Thread trick

I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but I never see it on store-bought products. I learned it from the man who we bought our industrial sewing machine from. He included a lesson the night we picked it up. The lesson, I have found, has been invaluable! I use all his little tricks in my normal every day sewing, not to mention the upholstery I've been getting into. This trick is great when you want to make sure your threads are secure, and also, when you don't want a back-stitch to show. I used it to make those notebooks (1 & 2) look a lot neater on the front.

Stop sewing at the same point where you started. You don't want to sew over the thread at the beginning. Cut your work loose.

Pull on the loose thread at the back, or hidden side, of your work, which will start to pull through the top thread.



Once you see the loop, insert a pin, or seam ripper, or something small and pointy, and make the loop bigger, pulling the top thread through to the underside.



Then tie the threads together as close to your work as possible, and cut the ends. In this case, I cut the ends short, so they are hard to notice, but if you use this technique on the underside of your work which will not ever be seen, leave the threads as long as you want, in case they do decide unravel.

Obviously, back- stitching is a quicker and probably safer method, but when looks matter, this is the way to go.