I think I need a sewing machine that can do a variety of different kinds of stitches. One use case is to repair holey socks by cannabalizing fabric from other holey socks. Thus the stitch needs to be the kind that can stretch and ideally not create an awkward feeling on the foot.
Some sewing machines have a fixed number of stitches they can do. Would it make sense to get an embroidery machine and use #inkStitch (an Inkscape variant)? I’m not sure if that’s strictly for embroidery – or does that give the ability to do a variety of stitches using FOSS?
The inkstitch.org website steers people toward taking a basic sewing machine and modifying it using 3d printed parts. That’s too ambitious for me. I don’t want a hardware project. I just want to buy hardware that’s ready to go and use free software to control it. Is that possible with things that exist already?
#askFedi
On top of echoing what others have said-- you need a dumb sewing machine, and that socks are best darned by hand-- I’ll give you some advice for finding a sewing machine workhorse. Long post ahead!
Do not get a new one. Get an old one from wherever people sell used stuff near you (For me that’s gumtree/preloved). I’ll be honest, I don’t know when the quality drop off started decades-wise, but at some point they stopped building last-forever workhorses and planned obsolescence showed up. I think anything pre-80s is safe, and the good thing is if it’s still around and working after 40-50 years, it will likely continue to do so another 40-50 with proper maintenance and possibly without.
Here’s what you want to look for in your vintage sewing machine, apologies if you already know some of this:
- a straight stitch setting, which I don’t know why I’m mentioning because literally every machine since dinosaurs does a straight stitch. But, this is what you’ll use for non-stretch sewing. The length of the stitch can usually be adjusted.
- a zig zag stitch. This might come in the form of a dial you can use to adjust the “width” of the stitch, so you can have a narrow zig zag or a wide one. Honestly, you might find both the dial-adjust kind and a machine that just has the zig zag as a thing to select. I’d always go with an adjustable one. Zig zags are how you get stretch.
- If you’re lucky, your machine will have a weird little hooked blade near where the needle goes. This is a threadcutter. It is second only to automatic threaders when it comes to “funny doohickeys they put on sewing machines”. But you’re way more likely to find a threadcutter.
- in general, a machine will be heavy (they had metal parts in the good old days), will have it’s own motor and cable (you can find some old old singers with motor attachments, but I can’t vouch for them), and it might be ugly on the outside, dented/scratched/etc, but it should function relatively well when you test it.
The last point being to say, test out your machine before you buy! It might not run perfectly the way the person has it set up, especially if this is just someone selling grandma’s old machine, but there are some tests you can do. You’ll want to bring your own thread, a new needle (these fit pretty universally AFAIK), and two pieces of fabric: stretchy and not-stretchy (woven).
Fit the new needle, wind a bobbin (or have one you brought), thread the machine yourself, put the bobbin in and try sewing a straight stitch on the woven fabric. You might end up with some weird stitches (looser on one side of the fabric for example) but this is probably that the tension isn’t set exactly right for that fabric and not an indication of a bad machine. If you’re getting big wads of the thread on the underside and/or the machine is jamming, it might be an indication of something dubious with the machine, but it’s also likely something is threaded wrong or the bobbin is having a bad day. Honestly, I’d err on the side of “the machine is dirty or it’s user error” if the machine is sewing, but poorly.
Next you’ll want to try sewing on the stretchy fabric. See if you can set a zig zag stitch, and see how easily the machine feeds through the fabric under the needle. I’m out of my depth here on why, but some machines just feel better on stretch fabric than woven and others are the opposite. I’ll note here that I think you’ll be fine testing slightly stretchy fabric with the same needle you used for woven, but when sewing for stuff you want to last, you’ll want to use a ballpoint or stretch needle. (Stretch needle comes out for any fabric with a lycra/spandex content over 5%. Ballpoint is anything knit (not woven essentially) but that isn’t too spandex heavy.)
So assuming you find a good machine, I recommend getting it serviced as soon as you have it in your possession. It likely needs to be oiled and cleaned, and there are professionals who do great jobs at this, and they might even give you pointers on how best to keep your machine clean and happy.
Once machine is home from the sewing doctors, go forth and sew! Keep it clean of fuzz and loose threads and occasionally take it back to be serviced (I can’t say how often because It Depends). Also, heavier material like denim = needle with a higher number in front of it on the pack. With the right needle, you’ll be surprised what you can sew through.
Also, welcome to the hell of “I don’t want to use polyester thread because plastic is a scourge but my machine hates cotton thread very much.” I swear every machine hates cotton. Good luck.
Also also, because I am a creature of hyperfixations, you mentioned FOSS and sewing in the same sentence so I’m obligated to link you to freesewing.org. FOS sewing patterns that scale, theoretically, to any size!
I appreciate all the good advice. Testing the machine would have been tricky because I knew nothing about doing even the simplest test. The machine I bought was heaviest I could find at a street market where if I wanted to test it I would have to track down someone at the market with a portable power generator. Some sellers had samples under the presser foot of machines they were selling but the seller I dealt with did not do that. I didn’t think I was going to buy it… asking price was ~220% of my budget. I was walking away but the seller was highly motivated & came way down in price. I thought telling him what I would theoretically pay would end the discussion due to the big gap, but then he accepted. So I agreed to buy before I could really give the machine much thought or inspection. If I had been more knowledgeable and diligent I could have even tested it just by threading it and manually turning the wheel which would have revealed that it needs an adjustment, which I mention here.
I could take it to a pro but I should ultimately try to gain some independence and master the machine. So I guess I’ll fiddle with it to see if I can get it to stop skipping stitches.
There’s a fascinating Venn diagram behind this post I’d love to see
Software to control your sewing machine?
Are you looking for a sewing machine or a computer controlled embroidery machine?
Those are WILDLY different types of machines. Sewing machines are for constructing/repairing fabric items with the option of manually performing very tedious embroidery style work. Embroidery machines are specifically for create designs and art on the surface of fabric.
For that VAST majority of projects (including fixing your socks) a standard “dumb” seweing machine is the way to go. Our Singer Heavy Duty 4452 is entirely mechanical and has 32 built in stitch profiles. Standard stitches, stretch stitches, decorative stitches and automatic button hole stitching. You can dial in a range of threads per inch for your project. It’s not going to give you a setting of choosing the exact perfect TPI setting but doing experiments and test pieces with your fabric and thread will let you dial in what you want.
Fully computer controlled embroidery machines can be insanely complex and can cost a couple of hundred up to obscene amounts of money. The only experience we have with one like that is the monster machine we rent hours of use on at our local sewing store.
I know both brother and singer have good reputation with the computerized embroidery machines. Between the two (in our experience at least) singer has had the better hardware and brother has had better software. Sort of related note: Brother is the only company I would by a computer printer from because SO FAR they haven’t participated in the obscene practices the rest on the industry has.
These are the interesting tasks I can think that I need regularly:
- reattach buttons (thanks for telling me this is an option)
- hem rigid pants (denim)
- hem stretchy pants
- cut stretchy pants off at the knees and introduce zippers (so they function as shorts or trousers) as complex hemming alternative
- patch holey socks
- fix tears
- maybe make new designs
- embroider over stains
Considering embroidery apparently complicates things and presumably bumps the price up substantially, I would nix the last item on that list.
Some machines have a mechanical dial that shows different stitch symbols. I’m not sure how to look at that and know if my needs are covered. This is why I thought in principle I would like to have it software controlled¹. But maybe that’s overkill for my need. I’d like to avoid buying something that falls short of my needs. E.g. if none of the preset stitches can work on stretchy material it’s underkill.
I saw a Signer on liquidation but did not buy it. It had ~4 or so dials with just digits. Not sure if that was for different kinds of stitches, or other factors like speed.
I’m a bit torn because the modern cheap ones look like they will do the job, but they’re plastic and I wonder if the gears are plastic… which I suspect means short life.
1: regarding software control, someone told me not a single FOSS sewing machine exists. The firmware is always proprietary non-free. But I was told Inkstitch can be used to create patterns that are loaded onto a proprietary machine. I’m fine with that compromise. But IIUC, that’s purely for the embroidery use case not for straight stitches, correct?
You seem like you’d be much better served by a dumb sewing machine that doesn’t have any software, and either hand embroidery or saving up for an embroidery machine someday for embroidery tasks
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking now. I just have to make sure it has the zigzag/stretch stitch pattern. And guess i’ll be doing buttons by hand.
All the gears on our Singer are metal and it can perform all the of the requirements that you have listed. I should mention however that seeing on buttons is done by hand. There are way to many variables for a machine to do it. The feature I was referencing was the ability to see the edges around the hole for buttons when creating garments and the like. You use the machine to sew the edges and then a blade to cut the hole in the middle where the button goes through.
The exterior is plastic but it has a fully metal internal frame that in images looks rather robust.
For embroidery over stains/holes in clothes I recommend looking into hand embroidery. There used to be a subreddit specifically for exactly that: Hand embroidery over stains and holes. It was super fascinating to see the beautiful things people could do by hand.
I recommend browsing the singer page for this machine. It lays out nicely all the features and shows an internal shot of the all metal construction. https://www.singer.com/heavy-duty-4452-sewing-machine
Anecdotally the Mennonite who runs the sewing machine repair store in my area recommends Singer. He repairs them less and when he has to it’s easier to get parts for.
edit: You are correct regarding the FOSS software workaround. Inkscape would be used exclusively for embroidery and not at all needed for straight stitches.
You could learn to darn socks by hand. Adults and children have been doing it for thousands of years, and it’s very low impact. It’s not really feasible to patch socks with fabric from other socks - think of socks as a dynamic 3-D knit construct, patching disrupts that.
“A stitch in time saves nine.” If you know you wear out particular areas of your socks, you can reinforce them when they are new by “running” them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fKKLOUNOHU
All you need to darn or run is yarn and a darning needle.
