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When you’ve completed your sewing, how do you remove your fabric from the machine and finish it?

What is the correct way to remove the fabric. And do you just cut off the ends?

My manual won’t arrive until a few days time as it is a second hand machine.

Thanks in advance!

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5 Responses to “When you’ve completed your sewing, how do you remove your fabric from the machine and finish it?”

  1. DR + Mrs Bears face said :

    I usually get to the end of the seam,reverse about 1-2 cm to stop unraveling. Lift pressure foot pull fabric out and cut off ends of thread.

  2. LindaH said :

    I think the previous answer was better than mine- I usually leave long ends in the thread before cutting it and make sure you lift the foot lever which releases the fabric.

    Once it has been released you can then tie a knot in each thread. It also depends on what you’re sewing – sometimes I would tie the ends together with bedding, sheets, duvet covers etc. This can also apply to cushion covers as they get turned inside out before use.

  3. pattiann42 said :

    When you come to the end of the seam, reverse and back stitch a couple of stitches to lock the threads.

    (1) Turn the handwheel until the uptake lever is at it’s highest position.

    (2) Raise the presser foot and remove the fabric, pulling a few inches of thread with it.

    (3) Cut close the the fabric, leaving the top and bobbin thread tails under and to the back of the presser foot for the next bit of sewing.

    If you fail to do 1 through 3, the thead will pull out of the needle when you begin to sew again.

  4. Kay Bee said :

    All the previous answers are good and precise explanations.
    Some machines have a little thing to the side of the machine that will cut the thread for you.
    I use it all the time and it comes in handy.
    It is just a tiny piece of metal that sticks out.

    My sewing machine is at least five years old if not more.
    I have a singer.

  5. kay said :

    Rules for ending seams:
    1) If your machine doesn’t automatically stop with the needle and the thread uptake lever (the nodding donkey thing) at their highest position, use the handwheel to move the needle and thread uptake lever to the highest position at the end of a seam. Turn the handwheel in the direction that makes the fabric move toward the back of the machine. Stick a postit note on your machine so you know which way… I think of the two ways as “push” or “pull” the top of the wheel. One of them is correct for your machine.
    The stitch isn’t complete until the needle and thread uptake lever are up — you can get all sorts of strange things happening if you pull out the work in the half-completed stitch phase.

    (How sewing machines stitch: http://www.sewusa.com/Sewing_Machine_Repair/Sewing%20Machine%20Stitch%20formation.htm
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockstitch.gif
    Both are worth looking at!)

    2) Most seams don’t need backstitching to secure the ends. Backstitching actually causes more trouble than it’s worth… if a seam end is going to be crossed by another seam later, you don’t need to backstitch it. (Think about a skirt’s side seams — if you sew those, you’re eventually going to be putting a waistband on the top of the skirt, so the top of the side seam doesn’t need backstitching. You’ll also be hemming the bottom, so the bottom of the side seam doesn’t need backstitching. You’ll want to backstitch or otherwise secure the bottom of the hem, though.)

    3) Conventionally, we teach people to put the machine in reverse for a few stitches at the beginning and end of seams. What happens is that the little bit of extra thickness for the backstitches often makes a tiny pucker when you press the seam. You can secure the ends of seams by hand tying the bobbin and top threads (tedious), by shortening the stitch length to very short with the stitch length selector for the first few and last few stitches (less tedious) or by simply hanging on to the fabric at the end of the seam and preventing it from feeding the last couple of stitches (which makes very short stitches). The last method dates from before reverse was offered on sewing machines and is the fastest and least lumpy way to secure seam ends.

    When you’re done with the seam, raise the presser foot (this releases the tension on the top thread) and pull out the work a few inches. Clip the threads at the end of the seam and leave the tails long enough to start the next seam.
    ——–
    Starting a seam properly:
    1) Place the fabric in position under the presser foot. Use the handwheel or needle down mechanism if the machine has one to lower the needle into the start of the seam.
    2) Drop the presser foot.
    3) Hold the thread tails together behind the presser foot — use your left hand.
    4) Take 2-3 stitches
    5) Drop the thread tails and sew normally.

    Sometime when you’re a bit farther along in your sewing journey, please borrow Margaret Islander’s “Industrial Shortcuts” videotape/dvd and watch it, particularly the part on sewing seams that starts about 12 minutes in. If you adopt her methods, you’ll find that they work very well and you’re sewing more efficiently. http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/hstrial-IslanderSewing/-strse-18/Industrial-Shortcuts-for-Home/Detail.bok You should be able to borrow the tape or dvd on interlibrary loan, or Smartflix rents the dvd.




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