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Got a hole in your jeans? Darn it! Using the BERNINA 330Save your jeans!
I love to wear jeans. Usually, though, there is one pair that just seems to fit perfectly - and I wear them
all the time. All that wearing and washing, wearing and washing really does a number on the denim. It takes a while, sometimes longer than others, but I always end up with this:
Holes. In my jeans. Now, I get the whole holey jean fashion movement, just not in my most favorite pair of jeans! So, instead of throwing them out, I decided to revive them, with the BERNINA 330's darning feature.
First, I chose some pretty fabric that I wouldn't mind showing through some of my stitching (just in case). The fabric also helps prevent the jeans from puckering during darning. I slipped the fabric underneath the hole in my jeans, right side up.
Then, I found the darning stitch on the BERNINA 330. Looks like it's stitch #16:
See how it says "auto" down in the right-hand corner? That's right. This is an
automatic darning program.
I scrunched my jeans on the super skinny arm of the machine. I've never even attempted this before because I could never access the area where my jeans tend to tear on my old machine. Not so with the BERNINA 330.
I manipulated the fabric so that the "grain" of the denim was parallel with the needle/presser foot and then started sewing.
When the stitches spanned the entire width of the hole, I hit the quick reverse button once:
And the machine did the rest - darning my hole automatically.
Now, because this hole was quite wide, I decided to try the start/stop feature on the BERNINA 330. I simply pushed the start/stop button when I wanted to start my stitch, and again when I wanted to stop (no foot pedal required!).
See the slide lever above the button? That controls the speed of the stitching. I started out on the slow side, and then moved it to the middle to speed up my sewing as I became more comfortable with the feature. This is like cruise control on a car - look, mom, no hands! Ha-ha, not really.
When I reached the end of the hole, I flipped the jeans inside out and clipped the fabric around my stitching.
Here's how it looks from the front:
No more hole! You can't really see the fabric underneath, but that's okay. It's still providing structural support.
On the other leg, I had some almost holes that I figured I'd nip in the bud now while I was at it.
I decided to get a little crazy on this side and add some color. The BERNINA 330 came with some pretty wild thread that I hadn't really had the opportunity to use until now.
Pretty! And perfect to show off another feature of the BERNINA 330, the needle threader! Yep, that's right. No more squinty-eyed threading. Here's how it works.
First, you pull down the lever that usually sits up and to the left of your needle, wrapping the thread around the hook as you do.
Then, pull the thread to the right in front of the needle,
and hook it into the little metal slot.
Then, simply let go of both the thread and the lever, and....
Your needle is threaded!
A quick darning on those trouble spots:
And your jeans are like new again!
Yay!
