Don’t you hate it when you run out of thread or have a break in the middle of serging, or stitching with a decorative stitch?  It’s not like you can easily get back to the right part of the stitch as easily as pushing some buttons to go back in embroidery mode!  (If you’ve been hesitant about getting into embroidery, things like this are REALLY easy to take care of so wait no longer!)

Here’s a fix that will help you continue what you were doing without your work looking too interrupted.  The picture shows the Wave stitch found on Baby Lock sergers  — click HERE to check out models with this cool stitch!   The seam ripper point is showing where we ran out of thread.  When this happened we carefully removed the project from the machine, lifting presser foot and pulling gently to the back.  Rethreading the looper was easy with Baby Lock’s air threading, (you won’t worry about tying on or threading in order anymore with one of these!).

Next we took some scrap fabric and started stitching until we got through the Wave pattern a couple threads ahead of where we ran out.   We removed that fabric, leaving a few inches or so of thread tails, then re-inserted our project a couple threads back from break, making sure needle stitching line was in alignment with previous stitching.  We began stitching slowly to make sure we were all lined up – voila!  We continued the stitch with our “glitch” virtually unnoticed!  We used a hand needle with large eye (for the decorative thread  – we used Mettler cotton quilting thread, available in Moore’s stores) to  weave the tails through the stitching unnoticed, then put a dab of Fray Block where the ends likely were – it’s a fray stopper that dries clear and soft – literally invisible!

Get Fray Block!

You can do something similar with your sewing machine if you have a thread break or run out during decorative stitching.  After rethreading, just stitch out your decorative stitch until you get to a place just before the break in the stitch pattern, your preferred number of stitches may vary depending on the pattern.  Replace the item you were sewing on under the presser foot,  lower it, and turn needle manually using the hand wheel to be sure your starting point is in just the right spot to continue your pattern.  Leave thread tails from removing and restarting the stitching – you can use a hand needle to bring these to the back and secure or hide the tails.

The Clover Seam Ripper we’ve shown in the photo is one of our favorite tools –

 

You can buy it here – Clover Seam Ripper –  but please keep reading our blog for an important tip on using your seam ripper!