I have a sewing machine. Actually I've had some sort of sewing machine ever since I started having children, 42 years ago. I'm not an accomplished seamstress, however, I'm pretty darn good witha straight stitch and a zig-zag stitch and some imagination. Patterns have never been my strong suit, but I have on occasion used a few with some alterations.
I have a love-hate relationship with the sewing machine I have right now. It's a simple Singer. I don't ask it to do Ralph Lauren or anything that is seen on the runway of fashion. I ask it to sew a straight stitch. Every now and then I asked it to zig-zag a frayed edge.
One afternoon it's works like a dream. I walk away to make a cup of coffee and come back and it knots up the thread on the underside. Why? I run out of thread, change the thread, it sews beautifully. Why? I complete a project and put the machine away. Next Tuesday, I create, in my head, a great shirt. I get the material out, measure, cut, pin and sew! Not! Since last I touched this little jewel of a machine, the machine gremlin has visited. the stitches skip 1/2 inch at a time. I check the stitch size, no different than on Saturday. I take all thread out. Rethread, sew. It's sewing beautifully. Why?
So at this point my creative mind is trying to figure out a way to complete this shirt without stopping. Can one actually leave the material in the machine and pin as you go? Trust me, I have tried this! And the answer is NO YOU CANT!
So as of today, I had a way cool shirt I was copying off an internet style catalog I really love. I layed out the material, measured, cut the neck, pinned tiny pleats down the front, and one down the back, cut out lace to add into a cut out in the back and got out my trusty little Singer. Due to our great grandsons visiting I set up the machine in a different place. Checked thread and put the first little pleat in place, dropped the foot and started sewing. The machine sounded like a wounded cat! My husband, who was playing a game with the boys at the table I usually set up at said, "Sounds like it needs oiling." I gritted my teeth and said nothing. You see, he has an engineer brain; that means a brain that does not believe in sewing machine gremlins.
This afternoon it won't load a bobbin. Why? Does anyone know how to get rid of gremlins?
Hello my little friend...
ReplyDeletedont worry, I love sewing machines, and as I go, I have learnedthat nice words help the gremlins leave. I have several machines now,and it is like talking to your plants, nice words work!!! so, if the thread is making a bird nest on the bottom, under the needle, it would be the thread on top, coming from the spool, you may have a secret thread or a tiny fuzzy ball of lint under the needle, and you need to open the bobbin area, pull out the bobblin case and tickle the area with a tiny paint brush. then, put all that back. go on top where the thread first goes into the machine, from the spool, and take a long pin and push the little thread holder (you may not see this tension holder) open and there may be another secret thread, which is hanging in there, it could make your new threading of thread not lay properly in the tension. and that causes the thread to not be threaded correctly, and making the bird nest under the needle.
call me for more explanation.love you!
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