miriam

The bobbin winds from the back and can be wound as you sew. Nifty. The manual from the 282 works well enough.

Freaky_Quilts_Dragon

Gotta love the wind as you work feature. My Pfaff has that and it is very nice not to have to wind 8 bobbins before you start quilting. Glad the new machine is working out

miriam

You can also leave the zz knob loose and sew different zz widths for monogram. Try that freehand on your plastic wonder...
I have been experimenting with free hand design with the zz. The old Pfaff would do those same things. Some old Japanese machines will do a free zz as well.

Cari-in-Oly

Many of my older Brothers have instructions for doing this in the manual. It's kinda fun.

Cari

miriam

Cari, I was doing one where I sewed straight for an inch or two then took a few random looking zz stitches even went backward if I forgot to change the length to really close. Then putting it back on ss. Then sewing a couple more inches then doing something random zz and back to ss. I think it would be kind of interesting on some quilts instead of sewing straight across. If it had a cam stack I can see resetting it and using a pattern.

Cari-in-Oly

Miriam the Brother manual instructions have you set the stitch length, then turn the stitch width knob back and forth while sewing to make whatever different patterns you want. It takes some practice to get any consistency.
I just did some decorative stitching down the middle of 115" of cotton strapping for a bag I made. I used my Brother Selectomatic, which has several built in stitches, but it has a mind of its own and randomly changed the length of the design on me several times. I was cussing up a storm but finished it, I wasn't ripping it off and starting over. It looks like I did it manually on a plain zig zag machine. Actually it looks worse but it is what it is.

Cari

Mickey2

I love these old zigzaggers, I've noticed some of them makes a very fine satin stitch with any weight tread (up to top stitch weight at least).

miriam

Cari, those usually have some kind of lock down option. If oil gets where the lock down ends inside some times it can slip. Wipe the internal place where it supposedly holds with a little naphtha or some alcohol and see if it holds better. Stitch length can do the same on some machines if you have oil where you shouldn't. It could need a bit of tightening inside. Flashlight/detective work. Oh so agrivating. I think I know of a clone that does tricks like that and I need to mess with it. Maybe need a new thread on fixing that.

Cari-in-Oly

I just need to look at the manual to figure it out, I was too lazy to look for it. This machine is kinda like a Singer 401, more complicated to set the stitches than it looks. I was just winging it, hoping it would work, and it did, sort of, lol, just not as well as I wanted. I spent a week on this machine when I got it, cleaning, oiling, etc. I now know it needs more work. All of the fancy stitch settings make the same stitch, but I don'y know yet whether the machine is at fault or I'm doing something wrong with the dials and pull out knob.

Cari

miriam

Cari, I have run into a machine or two that would only make one stitch no matter where the dial was set. You have more clean up to do. Stuck up oil likely on the bar the stitch selector rides on... Then again you might discover more places for dried oil to hide than you want to know...