Collette Snippets March 25th

Argggg. There are two things I hate about my Bernina sewing machine. One is the thread slot on the right side, where I unthread as I slide my fabric into place.

The other is thread nesting.  Beginning of seam is a mass of thread loops on the underside, and messed up tension through the seam. A tune up helps ($170 before tax without parts in Seattle), as does redoing the tension in the bobbin (free but hard to get right). 

I cannot hold the thread, the fabric, check the seam allowance AND slide the piece in at the same time.

One thing that does help me find the top thread, is clipping a wonderclip (the little Clover ones) onto the end of the top thread when I cut the threads from the previous seam. If this seems a little precious and overdone,

you have never heard me swear.

Today's Colettle Patterns Snippet isn't from me, but it sure tells my story.

I cannot link to this page properly. So here is the link to Colletterie weekly snippets sign up page. 

For one, it's not the bobbin thread nesting; it's the top thread. The top thread should not be dragged into the bobbin threads at the start of the seam. I am pretty sure it's the machine timing being out of whack, but it is quite the @#$### if you are working with chiffon.

That said, this is a good trick for getting sheers to track at the beginning of the seam; it's like steering from the direction you are going.

Which makes me wonder if I've screwed up the feed/bobbin tension BY doing this. A self fulfilling prophecy? The more I do it, the worse it gets?

Oy.

photo from Kenneth King's Jean-ius! Craftsy class

And here's Kenneth King pulling his damn threads back at the start of a seam.

Why, lord, why have you afflicted us so?