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Tips & Techniques |
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Pintuck Tips Pintucks are made by using a twin needle. Viking machines have a feature that lets us choose the twin needle setting. As long as you are stitching straight pin tucks, there is no need to use this feature. But when you want to make pintucks that are a zig zag stitch that goes sideways, you would not want the needle to hit the foot or the hole in the cover plate, so you would use this function to control the width of the stitch. The Viking 1+ and the Rose reduces all of those kinds of stitches to a limit of 3mm wide. NOTE: The Designer 1 does not reduce all those stitches to 3mm. You choose the size of the twin needle that you will be using and it looks at each stitch you choose and changes the width to whatever size it thinks is best. If you use the twin needle settings, you cannot change the width of the stitch but you can change the stitch length. If you remove the "twin needle" setting, you may be able to have the stitch at a 5mm width if you use a 1.6 or 2.0 needle. You CANNOT use the cutter with twin needles. Changing the Stitch Width of a Pintuck Sometimes, I think the machines reduce it too much and I want to get a much width out of the stitch as possible. I found that I can set the width to 5 mm when using a 1.6 or a 2.0 twin needle and still feel safe that it won't break the needle. So, some of the time, I don't use the twin needle setting at all because it will not let me change the width with that feature on. But, I do test each stitch manually before I would start sewing. To make sure, I insert the twin needle (don't thread it yet) and pick the stitch of choice, reduce the SW to 5 and manually turn the handwheel towards you to see if the needle will clear the hole in the foot. Keep turning it to complete the whole stitch so you make sure that the needle will not hit the foot on the cover plate on either the left or the right side. Stitching-Out Samples of Pintuck I like to make samples that I keep in my book for reference later that will actually show the stitchout. I cut a piece of cotton fabric about 6" x 22" long and I lightly spray starch and iron it. I sew a row of stitching and use permanent marking pen to write all settings of that stitchout. Twin Needle Sizes for Different Fabrics Pintucks on very light fabric should be done with a twin needle of 1.6 to maybe 2.0. The heavier the fabric, the bigger the spread between the needles. These numbers are the mm between the needles. A 6.0 needle would not be a pintuck at all because the spread between the needles is too wide. A 4.0 needle might be useful as a pintuck for fleece but not at all appropriate for lightweight fabric. I also use this needle for sewing braids or bias. So, pay attention to the fabric in regards to the needle and always make samples before stitching on your real fabric. Threading You need to know the proper way to thread for twin needles. Put two spools on your machine of the same color. It also seems to sew better when the threads wind off the spools in opposite directions. Thread the first thread on the right side of the tension disk and thread as usual and thread the needle on the right side. The second spool should go on the left side of the tension disk and thread as usual but DO NOT take the thread through the guide above the needle. For the Designer 1 threading , you will first take your thread to the backside of the tension disk and the second thread in front of the tension disk). When you get to the needle, DO NOT take the thread through the guide above the needle. Thread the left needle. Tension With Twin Needles When I make pintucks, I usually like to increase the tension a few notches to make the pintucks "peak" more. (On the Designer 1, touch "set" and the tension setting is on the left side of the screen. Use the "+" to increase it. I want to point something out about changing the tension. If you change the tension for ANY stitch, it will affect every stitch you choose after that until you turn the machine off or change that tension back again to the original setting. Say you change the tension setting on a stitch you choose from 4.0 to 4.6. If you increased the tension by .6mm, all stitches will be changed by .6mm until you turn the machine off or you change it back again to the same settings. It is just easier to turn the machine off to reset the original settings. Pintuck Feet We have pintuck feet, but you don't necessarily have to have one on to do a pintuck. If you use some of the decorative stitches that I am going to recommend, then you just use the decorative stitch foot (clear B). If the stitch doesn't peak enough to suit you, try tightening the top tension a few notches and try again to achieve the look you want. When using a pintuck foot to make straight rows of pintucking, you will want to match the proper needle to it. To do this, lay the twin needles in the grooves on the underside of the foot to see if the needles are appropriate for that foot. For instance a 9 groove pintuck foot would have very close together grooves and a 4.0 twin needle would not work with it. You would use a 1.6 or maybe a 2.0 needle. If I only could afford two pintuck feet, I would prefer the 3 groove (sometimes called "raised seam foot" and comes with a cord guide) and the 5 groove pintuck foot. The 7 groove and the 9 groove foot have very close together pintucks and I don't generally sew pintucks that close together. The grooves in the foot allow you to sew one pintuck and then align that pintuck in the next groove and sew another along side of it to keep it straight. Then move to the next groove and sew again by aligning the pintuck in the next groove. You could also skip a groove and have the pintucks a little further apart but because you place the last pintuck in one of those grooves, it stiched out very straight. Stitches To Use for Pintucks Try these with a 1.6, 2.0 twin needle. 3 step zig zag: Reduce the width to 5.0 (Designer 1, touch "adjust" and use the "-" below the "width setting") instead of using the twin needle setting that reduces it down to 3. Stitch a row on the sample fabric and write your settings. Now, increase the top tension a few notches and change the "stitch length" to a longer stitch and stitch another row and label it. See how it made the stitch spread apart. Now, change the "stitch length" a little more and stitch that out. See how much nicer it looks and it makes a really nice pintuck look. I use this and the following stitches a lot to decorate clothing and also for pillow tops or curtains, etc. Now, remember, we changed the tension on the stitch above, so now every stitch we choose will have that tension changed by that much. So, we don't need to mess with tension changes on each stitch for this sample. 4 step zig zag: This is on the Designer One and is 7.5mm. You can use either the A or B foot and when this stitch sews, the foot actually moves sideways a little. If you look in the lower left corner of your screen, you will see the stitch width and stitch length settings. I found that because this stitch moves the feed teeth sideways, I didn't have to reduce the "width" at all. The needle still had room. So, I changed only the "stitch length" to spread the stitch apart farther to make it appear nicer. Make a sample with the original settings and then change the "stitch length" to various sizes and stitch a row of each and make sure you write your settings on the samples. Serpentine stitch: Try this with SW 5. Don't make any other changes because this is a wavy stitch and it is fine the way it is. Single scallop stitch or tracery scallop: Try this with SW 5. Stitch a row with the normal settings then change the "stitch length" (Des.1 use "adjust") to make the stitch spread out more. Try several "stitch length" changes and sew rows and write down the settings. I love this stitch and the one below to stitch hems on little girls dresses and even my own. Simply fold up the hem and press. Place "Stitch n Ditch" under the hem for stability or lightly spray starch and iron it. Attach the "clear B foot" and place the left edge of the foot where you can see the raw edge of the hem from underneath the fabric. If you have trouble seeing the hem, then you may have to draw a faint line with a #2 pencil or a wash away pen. When you are finished with the hem, cut away the excess fabric close to the scallop stitching line. This will not ravel since you have created a zig zag stitch underneath with the twin needle. Arch stitch: I use this stitch the same as I do the one above. You may want to use the "side to side mirror". Don't forget to change the "stitch length" to spread the scallop more. Quilting stitches on Designer One: E3 Change the SW to 5 and try to change the "stitch
length" too. I like SL at 1.2. Play with the "stitch length" and "stitch width" and sometimes the "horizontal mirror" to make pintucks using these stitches. They look wonderful on dresses, blouses, skirts, pillow tops, etc. |
