Slide outline for Lesson 5.10, three days, twenty slides. Slides 1 to 8 are Day 1 (parts, rules, your machine). Slides 9 to 14 are Day 2 (threading and the license). Slides 15 to 20 are Day 3 (paper drills). No fabric appears on any slide on purpose; fabric starts in Lesson 5.11.
(Day 1): Three seconds against twenty minutes
- Lesson 5.10, day one of three
- This machine sews in three seconds what your hands did in twenty minutes
- The trade: it does not know your finger is there
- These three days are how you earn the pedal
Teacher notes
Image: a machine-sewn seam and a hand-backstitched seam side by side, both four inches long.
Do now, guess the seven parts
- Seven parts are numbered on the diagram
- Write what you think each one does. Guess.
- Star the one you think is the most dangerous
Teacher notes
Image: the numbered machine diagram from Handout 05.10, no labels.
The seven parts
- 1 Needle: up and down, does not care what is under it
- 2 Presser foot: holds the fabric down
- 3 Feed dogs: pull the fabric through, so you guide, never push
- 4 Bobbin: the bottom thread, under the plate
- 5 Take-up lever: the arm the top thread rides
- 6 Hand wheel: one stitch at a time, always toward you
- 7 Foot pedal: the gas
Teacher notes
Image: the same diagram, labeled.
The most dangerous part
- Most of you starred the needle. Fair.
- The better answer: the pedal
- The pedal moves the needle while a hand is in the wrong place
Teacher notes
Image: a foot resting beside (not on) a machine pedal.
The four rules
- Hands to the sides of the needle, never in front. Guide, do not push.
- One foot on the pedal, the other flat on the floor
- Power off before changing a needle or reaching under the plate
- Hair back, sleeves clear, cords taped, nothing loose near the wheel
- The habit that is not a rule: hand wheel toward you, one stitch, look
Teacher notes
Image: two hands flat on fabric, one on each side of a presser foot, needle centered between them.
Your machine, all unit
- The number on your machine is yours until the unit ends
- Same student, same machine, every day
- You will learn its habits. You will notice when something changed.
- Your threading buddy is the student at the next number
Teacher notes
Image: a numbered card taped to a sewing machine base, reading 4.
Close-down, and the two hard rules
- Every machine day ends the same way: presser foot down, power off, chair in
- A broken needle is reported and handed over, both pieces, flat on your palm
- Never the trash. Never the floor.
- A jammed machine gets the red doctor tag: tag it, tell me, move to a spare or the hand station, keep working
Teacher notes
Image: a red MACHINE DOCTOR tag hanging from a machine's arm.
(Day 1 close): Prove it
- Run the close-down routine on your machine, out loud
- Exit line at the door: one part and what it does
Teacher notes
Image: a row of machines, feet down, a pushed-in chair at each.
(Day 2): Do now, the path from memory
- Write the top threading path in order, as far as you remember
- Do not look at the handout yet
Teacher notes
Image: a spool of thread alone on a table.
Threading the top, six steps
- Spool on the pin
- Through the first guide
- Down and around the tension dial
- Up through the take-up lever, back to front
- Down through the lower guides
- Through the needle, front to back
Teacher notes
Image: the threading path drawn as a single line over the machine diagram, numbered.
The bobbin
- Drop the wound bobbin in the case the way the arrow shows
- Thread through the slot, close the plate
- Hold the top thread, hand wheel one full turn toward you
- Pull the loop up, both threads back under the foot
Teacher notes
Image: a bobbin case with an arrow showing thread direction, and a loop of bobbin thread coming up through the needle plate.
The manual outranks me
- Every machine is a little different
- The manual at your machine is the authority
- When the diagram and your machine disagree, the manual wins
Teacher notes
Image: a machine manual open in its binder beside a machine.
The threading license
- Thread the top and load the bobbin at your own machine
- Your buddy checks every step against the guide and initials
- I check the tension and the bobbin, and initial
- Two initials is a license: from then on you sit at a machine you threaded
Teacher notes
Image: the license line from Handout 05.10 with two sets of initials.
(Day 2 close): Unthread it
- Finished early? Unthread the whole machine and thread it again from nothing
- That is the real test
- Close-down routine, then the exit line: the step you will forget tomorrow
Teacher notes
Image: a machine with thread removed, spool sitting beside it.
(Day 3): Do now, rules from memory
- Write the four rules without looking
- Then write the close-down routine
Teacher notes
Image: blank lines numbered 1 to 4, then 1 to 3.
Paper, no thread
- Today the machine has no thread at all
- The needle punches holes, and the holes are your record
- Hold the paper up to the light: every wobble shows
- This is how factories train, and it costs nothing
Teacher notes
Image: a sheet of paper with a drawn line and a row of needle holes running almost exactly along it.
The three sheets
- Sheet 1: the straight line, three passes
- Sheet 2: the curve, slow and steady, small steering
- Sheet 3: the square, with a pivot at each corner
Teacher notes
Image: the three drill sheets fanned out.
The pivot
- Stop with the needle DOWN in the paper
- Foot UP
- PIVOT the paper around the needle
- Foot DOWN, keep going
- Say it as a chant: needle down, foot up, pivot, foot down
Teacher notes
Image: a square drill sheet mid-turn, needle down at the corner, presser foot lifted.
What I am checking
- Hands to the sides
- Steady speed
- Holes on the line
- Cannot keep hands to the sides? You drive with the hand wheel until you can. Technique, not penalty.
Teacher notes
Image: the three-box clipboard checklist.
(Day 3 close): Trade and mark
- Trade your square with your buddy
- Mark their straightest two inches and their wobbliest two inches
- Square sheets come to me: they are the record that the license is real
- Close-down routine. Tomorrow, fabric.
Teacher notes
Image: two drill squares side by side, one section circled on each.