Specialty Bobbin Case, Part II

After a weekend of playing and gardening, I finally got Behemoth set up and specialty bobbin case installed. For this test, I started with a fairly thick thread that I found stashed in one of the drawers in my little sewing cabinet.  My guess is that I originally purchased this with needle tatting in mind.  Someday, I will learn to tat.

This is a fairly thick thread. Here are the results of my playing:

This first picture of a basic utility stitch on my machine.  The first row of stitching at the bottom of the picture is with no changes to the upper tension or to the bobbin case.  Although it is not look I was going for, it reminds me a little of a hand embroidery stitch.  I could see that being used in a decorative way with a more decorative thread on top than the one I'm using.  I think the upper tension on this stitch started at 4.0.

In both of these pictures I was using a small serpentine stitch and a 4-step zigzag.  Playing with just the upper tension and going all the way 9.8 didn't result in a smooth looking stitch.  So, I decided to start playing with the bobbin tension.  Isn't that a scary thought?  Glad this one is meant to be played with.

Here I'm finally started to see some results that would actually be useful on something.  The top two rows are at 7.0 upper tension and the bobbin screw was turned 1 1/4 times to the left. I can see either one of those two stitches being used decoratively on a woven item.  Then, I decided to change stitches.  This is another utility stitch most likely meant for darning.  I stitched the third row and realized that the upper tension had defaulted to 4.0.  The fourth row is the same utility stitch with 7.0 upper tension.  I see some possibilities with this one, also.  Maybe length the stitch a bit.  It almost looks like a braid trim as it is.

Here I started playing with decorative stitches on my machine.  The top row has an upper tension of 7.  The middle row has an upper tension of 8. The last row has an upper tension of 9.  Not sure about this particular stitch.  It provides a lot of texture but might be too fussy for the bobbin work.

I played with a different decorative stitch on my machine.  The top row has a tension of 7 and the bottom row has a tension of 8.  This stitch might has some possibilities but I think that there is more playing involved with the bobbin tension.

Some stitches just don't work so well with bobbin work.  Although, I suppose it makes a nice machine French knot.

This is another decorative stitch except it bigger lengthwise and width wise than the previous stitches.  This stitch might has some possible with additional bobbin tension playing.

Things learned:

1.  Utility stitches may work a little bit with this weight of thread due to the thread knotting.
2.  Computerized machines are a bit of pain when playing with the tensions as every stitch will revert back to the programmed top tension.
3.  Bobbin work is a lot of trial and error.

I will continue to share the bobbin work as I play. If anyone finds someone else who shares information on bobbin work, please direct me as I very interested in look that the bobbin work gives.

Happy Stitching!

Playing with the Specialty Bobbin Case....

This past weekend I had to time to play with the Specialty Bobbin Case that I purchased last week.  Here's the two bobbin cases together:

You can't really tell any differences in the two exception for the color.  The black one is the bobbin case that came with my machine and the grey one is the specialty bobbin case. Here's a close of the specialty bobbin case:

If you look a little to the right and down from my finger you can see a big slot.  That slot is what allows the heavier thread to move through the bobbin case.

In looking through my thread collection, I found a 30 wt decorative polyester:

Pairing that with a quilting weight cotton and no interfacing , I played with the decorative stitches on my Lisa machine.  Here are the results:

I don't think I really needed the specialty bobbin case with this thread but I wanted to experiment a little. In the above picture, I started with a 3-step zigzag stitch and left all the settings as recommended.  I generally keep the thread tension set on 4. This produced a stitch with the upper thread being pulled to the back.  This definitely wasn't the look I was going for.  Every dark line in the picture above is a change in thread tension.  The second stitch I played with was the feather stitch. The other stitches are what available on my machine.  With this particular set-up, the tension looked best around 5 to 5.5 on all the stitches.    I also decided that all of these stitches would benefit from a stabilizer or interfacing.   Oh course, a second layer might work, too.

In continuing my experiment, I have repeated the same stitching above expect I added a cut away stabilizer.  Here's the results:

In this example, I did only use the thread tensions between 5.0 and 6.0.  Can you see the difference the stabilizer makes in the stitching?

Here are the two samples side by side.  The sample on top is the one with the stabilizer. If nothing else, I've learned that these types of stitches really need more support. I suspect that a heavy dose  of spray starch might even do the trick. This is what many heirloom sewists do.

Next, I will be experimenting with pearl cotton and I will probably move to Behemoth as that machine has far more options to choose from. The pearl cotton that I have is a size 5, I think. This will require hand winding on the bobbin.

Happy Stitching!