How to eliminate messy starting stitches

Do you have a bunch of extra thread knotting up or bunching when you start a seam? Have you resorted to always starting on a scrap piece of fabric?

Ready to just start up without a mess or extra steps?

The video below explains why the mess happens and what to do so you can sew every seam neatly from the start.

Video Summary

It really helps to watch the video to truly understand what’s going on with your sewing machine, but if you’re having technical difficulties…

A sewing machine makes a stitch by interlocking the needle thread with the bobbin thread. It does this by wrapping the needle thread around the bobbin with each stitch. To do the wrapping process the machine needs extra needle thread in order to wrap the needle thread around the entire bobbin. After it’s wrapped it around it needs to eliminate that extra thread it used so that the stitch is nice and tight. The machine provides extra thread and then takes it away using the take up lever.

The process works really well in the middle of a seam when the other end of the thread is being held by the previous stitches. But at the beginning of a seam the machine pulls the thread tail in to use and creates extra thread. The takeup lever can’t eliminate all that extra so there’s extra thread to make a mess.

By holding your thread tails just for the first few stitches you can eliminate the mess.

If your thread tails want to pull out of your fingers as you start, make sure that you are starting your seam with the take up lever in the highest position.

If you like the video, check out my whole video course below.