Sewing machine

Sigh , what a total **** !

Hello, I was selling the machine on behalf of my mother. On returning from Liverpool this evening I found that she has already sold the machine for a fraction on the sale price. I am sorry there is not alot I can do apart from refund the money and apolgise. I would appreciate it you would not leave bad feeback however understand if you do. Sorry
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He didnt reply to my request to pick it up today and only got in touch when i paid for it via pay pal :rolleyes:
 
Have a look here.
Click through the pre-owned route and you should come to some 'heavy duty semi-industrial' machines that include many of those mentioned in former posts. Any of these machines will do the job.
 
KellysEye said:
The Brother might be cheap but doesn't have a walking foot which, as said earlier, is essenttial for multiple layers of canvas.
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Not really essential. If you want to sew 6 layers of canvas which are all separate then I'd agree, but normally you are adding 1 or 2 layers to 3 or 4 that have already been sewn together. In this case a normal heavy duty machine will cope quite happily. I've been making canvas work for the last 20 odd years without using a walking foot.
 
I've made two sets of cushion covers with material bought from Zebedee Fabrics in Bournemouth. Their eBay store usually only lists short lengths but they seem to buy up end of lines in complete rolls. My last lot of upholstery fabric (not marine grade) was 26 metres at around £8.50pm instead of £30pm. It's a bit pot luck as to what they have in stock but they do have a lot. I found what I wanted by calling in at the shop.

When I said I made them, Mrs Dipper did all the sewing! I helped measure and cut.
 
A basic sewing machine has a pair of serrated feet in the base to pull the cloth through as it is stitched.
A walking foot machine also has them in the foot that comes down on top of the material, working better when several layers are being stitched together.
 
Thank you.

I see that a walking foot is available for the Singer 447 notes above as being a good machine for making cushions and ocvers etc.

I'll look out for one of them.
 
Walking foot...Not really essential.

It may not be essential but it makes life much easier. If you don't have one you need to feed multiple layers of canvas through at a continuous speed for the stitches to be the same length. Difficult at best, impossible if you haven't spent many hours practising and wasting canvas.
 
Collected this tonight.

sewingmachine.jpg
 
Well I messed about with it for a while and no luck, kept getting tangled up, breaking thread, so I took it to a sewing machine place and got it fixed, there was a broken bit inside. Still, it owes me £200 all fixed and working which I think is ok.

Now, I've been experimenting a bit, made a dinghy bag and made a littler bag for my dad's dinghy anchor and warp, so far so good.

I'm trying to work out how to end a line of stitching, I can put the reverse lever down and back track and inch, that's fine, stop, lift the foot, make sure the needle is up, now it gets wierd, when I pull the job away from under the foot there is an extra loop of thread going under the plate, so there is 4 threads, cut them, then there's one length that pulls out free and the two usual remaining threads, one from top and one from bottom, is this extra left over bit due to the reversing?

Anybody still with me? Or all confused/bored?
 
that sounds a bit odd but provided nothing jams up, let it ride.

I try to end a run of stitching with a "bar tack". The easiest way is to keep the zig-zag going, and bring the advance down to almost nothing. This makes about 2 to 3 mm of solid zig-zag, which locks the thread off.


They are useful when undertaking a long line of stitching, where a pulled thread might result in a long hem becoming detached, as in a bed sheet. I tend to stick them in at odd intervals. :eek:
 
burgundyben said:
I'm trying to work out how to end a line of stitching, I can put the reverse lever down and back track and inch, that's fine, stop, lift the foot, make sure the needle is up, now it gets wierd, when I pull the job away from under the foot there is an extra loop of thread going under the plate, so there is 4 threads, cut them, then there's one length that pulls out free and the two usual remaining threads, one from top and one from bottom, is this extra left over bit due to the reversing?

Anybody still with me? Or all confused/bored?
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I do the same, backstitch half inch or so but then do a couple of stitches in the normal direction. When you lift the foot and pull the job out the needle needs to be on its downward stroke because it has then slipped the stitch that it was in the process of making. You may be pulling out while it still has a stitch 'in the process' so to speak. It's quite instructive to watch inside the bobbin compartment while you turn the wheel by hand to see the process that's going on.
If I am sewing with a zigzag I do as Sarabande says and do a bar tack.
 
Cuchilo said:
I'd like to have a go at making a canopy for my runabout and also some cusions but because im not a house wife i dont know what machine i would need . Also where is the best place to get the materials to make the above items ?
Any help would be great . Thanks .
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I recently made a complete set of canopy's for my Nic38, the quote I had required a second mortgage!
Never used a machine before, but was lucky to talk to the right man, found him on ebay thesewingmachineguyian I bought a New Home 675 from him, its a domestic machine, built like a tank, sews heavy materials and several layers of denim together easily.
Do not be taken in by the description 'semi-industrial' no such thing, they are either domestic or industrial, but some domestic better than others.
For my material, Sunbrella, (they have a huge range of different material) I bought it from Sailrite in the USA, along with fasteners, zips, threads etc, they also have an online advice line where you can type your question live with an expert to answer you, which I found very useful as a beginner. They also have hundreds of 'how to' videos, an invaluable free service.
If you want photos of what I made be happy to send to your email.
I am going to make new cushion and bunk covers next.
 
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