No 5 of the Sewing Machine Jargon Buster

Spool holder

This is the pin at the top of the electric sewing machine where you place the cylindrical plastic reel that carries the thread.

It's useful to have a couple of spool end caps of different diameters – these are the plastic discs that hold the reel in place and help to feed the thread.

Some sewing machines have two spool holders, so you can sew with two different-coloured threads at the same time with a twin needle. That's a bit advanced for me, so that tips is a little redundant for those people who probably know what that's for anyway...:)

Aww! How cute is this?

I don't think this would be a very practical electric sewing machine to rival the Singer 7470 but it's definitely cute!

See the full story here

You can find more 'useful' hints and tips on electric sewing machines at http://electric-sewingmachine.com

No 4 of the Sewing Machine Jargon Buster - The Sewing Bed

This is the bottom arm of the ‘C’ of the electric sewing machine that houses the bobbin. It is often made of two parts: The free arm is a protruding cylinder that can be used to sew smaller or tubular pieces of fabric such as pockets and sleeves.

The extension table fixes around the free arm to create a wide and flat area that is more suitable for supporting and controlling large pieces of fabric.