The Blindstitcher Machine Saga

I have had the time to work with my Tacsew over the past week so I am posting this comment to help others learn the machine more quickly. This is an excerpt from an email I wrote on the subject:

Me: "I am working with my blind stitcher. I changed the needle! Tra La. That wasn’t hard. No more broken threads. I am also stopping my stitch like I saw on a You Tube film. I pull a bunch of thread through the tension disk, remove the thread from the upper arm, and pull the fabric from behind to cut the thread. I am just afraid of the yanking method. Every time I have done it I have broken the thread.

The hard part was that I went to a little needle (2 ½ because my thread was too thick for the 2) and the thread hole was soooo freaking small that I had to remove the needle from the machine to thread it. Tricky. The next tricky part is using it on this stretch crepe. I will master it, but have to tell you that it ain’t easy. I folded up the hems (sleeves and bottom), ironed it in, and lightly basted it by hand. The whole issue is alignment, and maintaining alignment."

Sister:
" The news on your developing relationship with the blindstitcher is encouraging. (I think I'm going to give mine a name... like "Ray" (Charles), so I don't have to keep typing "the blindstitcher"...) "

Me:
"I like your idea of naming your blindstitcher. I will call mine Rat. Rat and I have come to peace for now. I just finished my paisley top. This is another one of those “if it can go wrong it will go wrong” deals. Listen- do not ever cut out your pattern pieces then dye them. Never, not once, shall you do that. I will explain at a later time if you are interested. Here’s what I learned about Rat today: you MUST check your thread on a scrap of the fabric that you are sewing to determine if you have to increase or decrease the depth of the needle penetration. John at AllBrands told me to test Rat on a double thickness of my fabric. That’s great for checking thread tension, but you need to do a real hemming sample to check the penetration. Next, ignore the dial to adjust the penetration- just turn it until the look is right from the right side of the fabric. For example, my initial setting was dead center between light and heavy fabric and it created an absolutely invisible hem on habotai, but made a visible stitch on the stretch crepe. In order to get an invisible ” of a serged edge to the left of the hump to catch the whole edge AND to hold the fabric a little firmer in my right hand than what I was previously doing. Now I am holding the finishstitch I turned the dial toward “lighter” instead of “heavier” . Next, Rat taught me to put about 1/16" fabric in my left hand and the unfinished hem in my left hand. Get it? FINALLY I mastered the RIP IT OUT method of finishing a seam. The trick is to get your needle in the fully retracted position (as if you were threading it). It works."

Me:
I should have said, “Jerk it out” instead of RIP IT OUT. When you thread the needle the eye is just to the left of the needle plate apparatus. By turning the wheel to the threading position the tip of the needle is secured by the groove in the needle plate. When you have the needle turned that far the upper stitch hand is a little to the left of the center of the sewing channel. It is my guess that the upper hand or something behind it that I can not see is the surface that is cutting the thread.