How To Set Up Your Brother Q Series Sewing Machine (Video)
I coudn’t count how many times someone has told me “I have a sewing machine — and it’s still in the box!” Seriously! But I can understand why. It can be overwhelming to open something new. You have to figure out what all the pieces are, you have to know how to set it up, and you have to know what to do with it.
So, I made a video! 🙂
From a sealed box to a threaded sewing machine ready to sew, I’ll walk you through how to set up a brand new sewing machine step by step! I’m showing how to set up the Brother NQ900, but most of the steps will transfer to any sewing machine at home including any of the Brother Q Series sewing machines.
Watch here…
Want to find your nearest Brother Authorized Dealer? Click here or visit brother.ca for more on Brother’s sewing, quiliting, embroidery and crafting!
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Hey, everyone. I’d like to walk you through how to set up your brand new sewing machine. This is a Brother NQ900. It’s called the Stylist and it’s fresh from the box, so I’m going to show you exactly what to do.
Set up Your Brother Q-Series in a Snap
Of course, we have to start off by opening the box. Alright, this puppy is packaged in super tight, which is great. Let’s pull this out first. This is the good stuff. Okay, so you’ve some serious packaging that’s holding everything together, but that’s great because it is nice and secure and your machine is in perfect order. So let’s open it up.
– A cord.
– Accessories.
– And more accessories.
– Instruction manual; very helpful, don’t throw that way.
– Dust cover.
– And this beautiful machine. Ah! So nice.
Okay, so let’s pull everything out of its individual packaging and look at what we’ve got here.
– There’s your foot pedal.
– Dust cover: I use my sewing machine all the time so I never cover it, but I’ll put this aside in case I decide to use it later.
– Manual: definitely hold onto this. If you’re really studious, read through it beforehand. It’s really thick. This one has a French and an English; so it’s only half the size of what you see, but your instruction manual is really your best friend. It gives you a great overview and specific details about your machine, about sewing, about different stitches; don’t lose it. If you don’t read it right away, definitely put it aside to read it later.
– And we have this beautiful extension table, which makes your work surface that much larger. This machine is awesome to sew on, because you never have to worry about running out of room for your fabric or getting your fabric all bunched up underneath your machine. There’s so much space; so much space between the arm and the machine.
– And the Q-Series has a knee lift. So this plugs into the machine and then you can use your knee to lower and raise your presser foot, which is so handy, especially when you’re sewing really difficult things where you need your hands and you have to pay attention.
– And then, of course, our lovely accessories kit. There are so many things that come with this sewing machine and I will go through all of them in another video.
– Another great bonus is a walking foot. This foot comes with this machine.
So when you’re ready to set it up, take all these little plastic tabs off here, because these are just kind of there for safety – keeping everything in place. So I’ll go through and remove all of these. To get some of these blue stickers off, pull off the extension table so that you can grab them right under here.
Next pull out your cords and take off the ties. I always hold onto ties for my cords. You can also use rubber bands when you’re wrapping it up. Whatever you like. And then plug them in on the side. There are two different electrical entry points. One is for the power cord and the other is for the foot pedal. One of the great things about the Q-Series Machine is that you can use it without the foot pedal. You can just use the start and stop button, but for those of us who love it old school, like I do, the foot pedal can still be used. Plug your foot pedal right in here. There you go.
When you turn your machine on, the very first thing you’ll see is the language selector. So you can use the plus and minus to choose the appropriate language. Once you’ve selected it, press ‘OK.’
If this light is red, that just means that your presser foot is raised. Reach behind your machine, lower your presser foot, and you’re ready to go.
Now let’s load our bobbin.
- First, lift up your presser foot, slide this over to the right so that the cover comes off, and you can grab the bobbin that’s inside the machine here or take one from the accessories kit. Put that back in place.
- Lift up this top case and grab your spool of thread. Take off the spool cap. Put your spool of thread on. And you want your thread to come forward from underneath. And replace the spool cap. And then follow the pattern numbers. One hooks behind here, two underneath, and then three comes back. Once it’s underneath here, we go counter-clockwise through that tension disk, and make sure you pull it tight on either side so that it’s caught tight in that tension disk. And then four is wrapping around the bobbin.
- So put your bobbin onto the bobbin winder, wrap this around about six or eight times clockwise. Once you’re finished, slide the thread through that groove and cut it. Push this in place and you’re ready to go. If you have your foot pedal attached, press the pedal to start winding. If you don’t have your foot pedal attached, press the start/stop button. And then let’s pick up the pace.
This machine automatically disengages the needle; you don’t have to worry about doing that. And it will stop automatically when the thread rubs up against this metal portion. Just keep an eye on your bobbin; make sure it’s loading evenly from top to bottom and you don’t have any bumps or gaps. And take your finger and maneuver it in place to fill in any spaces. There we go. Once it doesn’t go any further take your scissors, cut the thread anywhere, and pull this off. Our bobbin is now beautifully loaded. Make sure you check the side. Give it a little push; make sure it’s not super loose. If the tension is okay, we’re ready to put this in our machine as is.
So lift up your presser foot. Remove this case again. And for this one it’s a drop-in-load so you just drop it right in. Make sure your thread is coming off of the left-hand-side, straight down and then lay it flat in your machine. Hold gently on the bobbin while you wrap the thread around through this bottom groove and follow this path along; you’ll hit an automatic thread cutter, and then once that’s in place, you just put the case back on.
For the Brother Q-Series machine, you don’t have to bring the bobbin thread up to the top of your machine, like you do have to with most other machines. You can if you want to or you can leave it there and just start sewing.
So, I’m going to thread my machine. This time I’m going across here, down, back up, behind, straight down, through the thread guide at the needle, and then I will use this automatic needle threader, which I love that’s so easy; one push, there you go.
Once you’ve finished threading your sewing machine, you are all set to go. One of the great things about this machine is, once you’ve selected your stitch, it does everything for you; it sets the width, sets the length, and it even sets your upper thread tension. Of course, you can manually override those things, but it is a pre-set. So you can point and shoot. You don’t even have to think about it.
This first button is for your pre-set and your saved stitches; kind of your most common. The next are your functional stitches and button holes and your decorative stitches. Now you just raise this flap here and pick the corresponding number based on if you want a functional stitch or a decorative stitch.
You also have character stitches in five different fonts on this machine. So you choose what you want and then you put your fabric under; you’re ready to go.
You can also adjust the pressure on your presser foot with the touch of a button. Come on over to your settings screen. And come to screen five of eight. There we go. This is your presser foot pressure. It’s automatically set at three, which is pretty standard. And then you can just increase it or decrease it based on your fabric.
Another great feature of this machine, it has an automatic fabric sensor system. So it automatically detects the thickness of your fabric and adjusts the presser foot pressure accordingly. Of course, you can come through and manually override it, but you know that it is adjusting according to that sensor. So it’s another thing that you don’t have to think about.
Once you’re all set up with your sewing machine – you’ve wound your bobbin, set up your thread, and picked your stitch – you’re ready to go.
And that’s how you set up your brand new Brother NQ900 Stylist sewing machine. I hope these steps are helpful, and don’t forget hold onto your instruction manual. You never know when you might need it as a reference down the road.
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