Twin Needle

Today's postcard - just fooling around with twin needle stitching

I've rarely used a twin needle on my sewing machine, although that's about to change. I always thought it was for straight stitching parallel lines and never thought about much beyond that. Turns out that I should read my manual more often.

Here's the deal:

Basically, twin needle threading is similar with most machines, but do look at your manual to see what's recommended for yours. Usually, one of the threads comes through one side of the tension disc and one on the other side. And, for the left needle, the thread goes through that last thread guide above the needle. For the right needle, bypass that last guide.

And those confusing sizing numbers aren't really so confusing at all. The first number represents the distance between the needles, in mm. It's usually 2 mm or 4 mm. The second number is the needle size that we're used to seeing.

You need to use a pressure foot with a wide opening, usually the zig zag foot. If you keep on your 1/4" piecing foot with the little round hole, you'll be very sad.

Those lines of straight stitching are really nice and you can use different colors of thread. If you're using the same thread color, you can wind an extra bobbin and use that instead of spool - then you won't have to buy two spools of the same thread.

It turns out that my machine has a safety twin needle setting and I can sew parallel lines of various stitches. If I try to use a stitch that's too wide, the machine automatically adjusts the stitch to fit. It can then be sewn without breaking that expensive needle and really scaring me. And I can program in the width between my needles. Oh, my gosh.

It's kind of hard to see the stitching in this photo, but it's a little better (barely) by clicking on it. You might have to take my word for it that the stitching is really pretty.

I wonder what else my manual says.