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What is a stitch?
A stitch is formed when a piece of thread is treaded through fabric with a
needle to hold the fabric together(like seams), prevent the fabric from unraveling (overlocking) or to
embelish the fabric (embroidery).
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Two main types of stitches.
Lock stitch:
A lock stitch is formed when the upper thread
is looped around the lower thread (on a bobbin) by a hook. The two threads are then interlocked once
pulled tight by the thread take up lever.
Most domestic sewing machines will form a lock stitch.
If
your machine uses a bobbin and bobbin case, the machine is forming lock stitches.
Lock stitches can
be formed straight, zik-zak, whilst the fabric is being fed forward or reverse and also during a combination
of the above needle bar, and feed dog movements. We can therefore produce an array of fancy stitches
with a "lockstitch" machine.
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Chain stitch:
A chain stitch is formed when the upper thread or looper thread is intercepted
by lower- or upper looper. The threads are looped around each other and a chain stitch is formed. The
threads are not interlocked and the stitch can be unravelled by pulling the ends of the threads.
Chain
stitches can only be formed in a line in one direction.
You can not sew in reverse when the machine
is forming chain stitches.
All machines using loopers will form chain stitches.
This includes overlockers,
cover seam machines and 1 or multi needle chain stitchers.
Machines forming chain stitches can generally
sew much faster than machines forming lock stitches.
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Needles
Needle system
Needles comes in various shapes and configurations.
We describe
needles by using an alpha numeric value commonly called a needle system.
The needle system used by
most domestic machines is described as HAx1 or 130/705H.
The household machine needle is recognised
by having a flattened shank, on the same side of the needle as the scarf. This will ensure that people
with little sewing experience will always insert the needle the right way into a domestic sewing machine.
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Parts of a needle
A needle have a shank, with a long groove on the one side of the shank, a
hollow area on the opposite side of the long groove just above the eye of the needle called the scarf,
an eye and a point.
The top of the shank is flattened on one side for household machine needles
and round for industrial machine needles.
The long grove is for the thread to fit into. The scarf
or hollow area above the eye of the needle is where the looper or hook tip will pass very close to the
needle to catch the thread.
The eye of the needle is for the thread to pass through.
The point
of the needle will determine the way the needle will pentrate the fabric and move through the fabric.
The shape of the point will also determine whether damage is caused to the fabric whilst sewing.
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