Sewing Machine Tutorial: Sewing

Before you start, review some important parts for the machine:

1. Presser Foot
2. Take-Up Lever
3. Tension Dial
4. Stitch Width Dial
5. Bobbin Winder Spindle
6. Stitch Length Dial
7. Hand Wheel 
8. Stitch Selector Dial
9. Reverse Lever

Find the manual for the Singer Tradition model here and for the Singer Heavy Duty model here.

Now, turn the machine on pressing the switch on the right side of the machine.

After you properly placed the bobbin and threaded the machine, you are ready to start sewing.

The basic stitch is the straight stitch. Make sure this type of stitch is the one your machine will do. If it’s not, turn the stitch selector dial, so that the straight stitch icon is in line with the grey dot above.

Make sure the stitch length dial is set between 2 and 3, which is the standard length for a straight stitch.

Finally, make sure the stitch width dial is set to 0.

now place your fabric under the presser foot. Lower the presser foot by using the lever behind the machine. Now press the foot control to start sewing.

Tip: if you are starting a seam, it is a good practice to start sewing 2 to 3 stitches and stop. Next, press the reverse lever to sew about 2 to 3 stitches backwards. Try to do it always on top of the fabric, do not make stitches without fabric.

Release the lever, and now start sewing normally along the seam by pressing the foot control. Notice that you do not need to push or pull the fabric, you just need to guide it and the machine will move it forward.

Tip: when you are done sewing, it is good to do some stitches backwards again. Press the reverse lever and make 2 to 3 stitches backwards, release the reverse lever and sew to the end of the fabric. The reverse stitching at the start and the end of the fabric, secure the thread so that it doesn’t become unraveled.

When you finish this, move the needle to the highest position by turning the hand wheel towards you.

Now move up the foot presser and remove the fabric. Trim the thread and that’s it. Make sure before you start sewing the length of the thread coming from the needle and from the bobbin is around 10 cm or more.

The stitches should look uniform in both sides.

However, if your back stitches have loops or some wavy zigzags it means the upper thread isn’t threaded properly. Rethread the machine and do another test. However, sometimes this is also because you forgot to move down the presser foot.

If you notice, the stitch selector shows two more stitches in every position. If you want to sew the blue stitch instead of the black one, turn the stitch length dial to the S1 position.

If you want to sew the red one instead, turn the stitch length dial to the S2 position.

You might want to adjust the stitch width dial, especially when you are sewing decorative stitches. Turn this dial and select a number from 0 to 5, 5 being the widest stitch.

Here you can see some example of different stitches:

Tips

When using the sewing machine you will be sewing a variety of shapes according to your work. For acute angles it will be better to stop the machine and rotate the fabric. To make sure the fabric is not going to move around, it is always good to leave the needle down, holding your fabric. If the needle is not holding the fabric at the moment you stopped stitching, you can turn the hand wheel towards you until the needle is in the lowest position. Now you can lift the presser foot, rotate the fabric and move down the presser foot before start sewing again.

For curves you can even use the thread trimmer to guide the fabric. Make sure you don’t put the trimmer under the needle or you will break it. If that happens, check out how to change the needle here.

When you are making a soft toy, you should sew the details such as eyes before you sew the whole piece. Place them in the position you want and use Basting Stitch or pins to hold them in place before you use the sewing machine. If you prefer, you can also hand sew them using other types of stitches stronger than the Basting Stitch.

If you are sewing the details by using the machine, be patient and do it slowly. Make sure you do the reverse stitching at the start and the end of the fabric to secure the thread and prevent it to become unraveled.

After you sew the details, you will be ready to sew the main pieces. Remember you are going to sew them from the back side.

Leave at least 0.5 cm of border when you sew the piece Remember also to leave around 4cm of fabric without sewing, so you can turn the soft toy inside out by using that hole.

It is a good practice to make a little cut in the corners, so that the fabric doesn’t get wrinkled on the front side. You can do this with the scissors or the thread trimmer.

Start turning inside out the soft toy with your hands.

You can use some rounded stick to help you to turn the small parts. A chopstick work very well.

Use the invisible stitch to close the hole you used to turn the soft toy inside out.

finish the hand sewing by making a final knot before you cut the thread. It is better that you don’t cut the thread right next to the knot, so make a big stitch and take the needle from a place far away from the knot(like 5cm) and then pull the thread and trim close to the fabric by using the thread trimmer or scissors. Pulling the thread before to cut it will help to hide the thread inside the toy after you cut it.