 We're going to start a new little series here, and you'll all have to let me know past the three videos I have planned if you want to see more of this and if you do put something in the comments below or You can email me That my email address is in the description below You can also post something in my Facebook group group a life of art and self expression The links for all those things should be in the description below This little series is prompted by some friends of mine who want to do some sewing It's a mixed media style sewing. They don't know the first thing about sewing and and they're getting very frustrated So I thought okay sewing 101 We'll do that the first video this first video is going to be all about your machine, so What kind of machine you should pick or what kind of things you should think about when picking a machine and Important tools do's and don'ts that sort of thing. All right. This is a fof 50 what 1546 I've had this for quite a long time as a German sewing machine. I Generally don't do this use this for lots of mixed media. I usually use this for more dress making applications I have a smaller less expensive machine for sewing on paper Paper pulp can clog up your machine and cause some damage to it, so it's not always the best Thing to do on a more expensive sewing machine, which this is so if you want to just do like sewing on paper and that sort of thing Don't spend a ton of money I would not advise spending a ton of money on your sewing machine or if you already have one using your expensive machine You can Go do it you have a lot of choices now I bought a Jenna a little small genome. It was less than a hundred dollars and that's the one that I use for Sewing on paper for that application. It works fine. I don't expect a lot out of it It only has like straight and zigzag stitches and it doesn't do anything else There's no automatic anything and very limited tension adjustments and all of that So but it but for what I use it for it works fine This one is has more stuff so and you can get ones that have a lot more stuff on them that are a lot more complicated You can get Sewing machines, of course for mixed-media paper applications inexpensively on sale I Recommend going to your thrift store Garage sales that kind of a thing and picking up your machine that way The most expensive piece of equipment with your machine besides the machine itself that you're going to need the owner's manual So if you've bought a used machine and it does not have the owner's manual I do recommend going to the manufacturer's website, whatever your manufacturer of your machine is and Seeing if they have a copy that they can download lots of the manufacturers have them this day this day in age Where you can download them as a PDF file some of them Like Singer and some of the other big companies who have been around a long long time It may actually have old copies of the manual that you can actually get a paper copy if you call them So you might look at that if you can't find the copy online as a download then definitely I would call But you're going to need the owner's manual So one of the most important things about sewing is reading said owner's manual This owner's manual will tell you the proper way to thread your machine thread The upper part and the lower part the bobbin. It'll tell you how to set your different stitches It'll also a lot of them will give you basic sewing instructions for like how to sew a zipper foot how to Do a reverse stitch how to do a mind as a stretch stitch So if you have fancy stitches the owner's manual will tell you how to do how to use those properly and what the tension settings should Be for using those so this is an invaluable tool for your sewing machine many of them also have Troubleshooting guide and maintenance in the back This it when you run into a problem. This is something you really really need and It usually has something in here in the Yeah in the owner's manual about cleaning I Skipped right by it. So let's find it here There we go cleaning and oiling so especially if you've bought a used machine or you've had your machine in storage for a while Maybe you inherited one from your mom or your grandmother I would recommend spending some time with it and Figuring out for each machine is a little different but figuring out for your machine How it needs to be cleaned and oiled if you're not sure take it to a local sewing machine repair and Spend the $20 $40 $50 it usually isn't more than that To have a basic service done and have them clean and oil your machine properly This should be done periodically over the life of the machine Anyway to keep it in proper working order. You wouldn't drive your car For five years with never changing the oil. So you shouldn't do that with your sewing machine either The the motor and everything is going to run much Better if you maintain your machine So this is invaluable. There's no shortcut to this part. You have to read the manual There's no shortcut. If there was a shortcut. I'd tell you you know that Okay Usually your machine will come with at least one sort of a brush like this that I use for cleaning out the lint This is where in my machine. This is where the bobbin thread is down here and The upper thread is up here I always use my brush to clean this out and get the big chunks of fuzz and dust out of there but I also Pop this up and not all machines. You have to do this. Some you do some you don't again read the owner's manual There we go We're gonna we're gonna take this out anyway because I'm gonna show you So the other thing I do is get in here with the brush and make sure there's no big pieces Yeah, there was one pieces of lint stuck up here on top underneath the needle that I don't know about And let's take the thread out completely because I want to show you some things about threading the machine So there's usually some lint stuck up here underneath the Plate that's underneath the presser foot. That's what this part is called My old machine also had a door here that flipped open and I could see the gears inside And I could brush all of them off and get the dust off of them. This one doesn't do this And like I said every machine is different. So look that up for your machine I'm gonna put this back and we're gonna actually change the thread here anyway, because I have to do some mending Oops So we might as well do that while we're here, right? Might as well change the thread. So I store all of my bobbins in this doughnut shaped contraption I used to do a lot of sewing. I was a dressmaker and Yeah, so I these keep them I have two of them Every now and then they get hairy like this and this just kind of makes me crazy So I could sit there and wind all my bobbins, but that would make me crazier So giving them a little haircut works just fine I do recommend if you're gonna do sewing on fabric that you should keep a pair of scissors separate from your paper scissors Paper dulls your scissors very quickly And you'll get very frustrated trying to cut fabric with dull paper cutting scissors So keep a pair of scissors separate for just fabric I've got a bobbin here that was almost empty So in my for my machine and again every machine is different my bobbin goes here And there's a little pig it has to sit that all the way down on so I have to turn it until it sits there For the mending project. I have to do I need dark blue thread Which I had to go by because I didn't own any My thread goes here This thing keeps the thread Tight on the post that it's sitting on right here So I need to have that on there now for my For my sewing machine the thread comes this way Around here down here through the hole right here Back down and through the needle. Yeah, I'll show you now for a lots of mixed media applications I just have a large sized denim needle on my sewing machine It will sew through just about anything now my machine has a needle threader Which I'm going to use because I totally do not even have my glasses on I probably should put them on So the needle threader pushes into the eye of the needle and grabs the thread and then it will pull it out Easily and quickly like that So if I was just gonna my bobbin was already round and I was going to get going to sew That's how I would thread my machine, but We need to wind the bobbin So we're gonna put it through here, then it's gonna go back this way towards the bobbin I'm gonna wind it a few times around the bobbin I'm gonna loosen up a gear here on the end so that my needle doesn't bounce up and down while I'm winding the bobbin The needle will stay still and I'm gonna press down on my presser foot my at the bottom underneath on the floor Have to move it back that way. There we go Now you notice I'm holding the thread. I'm putting more attention on the thread as it Wines on the bobbin just gentle pressure so that the bobbin winds nicely and evenly and there's no loose Lumpy loopy bits on it because that will make your machine so really poorly Cut this take this out Put it in my bobbin now generally speaking when you put if you have a bobbin case on your machine when you put your bobbin in and you Hook your thread around the little bits that are in the bobbin case here and You pull the thread gently it should turn clock lock clockwise if it's turning counterclockwise. It's the wrong way Again look in your machine, so I'm gonna put this back in to make sure it's in all the way And my threads hanging out Now we're gonna re-thread our machine Gotta make sure that there we go that we catch that little arm. There's some guides here to lead the thread down to the needle Make sure I catch all of those pull the thread through the needle There we go now We need to catch that bobbin thread and bring it up to the top So we're gonna manually crank the needle all the way down and bring it all the way back up again Then gently tug on your thread supposedly gently tug on your thread There we go, and you'll get a loop here. Let me see if I can zoom in for you Oops wrong way. There's a loop right here of the bobbin thread So I'm gonna pull that and now both of my threads are up at the top I'm going to push them all back that way. So they're between this little crack in the presser foot They're down below here between the plate and the presser foot and I pulled them all the way back here Now my my sewing machine is a free arm. What does that mean? It means this comes off and I can do narrow tubes and things like sleeves We're not doing that today that's more of a dressmaking thing you guys don't need to do that Worry about that and you're not gonna probably ever do that Okay Now what? Now we're gonna work on tension. I'm gonna save this little thing that came off the thread because we'll Use that maybe in the next video If you need to oil your machine using the directions in the owner's manual make sure you use machine oil This is a Singer machine oil Go to your sewing machine store and get proper sewing machine oil. All right So now when you go to do basic Stitching make sure you hold these threads back here. I don't care when anybody tells you hold them If you don't hold them lots of times they'll bunch up and create a knot underneath and then no matter how far along you stitch You're just gonna have this wad of not knotted stitches underneath. It's not good This should be a good tension for this Fabric but we're gonna find out. I do have it. I'm going to right now. It's set for a zigzag up here I don't want it to do a zigzag this dial here on my machine tells the needle how far right and left to go I don't want it to go anywhere. So I'm going to set it to zero This dial tells the needle if I want it to stay in the middle Or if I want it to sew a straight line to the left or a straight line to the right We're gonna leave it in the middle I have a dial down here Let's see I need to go out just a little bit. There we go a dial down here that tells the machine how long of Stitches to make so I want it to be the lower the number the shorter the stitch So I for most sewing you want something between it's on my machine something between a three and a four So now we're gonna hold our threads and we're gonna Push down on the presser foot and that looks pretty good. So I'm gonna show you It's a good thing. I'm vacuuming today. It's gonna be thread all over the floor So what do I mean by pretty good? So it's nice and even and there's no puckers or lumps or bumps on the back side of the stitches Neither on the front There are usually two ways to adjust the tension on your machine One is by adjusting a little screw on your bobbin case if you have a bobbin case The other one is this dial right here I'm gonna purposefully mess up my tension so that you can see what happens when it's wrong So I'm gonna put it to nine Actually, I'm gonna make it loose. So I'm gonna put it down to five Actually, it's not bad. We need to really mess it up. So let's do it That's better So you'll start to notice when your tension is messed up that the stitches are uneven and you'll get loops on the back That's the tension and there's no short again. No shortcut to Fixing it except for adjusting this dial a little bit at a time until you get it to where it is stitching straight and even without any lumps or knots or loops on either side of the fabric now the other thing I got asked Is how to lock your stitches and keep it from coming out? Easy peasy lemon squeezy All right, so so a few stitches Figure out where the reverse button is on your machine. Every machine has one mine is right here So I'm gonna push down And then I'm gonna lift it up so it just went back and forth that locks your stitches in So they're not gonna come out now the there is another way to do it So the other way to do it is to take your thread from the bottom or the top Pull it until you get the loop of the thread from the other side Coming up and then pull that end out So both cut ends are on the same side and then tie them in a knot and then cut them off The easier way is to just go back and forth and that locks them in I think that's it for the first part. So think about Practicing with your machine read your manual Make sure you know how everything works. Don't worry about if your machine has fancy stitches Don't worry about them right now. Just work with your straight stitch and Figure out how to adjust your tension. You may want to if it's stitching fine if it's stitching fine, you may want to purposefully play with this dial and Just mess it up so that you know what to expect if the tension is wrong. Yes So in the next video, we will be back with making a simple easy pencil bag. Don't be scared All straight stitches nothing fancy not even any turning of fabric right side out or anything So trust me on that. Don't forget the most important thing. Have fun play. Yes All right and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later