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The hand-look quilt stitch is found in menu D, the quilt stitches, and stitch number two.
It has a funny look to the stitch picture, but when you select it, it actually shows
you what it’s going to actually stitch like. Now, this is a manipulated stitch. You made
need to adjust this, based on the fabric, batting, thread everything that you might
be using.
The foot that it recommends is foot P. That’s your quarter-inch foot. I have that on. Then
it actually is meant to go through batting. So, we have layered-up fabric batting. This
is going to look like you’ve done it by hand, but you’ve done it by machine which
we love.
First off, we’re going to take clear thread, which I’ve put on a thread stand, and I’ve
threaded it into the machine. I have found that clear thread or monofilament thread doesn’t
play nicely when it’s this close to the first guide. It’s a little curly, wiry.
It just has its own mind. It’s like a two-year old. It’ll do whatever it feels like doing.
Then by putting it on a thread stand, it’s going to make all the difference in the world.
Let me show you how you make the stitch work to your advantage and what you’re looking
for for the perfect setting. First off, when you start to sew, you’ve got a thread color.
You want it to be showing on the top in your bobbin. We’ve got blue in our bobbin. As
we sew, it has a stitching sequence where it’s going to sew forward and then back.
Then it’s going to lock it and then forward again.
Because the tension is so high, take a look at this sewing information, the tension is
at eight to start off with. That’s preset because we want to drag the bobbin thread
up through the batting and bring it to the top side, lock it in place, and then stitch
forward. Where you have the spacing in between where the stitches are not actually showing,
that’s where the clear thread is.
Let me show you how this is going to look. Now, I mentioned batting could be a little
bit one of the variables. I have had batting where it just doesn’t want to allow the
thread to pull up from the bobbin. I am sure that there is some lady somewhere that was
sewing with fishing line in her sewing machine one day from her husband’s tackle box and
she was sewing with the manipulated stitch and she thought oh, this looks like hand-stitching.
With that, we found that, from here on out, machine companies have put that stitch on
the machine. It is manipulated.
For example, as we start to stitch, we want to see that some of the stitches are coming
up to the top side. Now, I did shorten the stitch length a little bit. Then that way
… Actually, no I didn’t. This is what it’s at, seven. I like it a little bit shorter.
It tends to pull the stitches together. I don’t know about you, but hand-stitching,
when it’s closer together, actually looks prettier. So, we’re going to go ahead and
get that and may … Nope, that’s going to look good. It’s going to look like I
am a beautiful hand-quilter. That’s what we’re looking for.
Now, there is a place to pivot and a place to not pivot. You want to make sure that as
you’re pivoting, you’re not pivoting when you’re on that backstroke. You want to pivot
when you’re on the forward stroke. There’s two of them and any one of those is a great
pivot place.
Okay, let’s take a look and see what’s looking good here, all right. Now, I did pivot
on the wrong place because I was talking, but this is why because it will go back and
make that stitch up there. If you pivot at the right place, in-between one of these stitches
that is showing, you will have a perfect corner as you go.
Also, too, it is normal that the first couple stitches do not look perfect because it almost
needs to get going, then get that tension to pull up that first stitch completely. The
back is going to tell that you did not do this by hand. So, if you don’t want this
to be showing, well, it’s going to. It’s going to prove that you didn’t do it by
hand, but isn’t great? That clear thread makes it look like there’s a break in between
those hand-look stitches.
You can use this foot or you could use it with a walking foot. If you find yourself
doing a lot more of this and you’ve got batting and layers that you don’t want to
move, the first small project you can use the foot letter P, the quarter-inch foot that
comes with this machine.