Hey everyone! How many of you guys have heard about this nifty invention? When I saw this attachment in action, I knew it was going to save me some serious time! 

Here's the ruffler foot in it's full glory. It may look a little intimidating at first, but I promise it's very easy to use! To start off, you'll want to thread your needle before putting the foot on your machine as it is a bit difficult to do after the fact.

When attaching this foot to your machine, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. 

This particular foot required me to remove not only my regular foot but also the shank or "ankle" and replace my shank screw with a special screw that came with the foot.

On the other side of the ruffler foot, is a little fork that will go around your needle screw. The fork allows the foot to count the number of stitches which is important because we will be telling the foot how many stitches are between each pleat.

On the top of this ruffler foot are options for how often you want your fabric pleated. For this post, I chose to do 1 pleat every 6 stitches.

Here 's what the seam looks like after! You can barely see any of the black thread that I used, and if I had matched it to the fabric it would be invisible.

Want to know if your machine is in tension? Today, I have 2 ways you can check! When you're machine is not in tension, you may get thread bunching under your fabric or your machine may not even make a stitch. Read below to learn how to check your needle thread tension and bobbin thread tension.

Once your machine has been completely threaded, lower your presser foot, and give your needle thread a light tug. If your needle thread is in tension, your thread shouldn't have much give at all.

Above is a picture of a bobbin that is NOT in tension. If you don't see your bobbin thread cutting across the top, check your manual to be sure you are inserting the bobbin correctly.

For this week's Technique Tuesday, I wanted to talk to you guys about another sewing machine foot that is going to save you tons of time! 

While this foot is easy to use, there are a couple of things I like to do to ensure that I get the best results! The first trick I learned to help the roll hem foot get started is to double fold your hem the width it should finish. I usually give it a little press, but this time I just finger pressed my fold into place.

Once my fabric is folded, I set my machine to a regular straight stitch. Then, I line up the fabric under my presser foot and lower my presser foot to hold the fabric in place. I then turn the hand wheel until my needle goes through the fabric and raise the presser foot back up.

Now with the needle still down, we can unfold the remaining part of our fabric and lift it up and over the metal piece in the center. 

Have one of these guys on your sewing machine? This little guy has a tiny hook that passes through our needle eye and pulls our thread through for us!

To start off we're going to thread the top of the machine and make sure to thread the hook above the needle as well.

Turn the handwheel until the needle is the highest position possible. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER! If you skip this step, you could accidentally bend the needle threader and make it unusable.

Next, push the needle threader down until it is butted against your needle. If it's in the correct position, the hook will have passed through the eye of the needle.

The key to using a needle threader is to create a figure 8 with your thread. To do this, loop your thread under and over the left hook.

 Bring your thread to the front of your needle and into the mouth to the right of the needle. Scoop your thread from the bottom of the mouth upward. If you are having trouble with your thread slipping, lower your presser foot to keep your thread taut. To check if your thread has been hooked, pull the thread towards you. It should stay caught on the needle.

Now, slowly release your hold on the needle threader while simultaneously giving your thread enough slack so you don't accidentally unthread the needle.

If done correctly, you'll have a small loop in the back of your needle which you can finish pulling through the eye.

 Once your fabric is lined up you can start sewing. There are a few things to keep in mind while using this foot. One of the most common mistakes I see is not keeping the fabric edge lined up with the overcasting bar. If you allow your fabric to veer off track, the thread will not wrap around the edge of your fabric! Another thing to keep in mind is that you cannot do a reverse stitch. If your machine has a fix stitch, you can definitely use that, but DO NOT reverse. The thread will get tangled and stuck! Most of the time you will be using this stitch, your fabric ends will be sewn to something else which will keep the stitch from coming undone. The rest of the time you are using this stitch will probably be for hems. When using this stitch for hems, wait to use this stitch until your garment is sewn up. This way you will be sewing "in the round" and can overlap the beginning and end of your stitch.

For today's Technique Tuesday, we're going to tackle blind hems! This type of hem is usually used on dress slacks, skirts, or any time you don't want the stitching for your hem to be visible.

To accomplish this hem easily, you're going to need a blind hem foot. If you don't have one, you can still do create this hem with an all-purpose foot, but this hem is definitely easier to do with the correct foot.

To start, we're going to fold our hem as we usually would for a regular hem.

Then, we're going to fold our fabric back the opposite direction leaving the raw edge to stick out a 1/4". Pin this fold in place.

Next we're going to place our fabric under the presser foot. Depending on the foot that came with your machine, you will either have a solid edge to line the fold of your fabric up with or you will have a marking/opening to line it up to.

If you are using a knit fabric, you will select the stitch on the left. Notice that this stitch does a zigzag in-between the long prick stitches. This will allow your fabric to stretch without popping any stitches.

If you are using a woven fabric, you will select the right stitch. This stitch does a regular straight stitch between each prick stitch.

Once you've selected your stitch, you can sew your hem!!!

When your hem is complete, you will have a stitch running along the raw edge of your fabric that will jump to the left onto the fold of your fabric.

If you sewed your hem correctly, you will only be able to see very small vertical stitches on the right side of the fabric. If you match your thread to your fabric, you may not be able to see the stitches at all!


What are some things you do to save time while sewing?