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Have you ever turned up a denim hem and you've gotten so frustrated when you've tried to
go over that really, really thick area? Well, there's a couple tricks to this, and so what
I'm going to do is walk you through how to set up your machine for the perfect top stitching,
how to use the multi-purpose tool, and a little cheating when doing some top stitching with
a blind hem foot.
So first off, I've gone ahead and sewed my seam. Now it's really nice to top stitch this
flap, and I know this is dark fabric, but I'm going to start off by taking a straight
stitch, put on my blind hem foot. Now this isn't the optimal foot for every single time,
but you can cheat real quick.
A blind hem foot has a high and a low side, so what I like to do is actually set this
up to have the large toe going down the light side, and the small toe, which is higher,
going down the side where the seam is, and then I'm going to move my needle position
all the way to the far left side.
I have it set on heavy, yes woven heavy setting, and the stitch length is set to three. Now
I would want to use a denim needle for this type of project. It's going to be a bigger
needle, it will go through this nicely, but watch what I've just done.
So first off, I've really made a pretty stitching line with all, writing right next down to
the seam. Makes it nice and flat there. Next, when you do a hem, normally you're turning
it up two times. Let me go ahead and quick I'm going to switch everything back to a center
needle position. Here you're going to turn it up, press it in place, and get it all pinned.
Now so many people want to stitch from this side, because they can see what they're doing,
but you notice your stitches look prettier from the top side? That's why they call it
top stitching. What you want to do is flip this over.
We're going to go ahead and start to stitch, and then just really just go kind of right
own the middle here. I am going to set it so the needle stops in the down position,
'cause what's going to happen when we get to this nice, thick seam is what? I've just
gone ahead, I've got up to it. It had already took a little stutter stitch because it couldn't
get up and over this thick area.
When the foot has to kind of angle up towards us, those speed dogs aren't touching the entire
part of the foot, so what we're going to do is we're going to use the multi-purpose tool.
You notice on this side it's thinner, and on this side it's thicker, so depending on
how thick of a seam we're trying to jump over, I'm going to just lift the foot up just a
little bit more. The needle's down, so it's holding my actual line of stitching.
Take the tool, I'm doing the thin side, go underneath the foot, and set it so it taps
the seam. When you come down to stitch, the foot is now even, because it is supported
on the back side, and now it's going to just stitch right up on top of that plateau. I'm
not even pushing it.
Now before you get too far, stop, because we do need to do that on the other side so
we don't get one long stitch as it's coming off that big, tall mountain it's been on.
So it keeps stitching. Now it will stitch into this, so yes, your machine will stitch
through just about anything.
Stop before you get to the end. Once you find yourself getting far enough down that when
you lower that presser foot the heel isn't too far up on that seam and angling, you'll
be able to stitch the rest of the seam without any problem.
So this is a wonderful tool. Have that close by whenever you need to get over something
really thick.
So take a look. See how perfect those stitches are? And without any extra pushing. Usually
the pushing that breaks the needle, and that type of thing.
Just a little note: if you ever starting right along the edges of a project that's really
thick, you'll notice too when you lower that presser foot, that angle is not going to let
you really stitch, well very well. It's going to take a little tiny stitches, it's not going
to get going. Use that multi-purpose tool. I'm going to set the thicker side back up
here, and if I was stitching another seam starting right at this point, I can go ahead
and stitch, and it's going to go ahead and take it in without giving me too many little
stitches at the beginning.
So this is a great tool. Try it out. Practice it, and next time you have to go over a really
thick seam, this will be the tool you reach for.