29 thoughts on “How a sewing machine works”

  1. I’ll admit it…I’ve always wondered about that. Now, hopefully, I can sleep peacefully tonight. Thanks for clearing that up!

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  2. Damn. But what about the rest of the sewing machine? I have to take mine apart literally every time I use it. Threading it takes forEVER. There’s like 30 steps and most of them seem pretty unnecessary.

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  3. Oh, the sorrow! The final mystery has been revealed! Life is no longer worth living. You have caused my demise cruel B&P. Now where did I put those cyanide capsules?…..

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  4. Okay, Maffu…I really can’t think of anything clever for that. I surrender. And please, for the love of god, get these damn pixies out of here.

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  5. The picture is wrong. Both of yellow threads initially _behind_ of green one, then one of yellows by some magic way showed on front, another still behind of green one. It is impossible for a such loop formed by yellow thread.

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  6. Alex, the loop goes down behind the bobbin thread then loops around the bobbin itself. The loop from the top thread then twists. What was the far thread of the loop at first becomes the near thread at the end.

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  7. Julie, there is another part of machine. I don’t know the name of that part (English is not my native language). That part (looks like crane) will pull the thread up when loop is done.

    Yvonne, I’m not sure you are right but I can’t argue. Sorry 🙂

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  8. Julie – the needle carrying the yellow thread goes up and down and the thread coming from it goes through a tensioning mechanism to ensure that it always takes back the slack.

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  9. It’s a wonder that the machines stay precise enough for the top thread to meet the hook at all and create the straight stitch.

    Wonder how the zigzag stitch is managed. How does the needle thread meet the hook in 2 different places?

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  10. Zig-zags are just the needle moving left and right, since that bobbin/race thing is a disk it’s able to pick up the upper thread from those positions as well. The actual needle movement is done by a gear in the upper part of the sewing machine (which is mechanically linked to the bottom part so that the timing still lines up).
    I still don’t understand how the upper thread can wind around the bobbin thread though, unless there’s something that pushes the bobbin thread back and forth as well.

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