Super-early New Machine pics

[amethyst73]

The new toy.  I think it's female, but I'm not quite certain.  If it's a girl, it's a pretty buff girl.

The first bit of fabric to have thread put through it with the new machine.  Much of it is me figuring out that the running stitch needed to be smaller so as not to make the fabric crinkle (it's a silk-like 100% polyester, which may not have been optimal for a pair of shorts that I'm working on, but there ya go), and messing about with the overcast stitch and seeing how it works (but I think I'll stick with the French seams I've used on the rest of the garment - it looks sooooo much more professional).

Comments

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

In my Fashion sewing classes in community college, I was taught to use 10-12 stitches per inch.

Did your machine come with a straight-stitch needle plate? A standard needle plate will have a wide opening for the needle to pass through, which accommodates a zigzag and any other stitch that uses width features. A straight-stitch plate has a round needle hole instead, which only accommodates a centered straight stitch. Straight-stitch plates and straight-stitch feet (may also be called a "quarter-inch foot") make it MUCH easier to sew those kinds of drapey fabrics and reduces the puckering. It provides more support to the fabric and prevents it from being able to get pulled down into the feed dogs or upward through the foot as the needle passes up and down.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check! I think I've got a foot, but not a needle plate. (Also the manual suggests sewing sheer fabric with a piece of paper behind it to help give it stability.)

The stitch length that worked best (the one perpendicular to the others) was 1.8 mm, or about 13/inch, which is what I'll use if I don't have the straight-stitch foot/plate.

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

If you don't have a straight-stitch plate, then just using the 1/4-inch foot alone still helps. If you have a foot that can work with a left needle placement, then that at least will support the fabric on 3 sides. The downside to sewing off-center though is that it's harder to keep track of your seam allowance width. The needle plate markings are the one thing I DON'T like about Baby Lock machines. The imperial measurements on my Ellegante needle plate are so hard to follow that I never use the machine for regular sewing unless I don't have any alternative.

I've done the sewing behind paper thing, but the paper doesn't tear away cleanly and you're left with all these paper bits stuck in the stitching that have to be picked out. Another option is to use a non-sticky stabilizer instead of paper, because it's meant to be sewn over and then removed, but then you have the added expense of buying the stabilizer.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I don't have the foot or the plate. For the moment, I'll just be lazy and use the smaller stitch length, since that seems to have fixed the puckering problem. It's drapey, but it's not causing huge issues or anything. (If need be, I can finish it on the Singer, since that's worked just fine so far anyway.)

I would also imagine that sewing through paper is a great way to dull your needle REALLY fast.

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm surprised your machine didn't come with a 1/4" foot - I thought it was standard for Baby Lock machines. Fortunately, snap-on 1/4" feet are pretty cheap and easy to find, and they're available in several styles. Some of them have a guide fin on the right side.

And yes, you'd have to change your needle a lot if you're using it to sew through paper.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Nope, no quarter-inch foot... Unless I'm not seeing something in the Esante's (http://babylock.com/embroidery/esante/) list of accessories (under Specs); I didn't spot any feet with just a hole entry with the actual machine the other night when I looked. But weirdly, I also don't see a foot like you describe under the compatible feet (http://babylock.com/accessories/?at=3&compat=BLN) for it. OTOH, I *know* there's a straight-sewing plate available for it, and I don't see that anywhere either.

*shrug*

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

Huh, yeah, I don't see that foot listed in the included accessories.

But, here are the Baby Lock branded 1/4" feet:
http://babylock.com/accessories/feet/?at=3&Product_ID=ESG-QF
http://babylock.com/accessories/feet/?at=3&Product_ID=ESG-QGF

The second one has a guide fin on the right side; the first one doesn't.

Though you could actually use any snap-on 1/4" foot meant for Singer, Brother, or Janome machines, since they all use the same low-shank with snap-on ankle that Baby Lock machines do. I don't think the Esante is any exception.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Huh. Thanks! (I see that the Esante is present on the list of compatible machines; their website could use a consistency check.)

I plan to go to the big J's at lunch today to pick up a pair of jump thread cutters, and I'll check out feet at the same time.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

You're right; the no-name 1/4" foot was cheap ($5 at JoAnn). And it solved the puckering problem right off.

Now I need to see whether I somehow made the same error in my shorts side seams as I did on my waistband: French seams on both, and on the waist band anyway, the first seam ended up being... wait for it... yup, 1/4" instead of my intended 1/8", due to fancy footwork, as it were. (And I think I made the second seam the full 5/8, which I definitely did NOT intend!) Fortunately, I have plenty of fabric if I need to cut another waistband.

I do see what you mean about the Imperial metrics being kind of 'whuh?' on the Babylock, especially as soon as you get away from the left needle position.

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, usually puckering problems on really lightweight fabrics like that are a matter of the fabric being SO light that it travels up and down with the needle, so the feed gets just a little screwed up.

Baby Locks are hard to sew on because the needle plate markings are so badly placed. They're amazing machines, but I really, really wish they made alternative needle plates. This is why I keep sewing on my Viking and only use the Ellegante for embroidery. On the Ellegante, at least, the Imperial measurements are all the way at the BACK of the needle plate, well behind the foot, where they're useless. I think there are a couple Imperial lines further up, but they're way in front of the needle (again, rather useless), AND they measure from a left needle position, not a center position.

Only the metric measurements are in a meaningful location to the right of the foot. This does me no good because all of my rulers are in Imperial measurements, so all of my custom patterns are Imperial. Any commercial patterns I use will also be in Imperial. Several people I know with metric plates just sew 5/8" seam allowances as 15mm, but that's just not exact enough for me.

The default needle plate on Viking machines are metric, but unlike Baby Lock, they DO make alternative needle plates for us silly Americans that completely replaces the entire metric grid with 1/8" increments, and the marks are right next to the foot where they should be. On the Baby Lock, I'm forced to use the quilting bar for EVERYTHING because the needle plate sucks so much.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Oooo. :/ Having now done some Real Sewing on the Esante, I see what you mean about the tewtally annoying Imperial metric marking placement (kinda behind the needle, like the Ellegante). I may either move to metric equivalents, or do what I did on the Singer, which had NO markings at all: put appropriate markings on the needle plate with a permanent (alcohol-solvable) marker. Yeah, they'll be in the middle of the metric markings which may be even MORE confusing, but it may be worth a try.

[onyoukai.livejournal.com]

Two other options:

- In the fashion sewing classes I took in college, a lot of the machines had a little strip of colored tape on the needle plate to mark 1/2" seam allowance from the center position. (It may have been electrical tape, but I don't remember for sure.)

- Did the Esante come with a quilting bar? There's a little hole on the back of the snap-on ankle and the back of the walking foot for inserting a quilting bar. I use a clear, gridded quilting ruler (the 18" x 2" cheap ones from Joann) that has holes in the center spaced every inch, stick it under the foot, and carefully hand-crank the needle to bring it down through one of those holes. Then I adjust the quilting bar to whatever distance I need away from the needle (so 1/2" if I want 1/2" seam allowances).

[jab2.livejournal.com]

impressive! give it an androgynous name, i'm sure s/he'll appreciate it :)

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

I will keep the world posted. :)