E:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH032.TXT L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----R March 24, 2003: This section is new and unedited. Comments are solicited. Threading a Sewing machine If you have one of the new-fangled sewing machines that hold the spool horizontally and let the thread spin off the end, I've never used one and can't help you. The older machines that hold the spool on a vertical pin and let the spool spin so that the thread unwinds without gaining or losing twist -- they all thread the same, and I can describe it for you. The parts of the thread path may be in different places, but they have to be in the same order. First, you have the pin on which you place a spool. This will be toward the right end of the machine -- long paths between the spool and the tension disks give irregularities in unwinding room to damp out. Console models are more likely to put the spool pin on the top of the machine where it can be seen while working, portables are more likely to put it on a bracket behind the machine, where it doesn't bang into things and get broken off. On some portables, the spool pin can be folded flat, or it can be unscrewed and taken out. Machines designed for twin needles will have two spool pins -- and twin thread paths. On some twin-needle machines, the second spool pin has to be found among the attachments and screwed into place. A really-old machine may have one spool pin for sewing and another for winding the bobbin. It doesn't seem to matter much which is which; if it does, you can tell by observing how the thread flows when you pull it through the guides. Putting a spool on the pin is more complicated than it used to be, because thread is no longer sold on spools that are intended to sit on spool pins. (You may skip from here to the next ALL CAPS header) I'll start with put-ups that aren't meant to be used on home sewing machines, or aren't meant to be used on any sewing machine. For example, now that Coats and Clarke have stopped making O.N.T., I have to buy #100 crochet cotton (DMC Cordonnet) when I want a strong, six-ply cotton thread. Crochet thread comes on balls that are intended to be unwound by hand a few inches at a time. I used to use a hand drill to wind thread onto wooden spools[1], but I've discovered that I can sew directly off a ball the same way I would use a cone of thread. Both cones and balls are set into a box on the floor. The box isn't strictly necessary for a cone, which sits stably on a bottom that sticks out a little from the mass of thread, but it's a good idea -- it keeps the thread clean, and makes it less likely that the cone will be knocked over. The box goes behind the machine if there is space, or to the right side of it. With cones, it is very important that the force pulling the thread off the cone line up with the axis of the cone. For a cone sitting on the floor, this means that the thread should be pulled straight up and from directly over the cone. Pull direction is less important with balls, because they can bound around in the box, but the thread should still pull from above, so that the bounding will always unwind the ball. Usually, the ball will find a stable position and stop bounding once you've used off the outer layer. It's a good idea to wind a bobbin or two when opening a new ball, so that you can wind off this layer while holding the ball on a finger to keep it shifted to the best angle for unwinding. Thread spinning off a cone thrashes violently, and this is even more true of a ball bounding around in a box. You need a long thread path and at least one sharp turn to damp out vibrations and straighten loops. I used to accomplish this by leading the thread over the curtain rod, but in late winter the sun hits the window at just the right angle to glare on the computer screen while I'm reading my morning mail, and I have to close the drapes. Closing the drapes would drag the thread along the rod, fraying it and getting it dirty, so I'd have needed to pull the thread down, then climb up on a stool to put it back the next time I wanted to sew with white cotton thread. After a while, the light dawned and I got two large coilless safety pins from my knitting supplies and stuck these to the tops of the inner edges of the drapes. Running the thread up to one of these, across to the other, and then down to the sewing machine worked at least as well as draping it over the rod, and when the drapes are closed, the thread swags down between them without being dragged or dirtied. I suppose a few more coilless pins could route the thread in a manner that would make the path usable with the drapes closed, but I always want sunlight on my work when I'm sitting at the machine. If you don't knit, you can use the coils of large safety pins as eyes, but this means that you have to thread through the eye, rather than catching the thread as you can with a coil-less pin. It just happens that my primary machine has a lever with a nice smooth hole in it close to the spool pins, so that thread running through this hole reaches the first of the thread guides from the expected angle. Your machine might be happy with thread coming directly from the curtain rod into the thread guides; if not, study the angle that the guide expects, and figure out how to achieve it. There may be an attachment in your accessory box intended for just this purpose, sticking another pin into the curtain might do the trick, you might drop a ring over the spool pin, etc. Lacking a curtain, you can put a pot-plant hook in the ceiling or a series of eye-screws up the wall, there are special pieces of furniture for dispensing threads, etc. I'm sure you'll think of something. If you have several cones of thread you frequently use, make several thread-feeding arrangements, so that you can pull one thread out of the machine and grab another without getting up. You can hang a cone or a ball from a curtain rod or ceiling hook. I draped a piece of unidentified twill tape over the curtain rod, put the ends inside the cone, and nailed the tape to the paper- maché cone with two pins. It works very well even though I didn't aim the point of the cone toward my machine -- it doesn't slant *much*. You can hang a ball of thread by tying a loop of string to a button, punching a hole in the label of the thread with a needle, and threading the string through the hole from the inside. But I haven't used this for feeding a sewing machine, only for tatting, and the label falls off the ball when you get down to the last layer. Impaling a spool on a knitting needle thrust through a cardboard box makes a good thread dispenser. Start the holes in the box with a darning needle, then push in the knitting needle. Some spools will wrap the yarn around the needle if you stop pulling while the spool is spinning fast. PUTTING SPOOLS ON THE PIN Old spools were shorter and wider than current spools, so that they spun more slowly as they unwound. The old spool was turned from wood, so that it was much heavier than the current hollow plastic spools. Most important, thread on the old spool was wound side-by-side, so that each turn of the spool moved thread up or down by only the width of the thread. Modern spools are cross-wound, so that each turn of the spool jerks the thread from the top of the spool to the bottom and back again. On most old machines, the thread-path is sufficiently over-engineered to damp out the resulting wild oscillations before the thread reaches the tension disks -- people have always acquired thread in non-standard put-ups, and a serious tool takes this into consideration. But though the thread path allows for gyrations, the spool pin doesn't. As the thread unreels, the spool is jerked at the top, jerked at the bottom, jerked up, jerked down, all the while spinning like a helicopter. When you wind a bobbin, the spool is more likely than not to spin right off the spool pin. Luckily, all you have to do is to slip a plastic drinking straw over the spool pin. This extension isn't very strong, but the spool never flies quite high enough to put significant force on the straw. THE TENSION DISKS Between the spool pin and the tension disks you will find one or more thread guides, and most likely each will turn the thread through a right angle. These turns aren't just to get the thread from the spool to the tensioning device; they serve to filter out snarls and damp vibrations. The thread guides might be holes in little tabs of metal, wire loops, little coils that you can get the thread into while holding both ends, or notches at the ends of fingers. If the machine is designed for twin needle work, there will be two holes in each tab, or the wire loops will come in pairs. For single-needle sewing, thread one set of guides and ignore the other. The tensioning device on a sewing machine is usually two spring-steel disks with the convex sides pressed together. The pressure is regulated by a screw, and the head of the screw will be a dial, or it will have a pointer on it, so that you can change the tension and then put it back where it was. The much smaller screw in the tensioning device on the bobbin case has no dial or pointer (though you can do some calibrating by noticing which way the slot in the screw head points), so the balancing of upper and lower tensions is nearly always done at the tension disks. (One way to increase the tension on the bobbin thread without meddling with the set screw is to use a heavier thread that is harder to pull through the tension device. I use a bobbin wound with double thread for basting, which unbalances the tension and makes the stitches easier to remove.) If the machine is set up for twin needles, there will be two pairs of tension disks regulated by one screw. To the casual glance there is only one tensioning device, but close inspection shows that there are two slots in it. For single needle work, use either slot. I suppose there would be merit in alternating, so as to wear them evenly, but I ignore the question and just hope that I use one as often as the other. The thread will come straight down into the tension disks, wrap through half a circle inside them, then leave the device going straight up. The positions of the thread guides should make it obvious which side is down and which is up. There may be a wide thread guide to keep the exiting thread in line as it is alternately pulled and slacked by the take-up lever; there may be a spring-loaded finger to control the thread as it leaves the tension device. THE TAKE-UP LEVER The thread runs straight from the tension device to the take-up lever. This lever thrashes up and down with every stitch taken. When it rises, it pulls more thread through the tension device, when it lowers, it slacks the thread so that the gadgets under the needle plate can pull out a loop of thread and poke the shuttle through it, or draw it around the bobbin case. When it rises again, it closes the loop into a stitch and pulls another stitch-length of thread through the tension device. At certain stages in the above procedure, the tension disks will clamp down so that the thread cannot move at all. If you want to pull more thread out and it pulls hard, turn the handwheel until the take-up lever is in a different position. Or raise the presser foot, which disengages the tension disks. The thread runs reasonably straight from the take-up lever to the needle, probably through a guide that keeps it flowing straight down from the take-up lever, and another that forces it to run straight down into the eye of the needle. THE NEEDLE A machine needle has a groove running the full length of the shaft on the side from which the thread comes, and a much shorter groove around the other side of the eye. A thicker part at the top of the shaft fits into the needle clamp. The tops of modern machine needles are flat on the side opposite the long groove to make it easier to put them into the machine the right way. Usually there will be a flat surface inside the needle clamp to put the flat side of the needle against. Some clamps will let you install the needle in either of two ways, and the way with the long groove on the side where the thread exits just purely won't work. When you have trouble, check whether your needle is the right way round. Behind the needle, there may be a thread cutter. I don't use mine much, preferring to use scissors or a seam ripper to cut threads at the end of a seam. The thread cutter on my machine has a spring- steel grabber that holds the threads after they are cut, so that you can take the first stitch in the next seam. Threads must be held during the first stitch, or the take-up lever will pull the loop undone instead of tightening it. I seldom use the thread holder. Most of the time, simply sweeping the threads back so that the presser foot sits on them holds them well enough, and when it doesn't -- well, I have to pick up the threads to put them into the holder, and I might just as well continue to hold them myself, and know where I'm at. So I use the thread holder only when I happened to use the thread cutter to detach the previous seam, and haven't needed to pull the threads out of the holder to get the next seam in position to start. And when one seam follows another that easily, I nearly always stitch off one seam directly onto the next. THE BOBBIN THREAD There is more variety under the machine than on top: you may put the bobbin into a shuttle, put it into a bobbin case, or just drop it directly into the machine. In all three cases, it's important that it go correct end first, so that the thread can run through the tension device correctly. Odds are that there is a spiral slot in the side of the shuttle or bobbin case for you to pull the thread through. Put the bobbin into the case with the thread that unwinds off the bobbin pointing in the same direction as this slot, so that you pull the thread *back* into the slot. Press your finger on the end of a long bobbin or the side of a round bobbin, to provide tension while you pull the thread into the tension device, then pull it in a different direction to make it come out in the correct spot. There should be a large hole in the side of the case where the thread comes out. You will feel a snap when the thread slips into the correct position. [Note: the bobbins of White machines thread the other way.] Once the bobbin is in the case or shuttle, thread pulled off it should offer about the same resistance as thread pulled through the tension disks. After installing a bobbin of thread, always pull the bobbin thread to the surface by turning the hand wheel while holding the needle thread. If the bobbin is installed incorrectly, you'll find out about it without breaking a needle, jamming your thread, or spoiling your fabric. You have to have the bobbin thread on top so that you can hold it when taking the first stitch anyway. [2] Some bobbins install more easily at a certain spot in the stitch cycle; if so, there will be a mark to show you where the take-up lever is at this stage. ------------------------------------------------------------ [1] see "odd tricks: winding spools" at ROUGH008.TXT [2] keeping a small scrap of fabric under the presser foot, and stitching off it onto the beginning of each seam, and onto it at the end of each seam, saves you from having to hold the threads during the first stitch: there is no first stitch. It's also a good idea to keep the feed dogs from contacting the presser foot directly, so that the foot won't blunt the dog and the dog won't scratch the foot. EOF