If you want to take in waists, or even create new items of clothing, it's time to get a machine. But first, how to thread a sewing machine?

The bobbin is wound with the thread that will make up the underside of a machine stitch. Machines have either a top drop-in style of bobbin (like the one shown), or a front-loading bobbin.

A sewing machine is a fantastically useful thing to own, but too often sewing machines end up languishing in a closet because something wasn't working quite right the last time you tried to use it ...

Beneath the needle (as the GIF shows at a very slowed down speed) a hook rotates, capturing the thread from above and looping it around another thread, this one reeling from the bobbin below. The ...