Hemming With Twin Needles

Have you ever sewn with twin needles?

They are awesome!

Schmetz makes several different kinds.

This is one of them:

You can find them at Joann Fabrics.

Schmetz makes twin needles where the needles are different widths apart, which is really nice.

Do you see the numbers at the bottom of the package of twin needles?

They read: 4.0/80.

This means that these needles are 4.0 cm apart. You can get them 3.0 and 3.5 in the Schmetz brand.

The “80” refers to the needle size. An 80 is also a size 12. The numbers are interchangeable.

Twin needles also come in a 90/14 for heavier fabrics and a “Stretch” twin to use on swimwear and lingerie.

Last week, I took up some sleeves and the hem on a robe.

I first took out the original double row of stitching.

Then, I figured out how much of a hem allowance I would need for the new sleeves. I always try to duplicate what the manufacturer did, if possible.

In this case, the hem was 2 1/2″.

So, I measured out 2 1/2″ beyond the new hemline and cut off the excess.

Then, I serged the edges:

Next, I pressed up the amount of fabric I needed to:

Then, I threaded the twin needles.

You’ll need 2 spools of matching thread to do this.

If you don’t have 2 spools, just wind some onto an empty bobbin and put that bobbin onto one of the thread pins and put the spool on the other.

Thread the machine the same way you normally do (except at the upper tension disc, I put one thread on the left side and one on the right to separate them there).

Then, just thread each of the needles and it should look like this:

Make sure you line up the edge of the hem under the left needle properly.

You want to catch all of the hem with both needles.

So, I’ll measure out 2 3/8″ from the left needle and put a piece of masking tape there on the arm of the machine, sticking it parallel to the foot.

That way, I’ll use the tape as a guide and the hem edge will be caught by both needles.

Begin stitching on the right side of the garment:

I love using twin needles because the stitching will always be perfectly parallel.

No matter how hard I try, I can never get two consecutively sewn lines to look as good as this does. In other words, I can stitch one seam and then come back and stitch another one parallel to the first stitching line and they never look that great.

Here is a view from the underside of the robe:

You can see the serged edge at the top of all this stitching.

The zig zag looking stitches below them are from the twin needle.

This technique works great for T-shirts, swimsuits, lingerie, knit garments of all kinds, etc.

Give it a try if you haven’t already.

I think you’ll love the results!