attention sewers: i have another lovely guest post from Toyota Home Sewing. Toyota manufacturer and supply quality sewing machines and sewing machine accessories for home use. this time they share some tips on how to save some time with that nifty sewing machine of yours.
Save Time with Sewing Machine Accessories
When you have a need to save time when sewing, you have a wide range of sewing machine accessories from which to choose. In fact, even if saving time is not your main concern, but being able to do a job properly that you find difficult to do normally, then an appropriate accessory can often help you to achieve perfection.
Take the elastic gathering accessory, for example. Many machine sewers, men or women, find it difficult to properly gather elastic so that it stretches evenly around the garment. An elastic gathering attachment makes this difficult job very easy to carry out. Other foot attachments, such as an adjustable hem seam guide, can make a whole host of sewing jobs suddenly become as close to automatic as they can get.
Among the most useful sewing machine accessories is the hemming foot. This tool cuts a huge proportion of sling sewing time as you no longer have to stop and fold hems while sewing (or even more time consuming – resort to ironing the hem).
Speaking of visibility – you can get a light attachment sewing machine accessory that attaches to the body of the machine and that has a flexible arm that will throw light on any area of your stitching that you want. This is great to give to full visibility when lighting conditions are less than optimal, or where shadows are spoiling your view.
Other time-saving sewing machine accessories are portable tables that you can set up to hold your work horizontal with the machine so have a much larger work area. Another advantage of that is that when piecing fabrics you can get all the pieces laid out on the table first. A table also helps to avoid the fabric pulling on the needle and disrupting the stitch or creating uneven stitching, particularly when quilting (a wide throat machine is best for quilting).
There are many other sewing machine accessories available, but when thinking of them don’t forget the essentials. Let’s finish with a couple of essential tips:
First, make sure that you use the best thread you can for the job, and try to match the thread with what you are sewing. You will need a strong thread for denim, while silk will look better with a lighter less obvious thread. Next the needle: don’t just use the same needle for everything as many do. Use a good sturdy needle for denim, and again with silk, you should use a fine needle that won’t tear the fabric or create visible holes.
Finally, if you sew professionally or semi-professionally, then you may want to consider a serging machine. A serger usually comes as part of the machine, but it sure allows you sew faster by sewing the seam and finishing the edge at the same time.
Oh! – I nearly forgot the most important of all sewing machine accessories for you busy machinists: a headset for your phone! Saves you switching it off, and you can take calls while sewing!
*thanks Toyota!! that’s some good information there. i need to get me some of those accessories. although i do have a serger…and can’t figure out the tension correctly so it looks horrible. must get on that!
peace and love
xox
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