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Stitch number 1354 is a satin stitch. Now when you select it, on screen you're going
to notice that it's fairly narrow. Let's do a little practice over here, in our quilt
sampler here. As you can see it's very, very narrow. It starts off at about a 1.4 millimeters
but it's designed to be preset with a short, short stitch line. All I'm going to do is
make it a little bit wider, number one so you can see it, and probably to a level that
is a little bit easier to work around than actual appliqué. I do have the optional foot
number 20 available on the machine and it really is a nice foot because of this. See
this little groove that's cut out all the way behind the foot, that is what is allowing
the really heavy satin stitch not to get hung up. Allows you to get really close stitches
as you stitch and guide and be able to see where you're going. We're going around the
little heart here. What we're going to do is set the machine to stop with the needle
in the down position. If you don't want to guide this zig zag right down the center of
your foot, you can use the needle position. Move it all the way over to the far right
then you can use the inside of the right toe as a guide, watch this. Then it's a little
easier. The idea is that you want to keep the majority of the satin stitch on the appliqué
fabric. Most of it is being cut then it's jumping right over the raw edge as you go
around.
Now for pivoting, what we want to do is we want to make sure that we pivot on the outside.
As I pivot, I'm going to come back, overlap a few stitches. If you pivot on the wrong
side, it's going to open it up and give you a gap. Now as we start to go around a tighter
curve, that means more stopping and pivoting. It's actually easier to stop and pivot than
to try to shift your fabric with your hands because that doesn't always give you a smooth
run. Stop and pivot more often for a smoother run on this. Again, if you need it a little
bit wider, go ahead and increase that then you have a pretty look around this heart.
Let's see what we've got. That's where I made it a little bit wider but isn't that a pretty
satin stitch where we started. Another thing you can do is put the thread through the finger
of your bobbin case. That will give you a little bit more pull to the back side. Take
the thread, go down through the hole, leave everything threaded like normal, put it back
in your machine, and you're set for a really pretty stitch.
Don't forget, pick up foot number 20. It's probably the one, between that one and foot
number 10 an edge stitch foot, the one I use the most.