problem with model 99 singer

Do you mean thread?

No, the earlier ones don't: my FrankenSinger 1949 head does not go backwards, you have to turn the work round. Does yours have a screw-in knob to regulate the stitch length, or an up/down lever? If you have the screw-on knob, it won't go backwards as it wasn't designed to.

Turn the work round, finish off by hand, tie knots?

If the seam is to be crossed by another seam, you really don't need to finish off. Just leave a 2" tail of threads and clip them off later when the seam crossing it has been completed.

Several ways to do this:

1) start and end with several stitches of very short or 0 length. 2) "stall" the fabric (prevent it from feeding) at the beginning and end of the seam -- same effect as #1 3) sew several stitches, stop, raise the presser foot, move the fabric back to the beginning, continue to sew over the first stitching. End the same way. 4) start 1-2 cm from the end, sew to the end of the seam. Leaving the needle in the work, raise the presser foot and rotate the work 180 degrees. Sew the seam. End by leaving the needle in the work, raising the presser foot, rotating the work again, and stitching again for a few cm.

Of these, #2 is the easiest, in my opinion -- in fact, I use it myself, as it's easier than reaching for the reverse button on my machine.

Kay

really super thanks for the help on this

thanks again peter

You're welcome! Stick around and tell us what you are sewing on your Golden Oldie. :)

Mine was in school just before Christmas, playing with a bunch of 10-11 YO's, making Christmas Stockings.

Tangent to the main discussion:

When sewing a dart, back-tacking at the point puts a lump exactly where you don't want one.

So after stitching off the point of a dart, keep stitching for an inch or so, keeping the fold of the fabric under half the foot, but missing it with the needle. This twists the two threads together into a cord. When you break off, leave enough thread to tie into a knot. Tie a half-hitch in the thread ends, then put a pin through the knot into the point of the dart. Tighten the knot around the pin, so that it ends up right against the point of the dart. Trim the ends to half an inch. The half inch will be neatly twisted into a cord. (But from the right side, it really doesn't matter how the ends look.)

One way to tie a half hitch: form the twisted cord into a loop near the point of the dart, with the thread ends passing under the loop. Use a pin to pull the ends up through the loop. Tighten around the pin.

Joy Beeson

One of the very few good points about the Singer Touch & Swear machines was that with the wind-in-place bobbin, you can wind a small amount of thread, start sewing at the point of a dart, and end in the seam allowance leaving no threads, no knots, at the point.

If it's important enough, any machine can do that -- tie the bobbin thread to the needle thread, pull it back through the machine until you can stitch the whole dart without getting the knot into the tension disks. For a short dart, you can pull the knot back to just after the tension disks; if I recall correctly, as long as it doesn't reach the needle you won't have any problem.

But I wouldn't do that unless the dart was going to end up on the right side; a start is never quite so smooth as a finish.

Joy Beeson