How to sew with a double needle? Double needle for a sewing machine How to insert a double needle into a sewing machine

Some common questions about double needle

If your machine performs a zig-zag stitch, then you can install double needle.

Double needle needed:

- for making finishing double stitches

- when sewing knitwear, you can imitate the stitching of a cover-stitch machine

- the needle is often used when sewing clothes with double stitching

Decorative finishing stitches on jeans, patch pockets, details of men's shirts, etc. You can stitch evenly and neatly by making just one seam with a double needle.

Twin needle should work only in straight stitch mode! In any other mode, it will simply break on the needle plate of the sewing machine.

Note! To use double needles you need:

- front threading
- the presence of a zigzag stitch in a sewing machine.
- the distance between the needles should not exceed the maximum zigzag width of your machine!

How to thread?

Exactly the same as with one needle, only instead of one coil there will be two. Both threads will go through the same upper thread tensioner. BUT! It is imperative to LOOSEN the tension of the BOTTOM thread, and sometimes in order to prevent the stitch itself from tightening and breaking, you need to loosen the UPPER threads (whether to loosen them or not is up to your machine to “decide”; on mine I don’t loosen the upper threads, only the lower ones).

What threads are best for a double needle?

For a quality stitch, it is desirable that the bottom thread be a number “thinner” than the top threads. In this case, the threads must be of high quality, thin and elastic.

Types of double needles?

Twin needles differ from each other in the distance between the needles. Depending on this distance, the line will change - narrower or wider.

How to make embroidery with a shadow effect using a double needle?

The shadow effect is created as follows: take a double needle with a narrow distance between the needles and threads of different shades. As a result, the threads seem to overlap each other, creating the effect of a three-dimensional image.

Preparatory operations:

Install on your machine double needle, similar to a regular single.
If your machine has two spool holders, install the spools so that one spool thread unwinds clockwise and the other counterclockwise. This will prevent the threads from getting tangled when sewing.
Next, both threads are threaded along the thread guides in the same way, both threads go side by side and only before threading into the needles do the threads diverge along different guides: one thread on the left, the other on the right.
If you don't have two thread guides, insert one thread into the thread guide and leave the other loose.
Thread the threads into the corresponding needles. The machine is ready to sew. I advise you to sew at minimum speed, this will also help prevent the threads from tangling.

When sewing with a double needle, the upper threads get tangled, what should I do?

To prevent the threads from getting tangled:

- place the reels so that one unwinds clockwise and the other counterclockwise;

- if this does not help, take threads with a smaller twist: cut off 1 meter of thread, fold it in half and grab the ends with one hand, the “tail” of the thread hangs. Remember how many times they were twisted - and next time take those that twist less (unfortunately, not all manufacturers comply with GOST standards for twisting).

And finally, here is an example of an incorrect stitch from the wrong side: the loops of the upper thread are very elongated, and the lower thread is pulled almost into a straight line:

Example of an incorrect stitch

To avoid this, the tension of the lower thread must be reduced!

Here's an example of a good line:

An example of a good stitch with a twin needle

Decorative stitches (embroidery)

Does your machine have decorative stitches? Try using twin needles to embellish clothing with these stitches.
The double needle allows you to embroider two parallel designs at the same time. You can thread the upper threads in different colors.
If you use 2mm needles, the stitch patterns will overlap each other, creating a shadow effect.
For decorative stitches, use a needle size smaller than the maximum zigzag width on your machine!

Sewing on braid

Place a needle slightly smaller than the width of the braid into the needle holder and attach the satin stitch foot to the machine. This foot has a wide groove on the sole.

Set the machine controls to straight stitch and desired stitch length.
Loosen the upper thread tension.
Thread the ribbon through the needle hole of the foot (or under the foot).
Place the fabric under the foot, lower the needles into the fabric and sew.

The braid is attached to the fabric on both sides at the same time.

Ruffles with elastic

Wind a thin sewing elastic band (like Hungarian) onto the bobbin. The upper threads must match the fabric and match the color.
Set the stitch length to 2-2.5 mm and sew with a straight stitch.

An elastic band tucked into the shuttle mechanism will create uniform gathers on thin fabric. The use of such a technique can very effectively decorate, for example, a blouse.

Reliefs with cord

To sew in the cord, use double needle such a width (the distance between the needles) that the cord passes freely between the needles.

Install any foot suitable for sewing in cord: foot for sewing on beads, or a foot for large raised pintucks.
Using a chalk or disappearing marker, draw a straight or curly line on the fabric where you want to add cord trim.
Pin the end of the cord to the beginning of the line on the wrong side of the fabric.
Place the fabric with the cord under the foot, make sure that the cord fits exactly between the needles and start sewing with a straight stitch following the line drawn on the fabric.

Relief tucks on fabric

For the following embellishments you will need a special foot for raised tucks. The foot has grooves on the sole into which the fabric is pulled during sewing, resulting in a raised fold.

Different pleat sizes require different presser feet. The wider and deeper the grooves, the more voluminous the relief can be obtained. Many parallel grooves on the foot allow you to lay reliefs that are even relative to each other.

Foot with 9 grooves Designed for small pintucks and used on light fabrics.
Foot with 7 grooves used for sewing on medium fabrics and allows you to make more voluminous pintucks. This foot can also be used for sewing in cord.

To make reliefs on light fabrics, it is recommended to use 2 mm needles; on medium tissues, 3 mm needles; and 4 mm needles on medium and heavy fabrics.

When stitching pintucks, the upper thread tension regulator should be set to 7-9, that is, to the maximum.
When decorating fabric with reliefs, keep in mind that the consumption will be higher.
It is very important to make the first tuck exactly, since the evenness of subsequent ones will depend on this. Therefore, draw the first line on the fabric and only then place a tuck along it.
It is advisable to first make reliefs on the larger part, then apply the pattern over the part and mark the cut lines.
For wide stitching of reliefs, use a quilting guide.
Reliefs can be both decorative and serve as darts. You can very effectively decorate, for example, a summer blouse with raised pintucks. Use embossed pintucks to decorate underwear, children's clothing, blouses, and summer tops.

Sewing knitwear

For sewing knitwear, use needles 4 mm wide.
On the front side there is a double straight stitch, on the reverse side there is a zigzag stitch, which allows the knitted fabric to stretch. This stitch imitates sewing on an overlocker.

Set your machine to the straight stitch and desired stitch length.
Fold the edge of the knitted product, lay a stitch along the front side at the same distance from the fold.
Carefully trim the seam allowance close to the zigzag.

IN online store "Beloshveyka" you can buy double needles at a very attractive price.

All the best and beautiful lines)

Every year more and more special accessories appear on sale, allowing you to significantly expand the capabilities of household sewing equipment. Among the abundance of presser feet, rulers and other devices, the double needle deserves close attention, because with its help you can easily and quickly perform a lot of decorative seams and operations.

Device and types of double needle

The main distinguishing feature of a double needle is the presence of two blades at once, attached to the flask using a jumper. Thanks to this design, it is possible to lay 2 lines at the same time. This structure makes it possible, without much effort, to form 2 absolutely identical lines with the same distance between them along the entire length.

ATTENTION! Double needles intended for old-style machines and new household machines have slight differences in structure. Not every craftswoman is able to notice that the grooves - the indentations located on the blades of the needles - are several millimeters longer or shorter than usual (especially if she does not know about their presence), but the capricious technique immediately identifies this feature and refuses to sew. Therefore, when purchasing, be sure to focus on this nuance.

There are twin needles:

for decorative stitching, low-stretch fabrics;
for hemming knitted fabrics (twin stretch).

They differ from each other:

blade diameter;
space between the points.

They are usually marked with two numbers separated by a fractional line. Where the larger value corresponds to the needle number, and the smaller value corresponds to the distance between the points.

Needles with a distance of 4 to 6 are used:

for hemming lower cuts;
for sewing pockets and flaps;
for seaming connecting seams to improve the aesthetic appearance.

Samples with a distance between blades of 1.6, 2.0, 2.5 are more often used to form decorative finishing stitches. Using threads of different colors or shades allows you to achieve a highly artistic effect with a minimum of effort.

Of particular interest to many seamstresses is the combined double needle, one blade of which is regular and the other is winged. This design is indispensable when hemming tablecloths, napkins or finishing light clothing.

Features of working on a sewing machine with a double needle

You should immediately note that the seams made with such a needle have a decorative purpose rather than a functional one. This is why they are used:

in finishing works;
when hemming the bottom of the product and sleeves;
when sewing pockets.

They are never used for those nodes where significant load is expected.

Despite the fact that you can sew with a double needle on any household machine that has a zigzag function, not all manufacturers equip the equipment with an additional spool pin and paired thread removers and thread guides. Of course, enterprising seamstresses can easily get out of this situation by using a bobbin winder as a second rod, or simply installing 2 spools on one rod (sometimes you have to use a bobbin with wound thread instead of a spool).

The innovative method has a right to life, but it is not applicable to all household machines. Some capricious models tolerate such experiments very “painfully”. For their operation, it is very important that the threads unwind at the same speed and enter the needle with identical tension, because even a slight imbalance leads to stitch defects.

In such cases, long hours of setting up the machine and kilometers of sewn samples will not lead to the desired result - the stitches will turn out to be of poor quality. To solve this problem, it is best to purchase a creel. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a sewing accessory purchased in a special store, or a homemade holder for 2 spools.

Increasing the length of the thread from the spool to the thread tensioner, together with the same speed of unwinding the bobbins, will do the trick - the quality of the seams will increase several times without any additional manipulations with the equipment.

Installation Rules

In order to install a double needle in a sewing machine, you should follow the same rules as in the case of a regular one:

Take a close look at the needle flask; one side of it always has a slight truncation, the so-called flat. This design feature allows you to accurately place the needle in the machine. The flat side should always be facing away from the seamstress.
Make sure that the distance between the blades does not exceed the size of the slot in the work plate.
Insert the flask into the hole until it stops and tighten the fixing screw tightly.
Insert the bobbin with the thread wound into the hook.
Place 2 spools on the rods and thread according to the instructions for the machine. In models that are not designed with paired thread tensioners and thread guides, the threads of both spools are threaded together and only near the needle - the first of them goes into the thread guide, and then is threaded into the hole, the second is immediately threaded into the hole, bypassing the thread guide.

ATTENTION! When threading a sewing machine with a double needle installed, the thread from the left spool should go into the left blade, and the thread from the right spool, respectively, into the right blade.

How to sew with a twin needle

Unfortunately, there is no single algorithm by adhering to which it would be possible to force sewing equipment to perform perfect stitches the first time. Few craftswomen manage to immediately set up the machine in the right way when sewing; very often it:

However, with due diligence and methodical experimentation, you can achieve an ideal result on any sewing machine that has a zigzag option.

ATTENTION! When sewing stitches with a double needle, the thread tension should be minimal. If, when stitching parts with a regular needle, the thread tensioner toggle switch is set to 5–6, then when stitching with a double needle, it should be moved to position 1–2.

When working, it is very important not to violate the correspondence between:

fabric thickness;
needle number;
thread number.

Even if, when sewing with a single needle, failure to comply with these conditions does not lead to noticeable flaws, then it is worth installing a double needle on the machine, and all possible seam defects will appear fully.

Therefore, before starting work you should:

make sure that the thread and needle are in numerical correspondence;
make sure that the selected type of needle is suitable for sewing this type of fabric;
check that the machine is refueled correctly;
reduce thread tension;
make a sample.

A high-quality seam made with a double needle consists of 2 parallel lines on the front side and a zigzag stitch on the back side. In this case, the fabric between the rows of stitches should not be pulled together, and the lower thread should protrude outward.

How to make decorative designs and finishing

To perform decorative stitches, remember that the selected pattern cannot be too wide. The blade moving from side to side should not extend beyond the hole in the plate. Otherwise it will come into contact with the metal and break. To minimize the risk, it is best to choose needles with a small point spacing of 1.6 mm to 2.5 mm. Before starting work, check the patency of the needles at idle speed without threads, slowly rotating the flywheel by hand.

Sometimes clothing design involves ruffles. You can make them using the same double needle. You will need for this operation:

a needle with a large distance between the points (5.0–6.0 mm);
a thin elastic band that should be wound onto a bobbin instead of thread.

The presence of a special foot and double needle in tandem allows you to perform a lot of additional operations:

sew on cord or thin beads;
form tucks.

Rules for safe operation

The impact of the tip on a steel plate, at best, simply leads to bending of the part, and at worst, to a violation of integrity. At high speed, a fragment of the rod may well bounce off and cause serious injury. Therefore, before you start sewing:

check the alignment of the needle and the slot in the plate;
Be careful to ensure that the machine is set to straight stitch only and does not accidentally switch to zigzag, decorative stitching or embroidery.

Always remove pins and bobby pins before using the machine. Even if they do not come into contact with the rod and do not violate its integrity, they will loosen the rack.

Do not use blunt, much less bent, needles. The presence of such defects will inevitably lead to failure.

A double needle is very helpful and reduces sewing time. Finishing stitches using such a needle are noticeably faster and, most importantly, smoother. When sewing denim products, it is simply irreplaceable, because double stitching is often used in these products.

Double needles, just like regular ones, are available for different types of fabric. It is clear that if you are going to sew denim, you need to buy the appropriate needle.

Among other things, a double needle helps you work with knitwear at home. If you don’t have a flat-stitch machine, a double needle will help you out. The appearance of the stitch on the front side will be exactly the same as if you did it on a cover stitch, but on the back you will get a zigzag stitch. This type of stitching using a double needle is very elastic, which is very important when sewing knitwear. You should not sew knitwear using a regular stitch; it will definitely tear when stretched at the most inopportune moment.

Buying a double needle for a sewing machine is not a problem; as a rule, the same needle can be suitable for different brands of sewing machines. Difficulties usually arise with installing the needle on the machine and threading the thread. Let's dwell on this in more detail.

You will need two spools of thread. Usually, household sewing machines have another place where you can place the second spool; if you haven’t found one, then you need to come up with some kind of device on which this spool will be attached; a tall mug in which you can place the second spool often helps.

After the coils have found their place, you can proceed to refueling the machine. In general, threading is no different from regular threading, you simply make the same movements that you do during normal threading, the only difference is that you pull both threads from the spools at once. The thread from the left spool should go into the left needle, and the thread from the right spool should go into the right. Now you can start sewing.

Double stitching is done using a special needle. Essentially, these are two needles held together by one holder. Twin needles expand the capabilities of a household sewing machine and allow you to sew two lines at the same time.

We will talk about the types and features of using such needles below.

How do twin needles work?

Structurally, a double needle consists of the following elements:

Two standard sewing needles designed for stitching on a household machine.
Holder housing. Most often it is made of plastic. This element holds the double needles together into a single structure.
Flask. Designed for installing double needles into the needle holder of a sewing machine.

The double needle can be used in any sewing machine with a zigzag function. In their foot and needle plate there is an oblong slot necessary for the free movement of two needles.

Types of double needles

There are several types of needles:

Universal. Used to work with natural and artificial threads. They are suitable for most types of fabrics. Often, universal double needles of this type are called embroidery needles, since they give a beautiful and even zigzag stitch.
For knitted fabrics. These needles are marked Stretch. They can also be used for working with elastic and stretchy fabrics.
Metallic. These twin needles are used for stitching with metallic threads.
Jeans These needles are used for stitching denim fabrics. As a rule, these are thick needles that are intended for working with high-density fabrics.

It is possible to stitch with a double needle of different widths. The thinnest needles have a thickness of 1.6 mm. The maximum value is 4 mm.

The largest number of sizes are represented by universal double needles. The thinnest are considered to be products for stitching on elastic fabrics (number 75). Denim options include sizes from 100 and more.

The double needle is marked with two numbers. It is deciphered as follows:

The first number indicates the distance between the needles.
The second talks about the size of the needles (they must be of the same cross-section).

Foot for stitching with twin needles

Many novice seamstresses, when purchasing double needles, try to purchase a special foot. But such a paw simply does not exist. As mentioned above, you can sew with such needles using the foot of a universal household sewing machine, the functionality of which includes a “zigzag”. The needle plate should also have a corresponding oblong slot.

Inserting the needle into the sewing machine

To install a twin needle in a sewing machine, you must follow these steps:

Using the flywheel, set the needle holder to its highest position.
We lower the machine foot.
Loosen the fixing screw. In this case, you need to hold the installed needle. Now carefully loosen the fixing screw. Next, remove the needle from the holder.
We install the double needle in the holder so that the flat part of the flask faces backwards. We deepen the needle until the edge of the flask touches the stop.
While holding the twin needle in position, tighten the fixing screw. All that remains is to thread the thread, and you can give a test stitch.

Threading the machine

To double stitch, you need to thread two threads into both needles. Accordingly, you will need a couple of coils. To obtain a neat seam, it is necessary to thread threads of identical thickness and quality into a double needle. You can choose any color, it all depends on your design ideas (this will not affect the quality of the stitching).

Threads into a double needle are threaded according to standard rules. The specifics of the procedure depend on the design of the specific machine. But all models are equipped with the following elements:

thread tensioners;
guides;
thread guides, etc.

Therefore, to thread a double needle, you should use the instructions supplied with your specific sewing machine. Both threads are passed along the tensioners together, separating only at the very end, at the stage of threading through the eye of the needle. Threading the shuttle remains unchanged.

After completing the work, you will need to give a test line. It will help you make sure that everything was done correctly, and then you can sew with a double needle.

What should I do if my twin needle skips stitches when sewing?

It is not always possible to obtain a high-quality seam with a double needle the first time. If skipping stitches are noticed while sewing, do the following:

We wind the upper threads onto spools of equal size. This approach will allow you to achieve uniform tension on each thread when sewing with double needles. The coils are arranged on one spool pin.
Try increasing the upper thread tension. This should also be done if the stitches were uneven and the thread looped. Make sure both threads have the same tension and are threaded correctly into the needles. The bobbin thread tension should be standard.
Check that the threads are threaded correctly when sewing with a twin needle.

The nuances of working with a double needle

To obtain an even and high-quality seam, the correct selection is necessary:

threads;
fabrics;

We are talking about the thickness of the needle and thread, as well as the type of material. It is very important to correctly select these parameters relative to each other. To achieve a beautiful and even stitch, working with a double needle is carried out at a reduced speed of the sewing machine.

Double needles can be used to stitch, embroider, quilt, etc. Such stitches are often used as decorative finishing on the bottom and side cuts and seams of products. They are especially popular when working with denim. It turns out to be almost impossible to make such a seam with only one needle, since it is difficult to maintain not only the same distance between the lines, but also the symmetry of the stitches.

As a rule, such stitches are performed as follows: we place the first needle at a distance of 1 mm from the edge of the product. These seams are not only reliable, but also have high decorative properties. If desired, you can use threads of different colors when working with double needles.