Very Beginning Sewing Lesson #2 (Sewing Machine FUNdamentals)

You made it to the second lesson - hooray for you!

Once you have your machine threaded with the top thread and the bobbin...

First: pull some thread from the needle so you have about a 6 inch length.  Hold on to that thread with your left hand as your turn the handwheel with your right hand.  Make one rotation so that the take up lever is again in the highest position.  Now pull on the thread you are holding with your left hand, this will bring your bobbin thread up to the surface of your machine.

In the back of your machine, behind the needle you will find the lever to raise and lower your presser foot. 

You probably have several presser feet that came with your machine. We will talk about all the different presser feet another time.  The one you see here is  a quarter inch foot that I use a lot for piecing quilts, or other things where I am using a straight stitch.

This is called the "feed dogs". I have no idea where it got it's name, but, well, that's what it is.  The feed dogs come up, move back, go down and come up in the front again.  With the presser foot pushing your fabric against the feed dogs, that is what propels your fabric through the machine.

Second: Now just to make sure we get some actual sewing done, lift the presser foot, slip two layers of fabric under it, lower the presser foot and push gently on the pedal.  Hopefully you sewed those two pieces of fabric together!!

Don't worry if things don't look quite right, we will talk about what can go wrong and how to fix it in our next lesson.

And don't forget to comment on what a great mom I am   :)