If your sewing machine has a lever which makes it sew backward, try to
use it now. Move the stitch regulator up as far as it will go. As you
start the machine you will see it moving backward. In order to stitch
forward again, push the lever back down as far as it will go. As you
will learn in your projects, you will always have to sew very slowly and
carefully when you sew backward in order to do it nicely.
[Illustration: {stitch regulator}]
Another reason the stitch regulator is on your machine is to make the
stitches larger or smaller for you, whichever is best for the material
with which you are working.
[Illustration: 8 STITCHES]
Some machines have numbers next to the lever to tell you the number of
stitches per inch. If your machine does not have such numbers, you will
be able to tell the number of stitches per inch by putting a line of
stitching into a piece of material, and counting the number of stitches
sewn in a one-inch space.