Saturday, October 4, 2008

Oh no. My sewing machine is broken.

Oh no. My sewing machine is under the weather and misbehaving today. I feel absolutely frustrated. I have a secret project I am working on with a deadline of next Saturday, as well as another dress I am mocking up in muslin for a designer. All in all, I really needed my machine to sew this weekend.

Alas, my poor vintage Singer is skipping the vital task of picking up the bobbin thread at random intervals. It will sew perfectly for a few inches, then whoops, all of a sudden it misses hooking the bobbin thread. Sometimes the needle, thread, and bobbin realign and the needle starts picking up the bobbin thread after a few missed stitches. But sometimes the missed stitching continues to error until the fabric bunches up in gathers under the presser foot. I have changed the needle in case it was too dull and causing the error. I have changed the bobbin in case the old one was warped. I have adjusted every tension dial I could find. Alas, the problem continues.

In light of all that could go wrong in my life, I know I am lucky that an uncaught bobbin thread is my biggest cause for tears today. However, since it is my biggest cause for tears, it is still upsetting. Grrrrrrrrrr. Frustration ensues.

2 comments:

Myra said...

I nknow this is really basic and you probably did, but take out the bobbin and the case and really dust with a brush, plus lift up the plate while you are cleaning. Once I had a bit of thread caught up in it and lint had accumulated everywhere I mentioned and didn't see when just taking out the bobbin wheel.

Kate said...

Thank you for the advice. Everything is helpful in a frustrating situation like a broken machine. I did use some canned air to blow out the bobbin area. Lots and lots and LOTS of lint and dust came out, but alas it did not solve my problem. I took the machine to the shop on Saturday and they think that a spring is malfunctioning, because the bobbin thread is missed during fast sewing. More details to come when all is repaired. :) I know it is sort of silly to spend money on my old machine when I could just save for a new one, but I am very attached to my sea green Singer.