Getting Started with Your Sewing Machine: Setting Up the Machine
In this second Getting Started with Your Sewing Machine tutorial, we’ll learn how to set up the sewing machine and continue exploring some of its components.
Video class
This video is for members
Join Lulu Ferris to watch the complete class and sew along at your own pace.
What you’ll make
Set up your sewing machine with the upper thread and bobbin correctly installed, ready for your first sewing practice.
This lesson continues from Getting to Know Your Machine and compares front-loading and top-loading bobbin systems.
You’ll also explore common presser feet, the needle plate, and the feed dogs so you can recognize the parts involved before you begin sewing.
What you’ll learn in this class
- Recognize zipper, buttonhole, button-sewing, and walking feet and understand their uses.
- Use the presser-foot edge and needle-plate markings as seam guides.
- Understand how feed dogs move fabric and why they must be covered for sewing on buttons.
- Clean, reassemble, and oil the demonstrated front-loading bobbin mechanism.
- Wind a bobbin, check its tension, and insert it in front-loading or top-loading systems.
- Thread the upper path and bring the bobbin thread up with the handwheel.
Once your machine is threaded and ready, continue to Practicing with the Machine for guided sewing examples.
Seeing each part move helps clarify delicate setup tasks that can be difficult to understand from a manual alone.
Follow the demonstrations on your own machine while allowing for differences in bobbin placement, threading guides, and included presser feet.
Pattern & materials
Patterns are included with membership
Active members can download every available PDF and materials list.