The Sewing Place

How to sew a faux blanket stitch for applique on a vintage Bernina

Madame Cholet

I went to Quiltfest Llangollen yesterday and I was blown away by the fabulousness of the quilts I saw on display there.
There were many quilts that had applique work on them, and the majority of these had what looked like a machined blanket stitch around the edges of each appliqued motif.
The stitching looked wonderful, but sadly none of my vintage Berninas can sew such a stitch
.... or can they?
So I spent some time tonight playing on my 930, and realised that a hack is possible after all. 
:)

I selected the blindstitch, set the stitch width to 2.0, and the stitch length to 1. I set the 930 to half speed so it would just chug along quite slowly.
The blindstitch consists of 6 stitches. First are sewn 4 straight stitches, then stitch 5 has the needle swing to the left, and finally stitch 6 swings the needle back to the right.

I found if I counted along with the stitches, counting 1, 2, 3, 4 (- as the needle sewed the 4 straight stitches) then on the count of 5 (- for stitch 5) lifted the stitch length knob all the way up (- as though for reverse), then on the count of 6 (- for stitch 6) lower the knob back down for normal sewing again, I managed a passable blanket stitch:



In front of the presser foot is the normal blindstitch.
On the left is my blanket stitching.
In between the two is a line of vari-overlock stitch plus the towelling stitch, which is like a kind of wonky blanket stitch, which I tried out but is not suitable at all for what I wanted.
Please ignore the stitches directly below the motif... they were from me trying to do a Bernina mock hand quilting stitch, and the less said about that the better.... I read about the technique in an old Bernina leaflet, where it looked quite impressive, but try as I might I can't get it to happen.

I like my faux blanket stitch though, I think with a little more practice I'd do a neater job, and I'm sure I could put it to use somewhere.
 :)

Mods - this may well be in the wrong place, but as it involves my vintage Bernina I put it in vintage machines - please move as appropriate if need be  :)
« Last Edit: February 11, 2018, 00:23:32 AM by Madame Cholet »

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Re: How to sew a faux blanket stitch for applique on a vintage Bernina
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2018, 01:08:38 AM »
The 930 is over 30 years now so I guess it can be called vintage, I dare say when compared to any good basic machine it is much the same  :P

I never seen this trick before, but I only have a 730 and a 900 Nova. I think there exist a blanket stitch cam for my Elna Supermatic, I might have to track down the number just to play around with it.










Acorn

Re: How to sew a faux blanket stitch for applique on a vintage Bernina
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2018, 10:07:11 AM »
That's amazing - well done!

So you can teach an old machine new tricks...  0_0
I might look as though I'm talking to you, but inside my head I'm sewing.

maliw

Re: How to sew a faux blanket stitch for applique on a vintage Bernina
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2018, 11:02:55 AM »
 Well done for being so inspired and finding just what you and your machine can do. How do you know that some of the quilts weren't done on vintage machines ;) Just look what you produced in a short time, great job.
At leisure on the leisure penninsula