Responding to a Comment

“I have a singer 306 given to me by my grandmother. She took a great deal of care on this machine and I follow in her footsteps. My machine sews through delicate laces and into hard thick denims with a beautiful stitch! I still use it today as the machine is better than modern ones in many ways. It is in the original cabinet, additional feet, manual and even 30 extra fashion disks to go with it. There are so many variations with these disks that I could consider it also as an embroidery machine. Currently I am on a quest to find a book on using these additional fashion disks. Why can't they make sewing machines like this anymore? This is perfection!”

That is a good question to ask about a lot of things! My mom’s Singer broke down years ago although I still own it. The Singer I got last summer is still waiting to be repaired, so in the meantime I use my Janome 6500. I am hoping that once I get the old Singer repaired to use a vintage sewing pattern, vintage style fabric and vintage trims to make something on the machine just to see how it sews. With my old Singer I was very impressed with the manual as it taught me some things my manual for my new machine didn’t have.

I think that is the point of my comment. Just about every sewing machine that is for sale currently has decorative stitches and/or utility stitches. But the manuals never tell you what they are supposed to be used for! It is a case of trial and error and hopefully running into a good book or magazine article that sheds some light on the topic. I think that is why I have been so impressed with Jenny Haskins’ and her son Simon’s books. Even though they use lots of machine embroidered designs, they base most of their designs on stitch building—using all those decorative stitches together in unique ways—that makes their projects a work of art. I also like the book All About Machine Arts: Decorative Techniques from A to Z, which has a glossary of different decorative stitches with suggestions for usage.

Of course the best way to learn how to use those stitches, is stabilize a chunk of fabric and sit down and start sewing! I did that the other day and ended up with a decorative stitched pocket and front bands for a sweatshirt jacket. Since I used variegated threads of colors I usually wear, this jacket goes with most of my clothes.

Still I too, continue the quest to learn more about those amazing stitches! Anyone with suggestions, please post. If possible, I will get a copy of the book and post a review here.