background fabric, and then you sew a line right next to the appliqué. There will be tiny stitches that cross over to attach the appliqué to the background, and you can do the same technique to attach cords or trims.

This is one where watching a little video is gonna really make sure that you understand how it works, but super comes in handy if you want to have neat hems where you’re not seeing a stitch line around the exterior.

Caroline: And there’s also the Stretch Blind Hem Stitch. This one looks like the blind hem stitch, except instead of straight stitches in between the V stitches, there are little zigzag stitches. You can use a blind hem foot to hem stretch fabrics with it. Also, this one would make a super cute decorative embroidery stitch. It looks like little mountain shapes.

Helen: Oh, it’s true. Multipurpose. The Stretch Tricot Stitch, also called the Lightning Bolt Stitch, is a slanted zigzag stitch. And I’m talking excitedly because I love the stitch so much. It’s good for light- to medium-weight stretch fabrics, and it has a narrower profile than a regular zig stitch so you don’t get that laddering that I was talking about in your seams. It has a surprising amount of stretch, like…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: …most projects, you’re pretty much good to use as a lightning bolt stitch.

Caroline: Yeah. And some of these stitches, like the lightning bolt and the straight stretch stitch, the one that goes over three times, it’s slow, and you’ll notice that if you’re trying to sew a lot of seams…

Helen: Oh, true.

Caroline: …‘cause it just takes so much longer. If you’re used to just, like, flashing through your sewing, you’re gonna notice like, oh, my gosh, I’m waiting here while it’s sewing, like, one inch. You might be questioning your choices.

Helen: It’s so true. Especially when you’re trying to, like, bang out a t-shirt or a pair leggings. You’re like, why? Go faster!

Caroline: An Overlock Stitch looks like a zigzag stitch with one line of stitches on the inner edge. There’s also the Double Overlock Stitch, which looks like a zigzag stitch with straight stitches on both sides. This stitch was designed to mimic an overlock stitch. You can use it to sew stretch fabrics or as an all-in-one seam joining and finishing stitch. This is another one that takes forever, but it is really cool. If you don’t have an overlocker, it’s a great alternative.

Helen: Yeah, definitely. Most regular sew machines come with a buttonhole stitch and a buttonhole function. These can come in one step or multiple steps, so sometimes it does the whole buttonhole, goes all the way around. And sometimes you have to actually program it and, like, tell it to go up, and then, tell it to go over, and then, tell it to go back. But you can check your manual to find out how to attach a buttonhole foot and how to use your buttonhole stitch.

Generally, you put your button in the back part of the foot to adjust the opening to be the right size, which is super cool. And then you clip your buttonhole foot on and pull down the stop bar, which is a vertical metal bar near where the foot comes out of the machine. If it’s a one step, you can just start stitching. If it needs multiple steps, you’ll do one step and then switch the stitch to the next stitch step, et cetera, et cetera.

We always recommend practising on a scrap for your first, or first few buttonholes, if your first one doesn’t turn out. You can make sure that the size is correct for your button this way. You can also adjust any tension issues. And use the same amount of layers and interfacing that you’ll be using on your finished project here, so you’re really replicating what’s gonna happen.

Sewing buttonholes, as we said, can be annoying. It doesn’t always work out. Sometimes your machine goes off the rails, it’s supposed to turn around and it doesn’t for whatever reason.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But, you know, most of the time it works out. So it’s super handy and amazing when it does, and then it’s just so frustrating when it doesn’t. But this is normal and you can unpick buttonholes. It seems like a lot of thread on your project and, like, if on a delicate fabric, this can be pretty devastating, but you can get out your unpicker, and you can carefully unpick those buttonholes, so it’s not the end of the world.

Caroline: I feel like we need to have, like, a moment of silence and a deep cleansing breath for, like, all of the ruined buttonholes and all of the unpicked buttonholes in our sewing journey.

Helen: Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s have a deep breath.

Caroline: Let it go.

Helen: Let it go. Just let it go.

Caroline: Okay. That felt good. Alright, the Button Sewing Stitch is for sewing on buttons. This was life changing when I discovered it. You’ll need a button sewing foot to use it. After you have the foot on and the button in place, you need to test out the stitch width. Unthread the needle and test out the width by slowly using the hand wheel and adjust the width until the needle is clearing the holes of the button, and then, you just sew it on.

You can also use a zigzag stitch with the length set to zero instead of a button sewing stitch. You can also use a piece of tape to hold your button in place before you, kind of, try sewing it ‘cause sometimes that can move around on your project. You can also use a regular foot. I’ve done that before, if you don’t have the special button foot. It’s just, kind of, harder to see your holes that way.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Singer has a good video demonstrating how to do this. But if you have only ever been hand sewing on your buttons and you’re an impatient person like me, this will be life changing for you.

Helen: It is pretty cool. I’ve used this feature a few times, but I am a hand sewing on buttons kind of person. I just love sitting in front of my TV and sewing on the buttons. It’s great.

Caroline: Can’t relate. Can’t relate.

Helen: There’s also Bar Tack Stitches. This is a great way to get a neat and strong bar tack. Sometimes, it’s a really satiny zigzag, and sometimes, it’s a combination of straight stitches and satiny zigzags. And some machines don’t have bar tack functions. So have a look and see if yours does and give it a try. I find with, like, really thick fabrics like denim, which we’ve been sewing a lot of here at Helen’s Closet lately, often when I get to those points where I’m sewing bar tacks on a lot of layers, the bar tack function does not work for me as well as just the zigzag function where you have a little bit more control, and you can, kind of, like, move the fabric where you want it to be versus the bar tack, which just is usually a setting that you, kind of, like, press play, and it goes.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Um, and you don’t have a lot of control, so keep that in mind. And if you’re using a vintage machine, you can turn off your feed dogs and set your machine to zigzag to get that really satiny stitch and satin stitches, like, really close together so that it looks, like, super, super smooth. They often also have the tension dialled down on the bobbin or loosened on the top so that the stitches go more to the wrong side of the fabric to create, again, that super smooth appearance. That’s what I used to do on my old Kenmore, was just switch off the feed dogs and use my zigzag stitch to get those really cute bar tacks.

Caroline: Yeah, great tips. And then, finally, a Satin Stitch looks like a zigzag stitch, but differently angled. It looks more like the letter Z where there are horizontal stitches in between the slanted zigs and zags. We’re saying zigs and zags so much in this episode.

Helen: Zigs and zags.

Caroline: We need a song. A zig and a zag and a zig, zig, zag.

Helen: Literally, the Spice Girls.

Caroline: A zig, a zig, a zag. Is it really?

Helen: Yeah. Zig a zag, ah! That’s what they’re singing about. They’re singing about sewing.

Caroline: Yeah. Anyways, the satin stitch is one that’s made to do really neat sat stitches around appliqués. So check this one out if you have it on your machine, it’s pretty cool. A zig, a zig, zag.

Helen: A zig, a zig, zag. Okay, finally, there are those multitudes of decorative stitches we mentioned earlier. Some machines come with a huge selection. Others come with just a tight selection. Trust me, you do not need a thousand of these stitches. If you’re looking at machines, don’t be swayed by the fact that one has a thousand, one has a hundred ‘cause you’re never gonna use them all.

But the main way to use decorative stitches is to embellish your fabric or your projects. You can use regular all-purpose thread, but it’s always a good idea to go bold so the stitching is actually noticeable. Machine embroidery thread comes in lots of colours and you can get it in heavier weights, too, if you really want it to stand out.

A 50 weight thread is what is usually recommended for hand quilting, and you can get an even bolder look with a thicker thread, like a 12 weight. Again, make sure you’re using the right needle here. And you could also try using top stitching thread or bold quilting thread to really make things pop.

Caroline: And you can stitch lines of different decorative stitches to make a pretty border, centre panel, or yoke on a plain fabric before you even stitch your pieces together. There’s a fabulous tutorial on the Susie Quilts blog by contributor Peyton that shows you how. Basically, decide on your design, mark out your lines, and stitch over them. Peyton made a gorgeous, dusty pink linen dress with red and white embroidery down the centre front to make a front panel, a denim shirt with an embroidered back yoke and cuffs, and a white top with white embroidery at the hem. They all look amazing. You have to see this. It’s so inspiring. We’re gonna link the tutorial in the show notes.

Helen: Yeah. This is definitely, like, the machine decorative stitching dream project. It’s so pretty.

Caroline: It really is. Yeah.

Helen: And if you need to do some top stitching, for whatever reason, it could be really cute to use a decorative stitch instead of a straight stitch. I can imagine some cool stitches along the curve of a slant pocket or down the sides of a pair of jeans, or even along just the hem of a skirt or pair of pants. It’s just there for you. A nice little detail. Okay, that was a lot of stitches and stitch advice. If you have any extra tips or want to tell us how you use your favourite machine stitch, or better yet, show us, let us know. Get in touch and show us your projects. We always love to see them.

Caroline: Yeah, we do. Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

Helen: I wanna see your projects. I wanna see your projects. I wanna see your projects at the zig a zag stitch.

Caroline: Woo. You nailed it. You carried that one, Helen.

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com. And we’re recording today in cold British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: You can go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode, and if you’d like to get in touch with us, you can send us an email at hello@LoveToSewPodcast.com.

Caroline: If you love Love To Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon. For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you’ll get all that plus a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics. Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content, so go to patreon.com/LoveToSew for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Buh-bye.

Oh, I’ll tell you what I want what I really really want. I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna tell what you, what you, I wanna, I wanna wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna zig a zig a zig ah.

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