Basting Stitch

We recently bought a "discount store machine" to replace my wife's broken Singer.

All the patterns I have be looking at talk about machine basting but my Brother is limited to 4mm stitch length which is useless for basting.

I browsed around the web looking at more (much) expensive machines and find the same limitiation.

How does one baste with a machine?

js

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jack
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uttered>We recently bought a "discount store machine" to replace my wife's>broken Singer.>

I just whap the stitch length up as far as it'll go and loosen the needle tension some so that the stitches will pull out easily. Experiment!

Reply to
She who would like to be obeye

With a 4mm stitch with the tension loosened off......

My machine will do a 6mm long stitch and go up to 6mm wide (Husqvarna Platinum 770 - a very nearly TOL machine), I would still lossen the tension off for basting though.

HTH,

Sarah

Reply to
Sarah Dale

My longest stitch is 4mm, and today [Monday] I took a basted-together blouse[1] apart in just a few minutes. I hadn't even loosened the top tension.

But my tension *does* need balancing.

Sometimes I baste with a double thread in the bobbin, which causes the bobbin thread to run straighter, and allows me to use more force in pulling on the thread without breaking it. This is mostly for easing and gathering, but I'll sometimes use the double-wound bobbin to overcast the raw edges of yard goods that I'm about to wash.

Joy Beeson

[1] it fits fine -- darts are still too high, but this style of dart *can't* be made low enough for an old lady; before using the sloper again, I shall rotate the shoulder darts into side-seam darts.

I'm quite pleased -- it's the first time I've drafted a bodice from measurements since 1965, and that time I didn't do the sleeves. And *this* time I didn't have decent directions. (I do wish I could remember more about the book I used in 1965 than that it was written in the forties, so I could find it again.)

Moreover, the cheap shirting I'm testing the pattern in doesn't look half bad.

Tuesday: I've got all the pieces attached together again. Now to design a collar and a skirt. I can modify my old collar pattern, and my Injoo Kim pants[2] are practically already a straight-skirt pattern.

[2]Threads 89, June-July 2000, note that the back draft is drawn *on top of* the front draft.
Reply to
joy beeson

Dear Joy,

First to your basting stitch and gathering. Try sliding the fabric along the threads, rather than pulling the threads. My threads never break, but that's because I simply hold them taut, and slide the fabric.

Second, I understand about moving bust darts--I'm also old (67). This is a joke I heard or read recently.

An elderly lady asked her doctor where her heart was, exactly. The doctor replied that it was about two inches below her left nipple. The next day, the doctor was astounded to read in the paper that one of his patients (the elderly lady) had been taken to the hospital with a bullet in her knee, and a suicide note pinned to her dress.....

Teri

Reply to
gpjones2938

Teri, dear, how about a better warning next time, my keyboard is covered with coffee! ;-}

Reply to
BEI Design

(the elderly lady) had been taken to the hospital with a

Goes along with the joke.......What's the most popular sized bra for ladies over 60?

38 long :(

Val

Reply to
Valkyrie

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:27:30 GMT in alt.sewing, joy beeson wrote,

I have a spool of Guterman polyester upholstery thread. I swear you _cannot_ break it by pulling on it by hand (a sharp edge will go through it easily, though.) I would use that in the bobbin.

Reply to
David Harmon

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