It was FANTASTIC. I couldn’t have imagined a better class. In the first part we covered:

• Recommended tools/materials and what you use them for
• How stitches are formed – in precise detail
• The key to correct insertion and threading of needles on any machine
• All about needles and their history; tracing sewing problems to the needle
• All about thread; tracing sewing problems to thread
• Cleaning and lubricating machines; detecting and removing varnish (sticky residue from old oil and dust/lint)
• Testing machines including the clutch and externally-mounted motors; checking parts for wear and tear (and for being correct in the first place)
• Clutch assembly
• Feed dog timing, height, and orientation
• Pendulum timing (for zigzag stitch), cams and cam stacks
• Bobbin hook timing and how problems there cause skipped stitches
• Causes for skipped stitches that have nothing to do with the hook
• Needle bar height
• All about bobbins: winding, cases, tension, insertion
• Top threading general principles
• Diagnosing tension and apparent tension problems
• Check spring timing
• Escapement (how top thread passes around the bobbin without the bobbin case being completely loose)
• Dealer calibration of tensioners (if the number for correct tension is way off of the standard 4-5, how to change it)

We also went through all the machines in the room three times, once to find parts and adjustment points for clutch, feed dogs, and pendulum timing, once to look at the bobbin hook and its adjustment points, and once to look at the check spring timing, escapement, and tension calibration. It meant we weren’t limited to our own machines plus the ones Ray demoed on at the front of the room – we had a wide variety of machines to look at.

Ray’s approach is to teach you how machines work in general, what each part is supposed to be doing, and how to trace out the location to adjust each part on any given machine so you’re not dependent on having the exact service manual. The phrase of the week was “now, this looks different, but don’t let that confuse you – it works exactly the same as on every other machine.” It was perfect for me both because it matches how I learn best and because at the Sew-op we don’t necessarily have the operator manual, much less the service manual.

In the first three days I learned more about sewing machine operation than I’d managed to learn in my 25+ years of serious sewing and self-study. The formation of a stitch is finally not just magic to me! Ray is incredibly knowledgeable and clear, and he has great visual aids.

The second part was more of a guided work session, where we put what we’d learned into practice (we did some work in the first part, but there was a lot of lecture and demo time) with individual help from Ray and his assistant Cathy, and mini lessons on topics that came up from a given student’s work. During that part we had lessons on sergers, motor wiring, and foot pedals, and I learned more about diagnosing hook timing problems.

Before the class I was unsure how many machines to bring, and it’s hard to give advice on it because the number of machines you want will depend a lot on how much work each one ends up requiring. Ultimately I brought six: two that needed basically no work as far as I knew, two that I knew or suspected needed something moderate adjusted, and two that seemed likely to need significant work. It was the perfect amount, as it turned out. We had two no-show students and I was sitting next to one of the empty places, so I was able to have two machines out at a time. That way I could work on one till I got stuck (or until I needed to give oil time to penetrate) and then switch to the other until Ray or Cathy made it around to me to help me through my stuck point.

Here’s what I did (all machines got general cleaning and lubrication, and upper tension adjustments to balance the stitch):

1. Extra work to clean and lubricate where handwheel mounts on main shaft (fixed clutch problems); adjusted bobbin tension
2. Feed dog timing adjustment (fixed what looked like tension problems)
3. Lowered bobbin tension (this machine had feed problems but they were cured by cleaning packed lint out of the feed dogs)
4. Extra work to clean and lubricate where handwheel mounts on main shaft; replaced belt connecting handwheel and motor; re-bent bobbin case tension spring to increase tension (Ray did that); adjusted feed dog height (ditto)
5. Oiled motor shaft (motor was seized); moved feed dogs forward (they were hitting in back on long stitches); adjusted bobbin hook timing (twice; went too far the first time); adjusted check spring timing; adjusted bobbin tension; recalibrated top tension knob
6. Recalibrated top tension knob; tightened presser foot pressure dial (Ray did that, apparently just by turning it as tight as it would go – after that you could loosen it without it just spinning as it had before)

Those machines are in order of work I thought was needed – very little on the first two, a moderate amount on the second two, and a lot on the last two – so you can see my estimates were not always the best!

If pressed for advice, I’d probably say to bring as many machines as is practical for you but not expect to necessarily get through all of them. Since the class involves going through all the machines in the room multiple times, you don’t have to worry about trying to bring some kind of representative sample. You may have classmates with extras, too. At least two people in the room borrowed machines from other students, and there was a third person with extras to offer. Ray is also happy to make “adjustments” to your machine that mess up the sewing so you have to diagnose and fix the problem. Quite happy.

Other advice would be to bring your checkbook, not just a prewritten check – a few people in the class did that, and then they had to get cash out because they wanted to purchase the myriad tools and supplies Ray makes available.

I think I got a lot more out of the class because of taking apart the Morse last summer (post on that adventure still forthcoming) as well as cleaning and oiling so many machines at the Sew-op. I had better context for what Ray was teaching; I knew what the guts actually looked like so I had some scaffolding instead of everything being new.

It was so very fun, too. At the morning break the first day I texted my husband, “I have found my people.” I never ate (or even drove to) lunch alone, and we laughed and made nerdy sewing machine comments and geeked out on each other’s cool machines.

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I was unable to resist an amazing mid- to late 50s Morse sewing machine at a charity benefit sale – I tested all the machines at set-up late yesterday afternoon, and found it ran well though it needed a thorough cleaning. When it was still there at close of sale this afternoon, I caved. Some money to a good cause, a boat anchor of a sewing machine to my possession.

I am going to take this machine as the opportunity to restart my education in sewing machine maintenance. I seem to have become the sewing machine expert of the Sew-op, however much or little I may merit that title. Since I am interested in sewing machine mechanics anyway, it seems like the perfect time to start earning the respect I already get in that arena.

It was tricky to find anything out about this machine. However, I determined Morse was one of many, many brands applied to the same machine bodies made by just a few companies in Japan (one blog post about post-war Japanese sewing machines says somewhere around 15 companies but over 5000 brands). A page about one person’s search for information about an American Beauty branded sewing machine gave me the most information. My machine’s model number is TZ-17, which apparently is shared by many branded machines and originates with Toyota. Toyota’s sewing machine manufacturing history tells us the TZ-3 came out in 1953. It says nothing about the TZ-17, but mentions a 1961 zig-zag sewing machine with a completely different model number, suggesting they’d moved on by then.

Before finding that I had estimated my machine to about 1955, based on it seeming a bit less advanced than the machines in a 1957 Morse advertising flyer on the Morse page of the NeedleBar Museum Archive (sewing machines 1829-1960). I found the American Beauty page by doing a Google Image search for my machine, which led me to a forum thread about an Ambassador branded sewing machine that seems identical to mine but for branding. Comments along the way suggest that these are great machines that sew beautifully and will run forever.

It will be a while before I get this lovely back into shape (for one thing, I have to clear space to work on it), but I’ll surely show it off when I do, and if there are any interesting spots along the way.

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The main way was for patterns to stitch through, whether by machine or by hand. For the sample embroidered seam block I made for my second crazy quilting class, I used strips of tracing paper to make evenly-spaced repeating stitch patterns from my graph paper sketches. It was a mixed blessing – the stitching creates the perforations to tear along to remove the paper, so shorter stitches = easier removal. Mine were long and tearing the paper without stressing the stitches was a challenge. I also had trouble with the stitches getting loose when I tore away the paper and had to consciously stitch more tightly than I normally would to accommodate it. One piece of advice unrelated to my block: don’t fill areas while the tracing paper is still attached because you will never get it out.

Advice from elsewhere: Susan at Plays with Needles recommends Bienfang brand tracing paper in particular. I’ve only tried what I have – Strathmore – and it’s fine, but takes a little effort to sew through. I’ll test out Bienfang when I need a refill. If it’s easier to tear that will help a lot with avoiding stitch distortion.

I also printed a large letter to be used as an applique pattern. I put tracing paper through the printer by trimming it to about 8″x10.5″ and taping it across the top to a standard sheet of letter paper, an idea I got from a tutorial for decorating candles with printed tissue paper. I generally use a small piece of tape at each end of the short edge and two more equally spaced in between.

Advice here: if you’re printing large solid letters and don’t have a way to convert them to outline, change them to a nice medium gray. Then you use less ink, which means less time to dry and less distortion from soaking the paper. For my applique I straight-stitched by machine around the outline of the letter, removed the paper and trimmed the applique fabric as close as possible to the stitch line, and then made a tight, narrow zigzag all the way around. In one spot my trimming was a little too close and I had to recapture the fabric with the zigzag, but most of it went as planned.

[This pattern was for a gift for friends we see very infrequently, and in fact we passed it to a mutual friend and it may not even have made it to them yet, but I am tired of holding on to this post until the gift is given!]

Incidentally, the letter shown is Oleo Script Swash Caps, a font that’s free for commercial use. The designer also has the plainer Oleo Script, but I specifically wanted an E with loops in it. Both are thick enough that at a large size you don’t even need boldface to make a good applique letter.

My second recent use for tracing paper was to make my own rub-on transfer. I was drawing a greeting card and had a little fuzzball character that I didn’t trust to come out as well in future versions, so I traced him with a soft pencil (4B), turned the tracing over, and rubbed with the (eraserless) back end of the pencil to transfer graphite. Then I went back with a colored pencil to finish the drawing. It worked really well, and I was even able to face him in opposite directions by turning the tracing paper over, using the first trace as an image to trace again, and rubbing the second version onto the page. In the photo, where I’ve transferred but not drawn over the image, you can see where the first version rubbed onto the scratch paper a bit, ghostly under the tracing paper (which itself is not easy to see).

By the way, as I focus less on blogging I’ve found myself using Facebook a bit more, mostly for random crafty links I come across (though the Fun With Vintage Patterns album gradually grows). I’m not regular with it, but moreso than here.

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I tested it out on bias tape, and set to 15 (its max is 25) it did a decent job. You have to be careful not to stretch the bias tape; pushing your iron along fabric can stretch it (though moreso if steam is involved), so pulling something through a pair of heated plates would definitely do so. Turning it up to 20 might have made it a quicker job, of course, but we’re working with a satiny material so trying lower temperatures was a priority. I’ll probably set it to 10 and test it on scrap dress material at the next lesson.

Naturally the flatiron has to be transported and I don’t want to have to worry about its temperature when doing so. That meant an insulated carrying case of some kind. Another vague recollection came to me, of using a potholder or two to make a flatiron sleeve for travel. I didn’t have any potholders to sacrifice to the cause, but I did have a lot of leftover 100% cotton flannel and some random pieces of the silvery insulated fabric used to make ironing board covers. I did some measuring and cut a bunch of pieces.

The larger pieces are 10.5″x3.5″ and the smaller ones are 7.5″x3.5″. The silver fabric wasn’t large enough to make 10.5″ so it’s somewhere between 8″ and 9″, but that’s still way longer than the hot portion of the flatiron. I laid them out with the silver fabric in the middle, silver side in, and stitched the layers together at 1/4″. I also zigzagged the edge, but not very tightly. The short side got bias tape on its top edge, and then I zigzagged the two sides together. Bias tape all the way around the outside and it was done.

The flatiron fits inside it perfectly. I am quite pleased.

So what else is in my teaching bag? Seam ripper, seam gauge, two sizes of scissors, some rectangles of fabric for stitch practice, and painter’s tape. The sewing machine we’re using has eighth-inch marks, but they’re not labeled. I plan to run a length of tape along the 5/8″ mark to make it stand out, and my business partner suggested painter’s tape instead of the masking tape I was thinking of. Perfect!

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Some items are obvious, such as good scissors, a sewing machine, thread, straight pins, hand-sewing needles, and an iron and ironing board. Beyond that, here’s what I use the most, ordered by how I might use them to alter pants that are too long and too big in the waist. The waist comes first because changing it affects the length, but not vice-versa.

Safety pins – the easiest way to mark when you’re fitting yourself.

Seam gauge – no better tool to transfer the measurements that come up in alterations. Those measurements are usually fairly small and often not round, so the sliding tab of the gauge serves as your calipers and your memory.

Full-length mirror – ideally hung on the wall (or on a stand), but propped up will do.

The first step in taking in the waist of pants is to put them on (the right way out) and, looking in the mirror, pinch the waistband until it is the size you want. One side at a time – you’ll have to re-pinch side two in between – safety pin the pinch where you would sew it. Measure from the fold to the pin with the seam gauge and average out what you get. Mark that amount on the gauge. Time for the next batch of tools!

Tailor’s chalk or fabric marking pencil – the silver pencil, by Dritz, is the best pen or pencil I have come across for marking. It brushes or washes off. Tailor’s chalk (which is really more like a crayon) comes in a variety of colors and washes out, but if you use the white chalk it will also disappear upon ironing, turning clear. I have mine in sleeves made from post-it notes.

Seam ripper – naturally! Make sure it is sharp.

The waistband of pants is altered separately from the legs and so must be detached in the vicinity of the side seams. If the waistband doesn’t have side seams, the proper way to shorten it is by removing it nearly all the way around and shortening from one end (if there is a button, leave the buttonhole end attached to the pants and shorten at the button end). If there is a side seam or you don’t mind making one, just give yourself about two inches’ clearance on each side of where you’ll be stitching. If there are side belt loops take them off entirely. Turn the pants inside out and fold them at the original side seam. Mark the new seam at the waist using your seam gauge’s memory and tailor’s chalk or pencil and gradually slope it out to meet the original seam. If there is topstitching (stitching down the seam allowance, visible from the outside), take it out wherever your seam line is on top of the seam allowance and for a distance below and above that. Pin (away from the seam is fine because you are just keeping the fabric underneath from shifting) and stitch, avoiding stitching through the original seam allowance. I usually semi-freehand the first seam and then mark the second to match, in terms of slope and rejoining the original seam. Take the waistband in by the amount marked on the seam gauge.

The next step is to press, which can be aided by the following tools.

Sleeve board – looks like a mini ironing board, inserted into sleeves and other tubes too small to go over the end of the full ironing board, this tool helps you press one side without adding creases to the other accidentally. I use mine quite a bit.

Tailor’s ham – By shifting the angle and direction of this densely-stuffed beast, you can iron curved seams smoothly. Learn how to make your own at No Big Dill or Chance of Rain. Commercial hams have a cotton side (heavy, like canvas or duck) and a wool side. I use mine infrequently, but there’s no substitute when you really need it.

Press the side seams open or to one side, according to how they were originally. Press the waistband seams open if the side seams are, and either open or to the opposite side if the side seams are pressed to the side. Trim excesses of seam allowance and zigzag to overcast if desired; replace topstitching if there was any, removing any original topstitching that turns out not to be in the right place. Pin belt loops on if you removed them and sew the outer layer of the waistband to the pants. Fold the waistband to the inside and stitch in the ditch to secure the inner layer. Sew the tops of the belt loops on.

We’re on to the hem! You’ll need your safety pins and full-length mirror again, and you may want one of these guys:

Yardstick – Wood or metal. I am surprised to realize I’ve never seen a plastic yardstick.

     and/or

12″ ruler – I <3 <3 <3 my transparent one. To mark the length, put the pants on again. Estimate how much to turn up and do so, pinning the turned-up part of the pants in place. Go by what happens at the back of the foot. If you have carpet, wear shoes and base your length on position relative to the top of the sole (I like my pants to hit the top of the sole in the back; you may want them higher, or lower if you're going to wear the pants with high heels). Make sure to drop them, settle the pants at their natural position on your waist, and twist as little from the waist down as you can manage - if you stand barely facing away from the mirror you can usually see yourself with twists that are in the shoulders and neck only. If the hem line is straight to the ground, determination of which is sometimes helped by standing on tiptoes, you can mark up the appropriate amount on the front and back and then use the yardstick or ruler to mark a straight line across. If it isn't (some pants are higher in front, which may not be desirable), pin so the back is the right height and mark perpendicular to the inseam. If you are making pants to a particular inseam measurement, the yardstick will allow you to measure that easily. That's it! Alter in good health.

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I have no intention of changing, though. I place them bump down for a reason: on the eye sizes I use, the washers are always far larger than the eyes. My amigurumi are small, and there’s generally a strong curve around the eye. Putting the washers on “correctly” can create ridges around the eye; putting them on bump down gives a bit of clearance above the washer.

I haven’t been able to find any information about the security of the washers in either orientation, and I’m not equipped to measure it myself, but they certainly don’t come off easily even when upside-down.

This is the sort of thing I research on a Sunday night.

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Fabric and thread to start: I like to start people with calico fabric (quilting cotton) and two strands of embroidery floss. That is a good combination weight-wise and those materials present no special challenges. Try other fabrics (coarsely woven, fuzzy or fluffy) and other threads (the full six strands of floss, perle cotton, ribbon) after becoming comfortable with the motions of embroidery. That shouldn’t be long, though, and then there are some rules of thumb for matching. Six strands of floss or something heavier like perle cotton is good on a very coarse fabric or to achieve a dimensional effect. On a puffy fabric such as fleece you’d likely want at least four strands of floss to keep the stitches from disappearing. For a smooth-surfaced fabric such as cotton or felt, two or three strands is good (for detail work a single strand might be employed).

Above: A sampling of materials. The fabric is cotton calico. The brown thread is Coats and Clark 6-stranded embroidery floss (6, 4, and 2 strands shown, left to right), the green at bottom is DMC perle cotton size 5, and the blue at top is Columbia-Minerva 100% wool “Persian-type” needlepoint and crewel yarn.

Needles: Embroidery needles tend to be fine and sharp, but unless you are working on unforgiving fabric (delicate silk, say), use whatever needle is comfortable to work with, has a large enough eye for the thread, and is sharp enough to pierce the fabric. Wetting and twisting the end of the thread between your fingers will help in threading.

Knots or Not Knots: Knotting is typically not done in embroidery; instead, you leave a few inches loose at the back and weave them under your stitches later (or to start, if it is not your first length of thread). The same is done to secure the opposite end. Sometimes you have to knot, however, such as if you are stitching around the edge of a piece of fabric. In that case two or three overhand knots to start and a half hitch to end are easiest.

Above left: Overhand knot. Above right: Half hitch.

Comfortable Stitching. To keep your hands and forearms from getting sore, stretch and rub them frequently. Make sure you are not gripping the work too tightly, and change your hand position regularly. If it is difficult to get the needle through the fabric, use a thimble to push and a bit of rubber to pull (you may buy one for the purpose, or cut a 1.5-2″ square of a rubber jar opener). As a right-handed stitcher, I find it is most comfortable to stitch with the needle pointing somewhere between left and forward, and to tighten the thread up or to the right. Experiment for the best solution for you – for me it is frequently not the direction given in stitch instructions.

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So I didn’t. I cut off the strip of little chickens that had drawn me to it in the first place, down at the wide end of the board, and then the largest piece I could get between that and where the board narrows.

I covered the large piece with linen, and attached linen to the back of the small piece. Then I folded the large piece in half and stitched all the way around twice, with the same variegated thread and two different decorative zigzags. The small piece got wide single fold bias tape stitched to the front, folded around at each end to the back, then the long edge folded to the back and stitched down.

The larger board is the size of a generous placemat, perfect for pressing small crochet pieces, such as these coasters made out of the medium size of Planet June’s Love Hearts.

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