GMarie, if your brother is like mine on the straight stitch foot there is a teeny tiny line just right of the opening where the needle works through the fabric. It lines up just to the right of the 1/4 mark etched into the machine by a couple of threads. That is exactly a 1/4 inch when my needle is all the way to the left. When I first got my machine in December, I always put the needle in the center postition, out of habit (my old machine didn't have the left/right function). Putting the needle in the middle was my problem, thats where i put it to quilt, stitch in the ditch etc, but to sew my seems (even the 5/8" seems on clothing) that puppy has to be all the way to the left! I read through the manual and read through the manual after I figured that out, and never did I see it printed in there! I think it would have been kind of them to let us know up front huh? LOL