Basic Sewing Supplies: Sewing Machines

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Shawna on behalf of Expert Village, and in this clip we are going to talk a little bit about sewing machines. Now that is definitely a necessity if you are going to be sewing, obviously, because you need to be sewing with something that does it for you; because handwork is pretty tedious, but it is fun. When you are looking into a machine, depending on your expertise level, you want to look for a few different things. You want to be able to adjust your stitches—your straight stitch for the length and a needle position. You also want to adjust your zigzag for the width of the zigzag; also the length of that zigzag. Those are two basic stitches that most machines will have. This particular machine has a lot of different features. There’s embroidery, there’s sewing: does everything. Most of the stitches will be showing up on top of the machine: the decorative stitches, the satin stitches, things like that. You want to be able to wind a bobbin with it and to have it wind correctly, so that it is tight all the way around and not getting bubbled up or anything, because then you won’t have good tension; so it is important that it winds a bobbin correctly. Some extra features that you might like are a needle down. What that means is every time you stop, the needle actually stays down so you can pivot or you can stay in your position, and then start again if you need to adjust anything. Another nice thing that you may not know about machines is the bobbin system, whether or not it is a rotary or an oscillating. Oscillating means that the casing goes back and forth, and a rotary goes all the way around, and that creates a stronger stitch because it finishes off that stitch. That is something that you won’t see in $30 machine, so you need to make sure that it is a machine that is not $30 and not $100, because the nicer machine is going to be a little more expensive, but it is going to last you a lot longer, so make sure you look into that. Make sure you go to someone that knows about machines that you are going to get instructions on and be able to really enjoy the machine to the best of its ability. "