As a quilt teacher, I tell my students that the most important thing you can do for successful sewing is to take care of your machine! Make sure you get it in for service at minimum of every 18 months, and that’s only if you aren’t having any problems with it. Your dealer takes it all apart and makes sure it is cleaned and oiled in the proper places. I don’t have a degree in sewing machine maintenance, sew I leave that to the experts.
In relation to that - clean your feed dog area – (dig out your owner’s manual because it will show you the steps) take out your bobbin case and really get in there with that little lint brush that came with your machine. I do this about every 10-12 hours of sewing. Lint from your fabric and threads builds up around the bobbin case and your machine will do all kinds of crazy things if you don’t clean this area on a regular basis. HELPFUL TIP: I also use q-tips to do this, the end of the q-tip is a natural lint magnet, plus it can get down deeper in the crevices of that area.
In addition - change your needle – put a new needle in your machine about every 10-12 hours of sewing, unless you are sewing with paper (paper-piecing). You need a good sharp needle when doing topstitching or machine quilting. I sharp needle gives you even stitching.
There you have it, just a few simple rules to follow for successful sewing! Along those lines, I am proud to show you some of my attention to detail sewing….hope you enjoy these pics…
3 comments:
great posts - all the tips you listed are sew important!!!
maybe that's what was wrong with my machine... though I got it from someone else! Thanks for the tips!
Thanks so much for the sewing machine tips. I've got a problem now with the tension on my machine. It's about 35 years old and I've never had a problem with it.
Thanks for the "link love" you've given me as a top dropper. I always enjoy coming to your blog to see the beautiful quilts you have made and what you have written.
Thanks again and have a wonderful week!
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