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People always ask, "Do I have to hold on to these threads when I start to sew?" You might
have on machines in the past, but if you have your thread underneath your presser foot and
out to the side, you can be out here at 9 o'clock, 10, 11, or all the way out to the
back, 10 o'clock, and you start with your presser foot landing on fabric first. Now,
if you're way back here and you can't see your fabric through that little opening where
the needle is going in and out, yes, you probably do want to hold these just so it doesn't get
kind of taken down, but as long as that first stitch is in fabric first, you don't have
to hold those threads when you start to sew.
Here is why: When you start and stop with the take up lever at the highest position
that means the stitch is complete. So, for example, if you stop and the needle is in
your fabric, here I am just going to kind of sink it down, and you turn your hand wheel
toward you, you bring your needle up but look where the take up lever is; it's way down
here. Now, a lot of people will pull the fabric out. Sometimes it's hard to pull out because
there are, like, 3 threads here. That should be clue #1 that maybe you didn't finish something.
Then they pull this out and what's going to happen is, the first thing you're going to
do is this take up lever is going to pull the rest of the thread that is down in the
bobbin as it was completing the stitch and it pulls that thread right out of that needle
and that's where they had it come along of needing to hold these threads when you start
to sew. So, if you just utilize the machine and let the machine actually stop with the
needle in the highest position or stopping down and not use the hand wheel to turn your
stitch when you're done, you can use the button that's on the front of your machine as well.
That will make sure that this is always at the highest position and your last stitch
is completely made and then you don't have those problems of having to hold the threads.