Originally Posted by
smcfadden
Can someone tell me what leaders and enders are and what they're used for? I've seen passing references to them, but have no idea what they are.
Before machines came along that had needle up/down when you stopped sewing the take up lever just stopped where ever. Then when you started sewing again if the take up lever was at the bottom it would unthread your machine. So people used a "thread bunny." A "thread bunny" was just a scrap of fabric that you sewed over at the beginning of a seam and put back on at the end of the seam to keep the machine from coming unthreaded and to keep from getting thread snarls at the beginning of a seam. Thread bunnies evolved into leader enders. Instead of just using the same scrap over and over you use a new pair of cut fabrics at the beginning and end of your stitching.