Success with twin needle stitching!

Don't forget to check out my pattern giveaway!!

Finally, Burda Oct 2005 and twin needle stitching are done. Nothing like commenting on Male Pattern Boldness's Monday goals blog posting to inspire one to get the goods done before the next status update!

The shirt looks totally unflattering in the pix I took and I don't know why, so I will iron the whole shirt tomorrow and will try taking more pix. This is the best I can do for now, my chest looks oddly funky here


I had been putting off finishing this shirt for a while. I think I was afraid it was going to take a lot of "messing about" to get it to work, and was also fearful it wouldn't work at all and I would have spent another x hours on it only to fail.

Here's what I tried with twin needle stitching today (sorry I'm not crediting my sources here, but these things worked! If you suggested one of the items below--thank you!):

*the extra spool of thread should be counterclockwise
*kept the thread tails long; it seemed to help
*sewing slowly helped as well
*I did a longer stitch length (2.5 or 3 both worked)
*tension was near 3 and actually seemed better than 2
*both spools of thread were the same brand and color
*bobbin was freshly wound from one of those spools of thread
*I used a stretch twin needle (pretty wide one too)
*each needle was threaded through the machine separately
ETA: Here's some new tips in italics as of 7/18/10:
*make sure to stitch on the RIGHT side of the fabric (I'm so used to stitching on the wrong side)
*someone commented and said they use a bobbin for the second spool--this means you don't have to buy two spools! excellent! I tried it and it worked fine.
*I have used a different color in the bobbin (in the machine) and it didn't seem to make a difference. It still stitched fine, and the color on the bottom didn't show on the right side of the fabric.

It stitched beautifully. No skipped stitches and the slight puckering seemed to come out after ironing (I only ironed my hems, ha ha)

I had to stitch a straight seam and begrudgingly unthreaded the machine. When I set it up for twin needle stitching again, it was a disaster! It jammed up right away. I unthreaded and rethreaded multiple times, and it kept jamming. So I tried pulling on each thread individually to see which one was jamming. The one on the right pulled through fine, but the one on the left seemed to get caught on something. The thread on the left is supposed to go under that thing above the needle to keep the thread straight. I simply removed the left thread from underneath that metal thing, pulled on the thread again, it didn't get stuck, so I tried sewing again and it worked great! (so both threads were not under the metal guidebar thing).

Also, sometimes the two threads seemed to be intertwined/twisted together but it didn't make a difference.

I will always hem knits with a twin needle from now on....until I learn to use a serger. I will definitely be looking for opportunities to use a twin needle while sewing wovens as well.

Here's the hem of the cowl neck on the left, and the hem of the shirt on the right:


Here's the twin needle stitching on the center back seam of the cowl neck:


I'm so excited with how professional the stitching looks!

good night!