Thread Your Sewing Machine

So you got this sewing machine from your grandmother, or picked one up at a yard sale. But it's been sitting in the box picking up dust ever since. Once you learn how to thread your machine, everything else it is just trail and error and experimentation. Once you work out the quirks of your machine, then endless creations ensue!

NOTE: These are instructions for my sewing machine. All sewing machines differ but this is a start. With a little intuition you should figure yours out easily enough.

STEP 1: Start your bobbin.
A bobbin is the little plastic or metal wheel that fits underneath the needle plate of a sewing machine. A machine's stitch is made from two threads- one through the eye of the needle and one up from the bobbin. Thread runs off the bobbin, gets picked up by the needle’s thread and forms the bottom part of a seam.



To thread your bobbin, place a spool of thread on the thread pin located on the top of the machine like the picture above. Place an empty bobbin on the bobbin pin. Wind a few inches around your empty bobbin. Push the bobbin over into the lock position. Press down on the foot pedal slowly while holding the winding thread.

Slowly and evenly fill up your bobbin.

Step 2: Move the bobbin into the bobbin casing:



Take the end of the thread and wind through the thread slits. You'll have to refer to your user manual for this. It's hard to explain, but there is a little "path" in the bobbin casing that the thread must be pulled through. Pull out a few excess inches of thread.
Snap the bobbin casting into place underneath the needle plate:



Step 3: Thread the needle
Take hold of the thread end and pass it through the designated threading points on the top of the machine casing, then down toward the tension assembly. SO that means there are several levers obstacles that the thread must wind around. First is at the top.



After winding around the 2nd top lever, thread through the eye of the needle. Don't forget to push thread through the little clip before hand though (see picture)



Thread the needle from the front or back of the needle. Pull a few inches of thread through the eye of the needle and pull the thread to your left.



After threading needle, pull through a lot of extra. Grip excess with one hand and rotate hand wheel (picture below) with the other.



Rotating the hand wheel will plunge the needle into the bobbin below and will grab the bobbin's thread and pull a loop back through.




Grab the loop and the needle thread and pull together until you have an even amount of excess from both threads. Place your cloth underneath the foot, lover the foot lever to lock your cloth into place (feel around for the foot lever, it's always right near the needle). Slowly start your stitching!


A nice tip my mom taught me:
If you pin your cloth perpendicular to the stitch, you can sew RIGHT OVER the pins without having to remove them first!






HAVE FUN! If anything is unclear then please comment and I will try to answer your questions.