Learning the Machine, Serpentine Stitch
19 Mar 1998
Learning the machine
I had a private question today that I thought might be worth discussing openly. Someone said she felt like she didn’t know the basics on the machine, and she said that she wasn’t ready to buy the software yet. Moreover, she had concerns about how to handle the physical part of getting the computer and the sewing machine together in her house *if* she did decide to buy the software and cable. Here’s some of what I wrote her and some added stuff.
Okay, what can you do to master the basics? Have you worked through the manual, or have you just jumped into the middle of it? Really study the manual, work through the screens until you understand how they work and
what they’re all about. Once you do that, you should know the basics pretty well. Start out small. Get familiar with the keys on the machine, where the various parts of the machine are, how to take care of it, etc. Learn what all the levers and things are for and know how to use them.
Then look at all the stitches on the machine. It’s not going to hurt the stitches in the machine if you push buttons under boxes on the screen to see what will happen. There’s no way you’re going to wipe out the stitches that are in the machine. You can wipe out your own stitches if you have them in the P- or M- memories (or on the 7570 cards), but you’re not likely to do that often before you figure out what you’re doing wrong.
I don’t guarantee this is a complete list, but there are only a few things you need to really worry about: Don’t plug or unplug the cable from the computer or CD while the machine is on. Don’t plug or unplug the Embroidery Unit for the 7570 while the machine is on. Be sure you have the correct foot for every operation you do. Otherwise, you might break a foot, a needle, or scar the throat plate or bobbin case. Use the twin needle key if you have a twin, wing, or triple needle in the machine. Don’t carry the 7570 with the Embroidery Unit attached.
Every stitch screen will have some kind of information come up if you hit the green info screen on the 7570 or 7550, for example. The display key on the 1475 and 1473 will give you set up information for the particular stitch you’re using on them. Try stitching the designs, and follow the recommendations on the machine screen for stitching them well. Learn which feet to use in what situations.
Once you get most of that down, then you’re at a point where if you find something kind of awkward, you can ask about it, and maybe some kind soul out there will have a shortcut for you or help you find a better way to handle it. You’ll learn little tricks, shortcuts and such as you learn this fabulous machine. Sometimes I think I’ll never learn everything this machine can do. I know that sounds corny and a lot like an ad for Pfaff, but really, that’s how I feel about it.
Remember, there are also Owner’s Workbooks, two volumes, for your machines. They are priced variously–I’ve seen prices from $29 to $40, new, around here, but if your machine has been out a while, you might try asking to buy used ones or take out a classified ad on Quiltropolis
There are also videos, some of which are quite boring in my opinion, but you might find them helpful. No slight intended to the people on the videos or Pfaff, but instructional videos with one or two voices droning on and on tend to put me to sleep, no matter what they’re showing. I don’t think I’ve made it through one video yet without having to stop, rewind, and see what I slept through. Your Pfaff dealer can get these for you, unless your machine is quite old, and then they may not be available anymore. Some dealers may let you view their store copy of the videos.
You don’t have to have your sewing machine and your computer in the same room. You can do like a lot of people do–design or assemble a group of designs you want to try on the software in your computer room, and *then* bring the machine into the computer room, hook it up to the machine, and fill up your card or P or M-Memories while you have them hooked together. If you have the designs chosen or worked out ahead of time, the actual uploading of the designs to the machines takes only a few minutes. Then you can take the machine back to the sewing room to sew, and your family can have the computer.
The Pfaff doesn’t have to remain connected to the computer to sew designs you send from the software. It *only* has to be connected when you are sending the designs to the machine (or card, in the case of the 7570).
If carrying the machine or the computer is a problem, you might consider special long cables that can hook the machine to the computer, or keep your machine on a little table with wheels and wheel it into the computer room for a shot of new designs. If you have a laptop, use it temporarily in the sewing room. I’d personally rather carry my machine than try to get my regular computer to my machine. Get inventive! It’s more fun that way. I’ve heard from people routing cables from one floor to the one above, along baseboards, etc. Whatever works for you, do it. You won’t regret it.
Glynda Black
———-
17 Mar 1998
Serpentine stitch for all Pfaffs
Question: Last year, Threads magazine had an article on double needle stitching. A serpentine stitch was used which looked very pretty. I used the 03 stitch on my 7570, but I would like something a little more flowing, not quite so sharp on the corners.
Can anyone tell me how to alter this stitch to be more of a real serpentine. Or is there a stitch on the machine that I am missing. Thanks.
This serpentine stitch actually was on the 1471, I believe, and maybe the 1473 too. However, it was dropped from the machines at some point.
You can make one really easy, though, using the software for the machine. Bring up stitch #43 on the 1475 or #152 on the 7500 series Pfaffs in the software. You’ll notice that the vine there is almost a serpentine stitch. Keep only the first six stitches of this pattern; delete stitches starting with the leaves. Now, move the last stitch, #6, out so that the coordinates, which read X54 y27, read x58 y27. (We want it to slant a little more.) Do this by clicking on the last stitch and holding down the shift and control keys and moving the -> on your keyboard until the x coordinate reads 58. Now, highlight all of the pattern on the screen. You can do that with Ctrl-M; copy it by using Ctrl-C or the Copy command in the Edit menu. Click on the last stitch of the pattern or hit end on the keyboard, and the last stitch will be highlighted. Now paste the copied portion at the point of the last stitch. You can paste with a Ctrl-V or the Paste command in the Edit menu. This makes a scallop stitch only 4.5mm wide. With the last part you copied still highlighted, mirror the design vertically using the tool bar or the Mirror option under tools. Lastly, move the highlighted mirrored copy of the design down to the lower half of the .pcd screen. You should go back to the place where the two halves joined and delete one stitch there so that the design will stitch smoothly. (Where the copied part joins the original, there will be two stitches in the same spot. Get rid of one of them.) Now, you have your serpentine stitch. This is a single stitch design, btw. If you want to stitch it with twin needles, use a 2.0 twin needle, and use your twin needle key on your machine while you stitch it or you’ll break your twin needle and maybe damage your machine.
You’ll have to put this stitch into a P-memory on your machine and stitch it, of course, with the feed dogs up.
If you want a triple stitched serpentine stitch, then you need to go back and add stitches at every stitch point so that the design takes every stitch in a forward, back, forward motion.
That wasn’t so hard, was it?
Glynda Black
————
17 Mar 1998
More Serpentine stitch for all Pfaffs
I got this note privately, but I thought some of the rest of you might be interested in the note and my response, so I thought I’d post it. I’ll remove the name because I haven’t discussed this with the party who wrote the note, though.
Glynda: Before I delete your message as “not applicable to me” perhaps I should ask if these directions are for on the machine only or do you have to have the software or the CD to do all that manipulating. I have a new 7550, but no computer connection or Creative Designer….it was $250 extra. Any help you can give would me most appreciated. I joined this list because I saw that it was for all phaffers, not just the ones with the 7570 and into “big time” embroidery.
Actually, what I wrote was for the software with the 7500 series and 1400 series machines, but you can do much the same thing on the 7550 and 7570 without the software. You can also do this on the 1475 and 1473, but it’s a lot harder. It’s probably easier on the 1400 series machines to use your charts that come with the Creative Designer and draw a design using the coordinates that were posted by Sally earlier today. BTW, in her coordinates, the X represents the width (breadth) or B, and Y represents the length or L. If you’re using a chart, be sure to write them in correctly. (The charts list the coordinates differently than the software programs.) There are many ways you can do a serpentine stitch, btw. They don’t have to be exactly alike. I just chose the stitch I did because it was convenient, and I was hoping to get some of you to know your machines a little better by getting you to tinker with the designs a little.
Now, back to doing the serpentine on the 7550 or the 7570 just at the machine, no software involved, and since my correspondent has no CD, I’m going to tell her how to do it with ONLY the machine.
What you need to do in this case is to open up a blank P-Memory on the machine. Do this by turning on the machine, and hitting the M-P key, and choosing the #1 gray key to open the P-Memories. Find a blank P-Memory, and hit the gray key under it to open the P-Memory. Choose the gray key (#4) under the word “rom” in the box. That will bring up a screen that will allow you to specify a stitch to be put in that P-Memory, so write in 152. Hit okay. That vine should appear in the P-Memory you’ve specified. You will notice that the design pops into an editable screen on the machine.
Hit the #3 gray key under the design; there is an m- right over it. You’ll notice that when you do so, the screen options on the right of the screen change. The first option will be highlighted. That’s the one we want, but before we continue, press the #8 gray key. Now, it’s easier to see all the stitch points in the design. Okay, going back to the first option on the right, that tells you that you can delete the last stitch of the design. Hit okay. You’ll notice the last stitch of the design (over on the right)disappears. Continue to delete stitches until there are only 6 of them remaining. If you go too far, you’ll need to start over.
Okay, now you have a tiny little single stitch scallop on the screen. Now, we’re going to leave the P-Memory and pick up an empty M-Memory. Hit the gray #6 key under the sewing machine on the screen. That will take you back to the screen where you can sew the design out, if you want. Hit the M-P key, and hit the #2 gray key for the M-Memories. That will open the index for the M-Memories. Highlight a blank M-Memory and click on okay.
Now, you’ll see a screen saying that this is an empty sequence. So we need to fill it. We’re going to put the P-Memory we just created in it. So hit the M-P key again. Hit the gray key under the P-Memory that has the scallop we just created in it. You will be able to see the scallop on the screen as it is under 9mm. Maxis will always say “maxi” instead of showing an icon.
Now, when the P-Memory with the scallop opens up, it looks a bit different. Now, there’s a message that tells you to press okay to store. (That is, press ok to store the design in the M-Memory we’re working in.) Just hit okay once. Immediately, the screen changes to the M-Memory screen again. We now have that same scallop in an M-Memory. We still want to add another copy mirrored after it.
This is how we do that. Hit the M-P key again. Choose the same P-Memory with the little scallop with its gray key. Now, before you hit okay, hit the second pink key from the left to mirror the design into the other half of the 9mm width. Once that is done, hit ok again. You now have your serpentine stitch in an M-Memory. It has to be stitched from the M-Memory, and the way to do that is to simply push the gray #7 key under the little sewing machine icon on the screen. Push that #7 key, and you can sew the design. When you’re finished, you can move then to any other part of the machine. If the P-Memory is removed, the M-memory will no longer work. The P-Memory has to be there for the M-Memory to remain functional.
Now, true, this one isn’t as pretty as the one you can do with the software, but it will do, and you’d sew it the same way, except you’d sew it from the M-Memory.
If you have the Creative Designer, you can do an exact copy of the one I was telling you to do in the software. You’d do it in tandem with the machine screen. The green information key on the machine will help you do that, if you’d like. Basically, the CD gives you a pointer to help you move stitches and so on.
If at any point you are confused about what the signs on the various screens mean, stop and push the green info key. If there is an arrow to the side of the screen, push the blue arrow key -> to the side of the screen to get to the next screen. When you’re through, hit the escape button, and you’re back in your stitch screen.
If anyone gets lost, there’s always a last resort. Turn the darned machine off and start over!
Hope that helps.
Glynda Black
—————-
18 Mar 1998
Serpentine Stitch
B. wrote: For those with PCD_Win 2.1 software you can access the stitches on the 1475. Select Machine from menu and select configuration. Change machine from 7550/70 to 1475. When asked if you really want to change machine slect “yes”. You can then choose Machine and Open stitch program (Or use 0-9 on bar) Select stitch #38 and “voila” you have the serpentine stitch that was on the 1400 series machines. Save stitch and rechange machine back to 7570 under configuration and you are on your way. Betty
B., sorry, but #38 on the 1475 menu is not a serpentine stitch; that’s a single stitch scallop. In the software, if you mirror that design and add another one to the end of it in an M-Memory, you’ll wind up with a long stitch vertically between the two repeats.
You can *make* it into a long wider (18mm) serpentine stitch, but you’d have to use the maxi screen to do so. You can’t make the two ends of the scallop meet otherwise as they don’t start at the 27 breadth mark. If you cut it off to do that, it would be so narrow that it wouldn’t look good. You want to fill out the 9mm screen as much as possible for a design to look good.
To make the 18mm serpentine stitch in the software, open the P side of PCD with the software configured to a 1475, as B. suggested. Now, go to the Machine menu, open stitch program #38, and mirror it vertically on the screen. Deselect it, and highlight the end stitch of the design. Now, go back to the Machine menu, insert stitch #38 again, and you will have a wide serpentine stitch which single stitches. Save it, and change the configuration of your machine back to a 7550 or 7570 if you need to.
I would be very careful about using a design like this with a twin needle, though, as it’s easy for the design to cause the needle to hit the foot. By all means *do* use the twin needle key; very slowly pre-test it to be sure it works okay, and you might cut the width of the design down to 16 to be on the safe side. Don’t use anything over a 2.0 twin needle; a 1.6 is better. Schmetz makes a 1.6 twin needle. DON’T use a triple needle on this stitch.
Are you all still with me?
Glynda Black
———-
18 Mar 1998
More Serpentine Stitch
Oh, more information–you can’t do the maxi serpentine stitch on the 7550 or the 7570 without the software or the CD. The problem is, of course, that you need the single stitch scallop to begin with, and those machines don’t have access to it like the software or the CD does.
You could draw a single stitch scallop on your charts for the CD and put it into a P-Memory easily enough. Just draw a nice smooth arc that starts at the bottom of the chart and reaches a full roundness at the top of the chart and comes back to the base again. Place stitches along the arc using the information on how long to make the stitches, which is in the information on using the CD on my web page, and enter it into a P-Memory.
Then you can open an M-Memory and enter the P-Memory with the single stitch scallop in it, mirroring it before you hit the OK button, and then go back and insert the same P-Memory with the single stitch scallop without mirroring it. It will be a maxi stitch, so be sure you use your #8 foot, and use the twin needle key if you use a twin needle in the machine.
Glynda Black