elina 21

A Foot

You can get away with most projects with only one sewing foot – but geez don’t some of these specialty feet make jobs so much easier?! All sewing machines will have a straight and a zig zag stitch, with some variations in between at the most basic level. Your most common sewing foot will be your Zigzag Foot or ‘A’ Foot. It has both a vertical and horizontal slot to accommodate needle movement in either direction.

E Foot

But what else? We buy sewing machines for mending and making clothing, accessories and decor crafts. Zippers feature in all areas of craft and sometimes it’s not as simple as sewing two pieces of fabric together. For these, there are several variations of specially designed feet. With the elina 21 you receive the common Zipper ‘E’ Foot, with a clip-bar on both the left and right allowing you to get as close as possible to either side of a zipper track.

Bobbins

Now one thing we can never have too many of are the Janome Universal Plastic Bobbins. This is the little spool that you use in the bottom of your machine to help form the stitch, and you use the bobbin winder on top of your machine to wind your choice of thread so your colours match on both sides of the fabric. Most modern machines prefer the use of plastic bobbins because unless advised otherwise, metal bobbins can damage your machine.

Needles

You can’t sew without needles! Janome include a small pack of mixed sharp needles to help you get started. Sharps are your standard sewing needle, and range in sizes depending on the weight of fabric you need them for. The average sewing fabric uses a size 14 sharp needle, and it’s recommended that you change your needle every 6-8 sewing hours – even if it’s not broken they can go blunt! There are many types too, so don’t forget to browse other needle types for your next project.

Spool Holders

Most sewing machines will now provide horizontal spool caps or holders, so the thread winds off the spool the same way it has been wound on, in an even and consistent manner. To keep the spool from dancing around, Janome provides spool caps to affix your thread and help it unwind properly. You receive both small and large spool caps, but we recommend the small for most threads as it doesn’t interfere with the path of smaller spools.

All other standard accessories are little things to help maintain your machine, like lint brushes for cleaning out the bobbin case, and a screw key so you can get to the bobbin case. If you have any other enquires about these items, just let us know and we can help you identify them and their potential uses.