How to Baste on a Sewing Machine

Create long basting stitches to hold your work together.

A basting stitch when sewing helps to hold two pieces of cloth together so you can test the fit of a garment or temporarily assemble a project. Basting stitches also keep the fabric in place when sewing hems or assembling a project. Basting stitches resemble basic straight stitches except that they should be as large as possible so you can remove them easily after you have completed the project. Create basting stitches with your sewing machine to save time.

Things You'll Need

• Fabric or sewing project
• Thread
• Pins

Instructions

1. Pin the fabric together along the hem or edge where you want to machine baste, keeping the pins out of the path of the intended stitches.

2. Wind the bobbin with a thread with a color that clashes with the fabric color. Contrasting stitches will be easier to remove later. Thread the machine with additional clashing thread. Using the same color for both bobbin and the top machine part is not necessary, as long as both colors clash with the fabric.

3. Turn the stitch length on the sewing machine to the longest stitch possible. Turn off any zigzag stitching or other special stitches -- use only a straight stitch for machine basting.

4. Set the sewing machine to the slowest speed possible if the machine has a speed setting.

5. Feed the material through the sewing machine and baste with long stitches along your intended hem or edge. Do not add the reinforcing stitches at the beginning or end of the basting stitch because the thread should be easy to remove later. Sew close to your final sewing line to get the best idea of how the garment or project will look.

References

• My Simple Sewing Patterns: What is Basting?
• Chest of Books: Basting