Stitches to the inch - 10 12 14 or more?
 

I set my machine to 1.8 for piecing because my Janome dealer told me to. Three years ago....haha! Recently, doing Washington Medallion (my name for it is Washington Monument) I measured my strips for the checkerboard, and lo and behold, they were 12 1/2" until they were pieced to each other, at which point I lost 1/4".

So, I pulled and ironed them out until they conformed to spec.

Later, I went back to the piecing and forgot to adjust the setting so it pieced at the standard 2.2 setting. Suddenly all my piecing was 12 1/2" AFTER SEWING! And it wasn't scrunched up a little from the tiny stitches.

Light dawns over Marblehead, as we say here. So I pulled out two scraps of plain dark cotton and made a test strip and measured it with the cute little bit of ruler which came with my old Elna. 1.8 on my Janome was so many stitches I couldn't count them accurately. 2.2 was 13-14 stitches per inch depending on my eyesight.

I am now looking back at some earlier work which required accuracy and wondering...did I shoot myself in the foot? Was that why sometimes things which were cut and measured did not measure right after sewing?

I thought I was Little Miss Accuracy...but now I am wondering if I should call myself "miss accuracy" LOL

Comments appreciated!

I use the 3 setting for piecing. I won't go lower then 2.5. I use the max pressure setting on the pressure foot.

that is very interesting to hear. i never thought the stitch length could make that much of a difference

Awwwww....yes, it can. :wave:

I have a Janome and always have it set on 2.2 for piecing. Never had a problem. Wonder why your dealer told you that? Hmmmmmmm.....:eek::wave:

I have a Janome 6600 and Jem. I always piece at 2.2, which seems appropriate for piecing, especially if you have to rip. Ripping 1.8 stitches must be horrible.

That stitch length would have been challengng to ned to unsew!

Appreciate your noticing and sharing this.

Huh...I don't think I've ever noticed what mine is, I use whatever the default length is. I only have ever changed stitch length if I'm basting something, or when playing with decorative stitching. I want to say it's 2.0? I'm going to have to go look now!

Of course, when I FMQ, stitch length is all over the place!

My BabyLock Serenade defaults to 2.0 and that is what I use for my piecing.