A fool and her sewing machine. Help. [whimper]

[BroccoliSpears]

I recently came to own a sewing machine. Oldish but modern and in good working order. No instruction booklet.

In a nut-shell, I've sniffily told everyone I know that of course I can thread a sewing machine. How hard can it be? God, it's not rocket science.

I've haughtily rejected offers of help and demonstrations because,
(a) I am a wally
(b) uhhh...
and (c) I am such a wally.

I sneakily ordered the instruction booklet on the internet... but now I discover they're out of print and I can't get one and I CAN'T thread my sewing machine and a barely know which way up to stand it on the table and there are SO MANY buttons and dials and hooks and switches that I want to cry.

What should I do?

(I mean, what should I do apart from learn a valuable lesson about not being too proud to admit I don't know something when all my friends do.)

(And, just to clarify, I still won't ask a friend for a demo. I need a sneaky way of discovering how to work it that doesn't involve eating humble pie.)

Oh dear, not sure even I can follow my last post.

When you wind the needle up, does the spool thread come up with it? If it does, you then need to pull on it gently and leave about 5ins lying at the rear of the machine. Check before you wind the spool thread up that it's still caught on the spool notch too.

So I need to aim for two tails going back away from the foot? I see.

No, it doesn't bring any spool thread back out of the hole with it.

Am using two different coloured threads to make it simpler.

I'm definitely getting something wrong down below.

Yes you need two threads, one from the top which goes through the needle and one from the spool/bobbin which comes out of the footplate and lies behind the foot parellel to the needle one.
Take the spool out and check that it's not inserted upside down, put it into the bobbin case and run the thread from it into the groove and catch it on the notch. On mine I gently pull it out towards the left and then lower the needle to catch the bobbin thread.

Maybe you haven't put the spool in the right way. With my machine you have to put it in so that the thread when pulled rotates the spool counterclockwise

Ahhh... I shall try that tomorrow. Have put machine away for this evening. Was getting a little too involved .

Any luck yet?