Trouble free sewing, isn’t it the best! Have you ever watched the IT Crowd (IT stands for Information Technology department)? If you haven’t I think you should, especially the episode called “The Work Outing” . I miss dialled a phone number the other day and it actually said,“Hello, you’ve reached blah, blah, blah’s IT department” (well, it wasn’t called blah, blah, blah but I can’t recall the company’s name but I’m sure you know what I mean)” Have you tried turning it off and on again? Please leave a message.”I was dumb founded and while I was asking myself if I heard correctly I hung up at the beep. What I should have done was say, “Best voice mail ever, that was awesome!” And then hung up.
I wish I could take credit for this brilliant cross stitch, sadly I can’t. BUT if you’d like this little beauty as a screen saver you can, or choose a different one from here.
It is true, it’s simple and my husband has been telling me for years when I call him for tech support, have you tried turning it off and on again. Essential my sewing machine is a computer and when ever I have a glitch, I hear him in my head saying “Try turning it off and on again.” More times than not it fixes the problem! I also, along with these five other simple steps, have fixed skipped stitches, thread nests and other general sewing annoyances.
1. Rethread that machine! Including the bobbin, pesky thing.
How it gets discombobulated I have no idea and honestly I don’t even want to know why. I just want to sew!
2. Put a new needle in.
I hate throwing out needles. I’m not sure why, I have a hard time believing that pointy thing I’m touching is too dull for my fabric. More often then not quite simply I forget to do it. I know some people change their needle every project. It sounds like a good idea but so does eating your veggies. I do aim to eat my veggies every day but that bun sitting over there looks oh so tasty and it feels so fresh, mmm! My machine will often tell me to stop eating buns… wait, no, it tells me it’s time to change the needle when I realize it sounds like a freight train. Ca chunk, ca chunk. It doesn’t toot though. That would be cool if it did!
3. Oil it!
Oil, it’s a wonderful thing! If I’ve already changed my needle and my machine still sounds like freight train it’s time to oil it! I don’t wait for my machine’s screen to tell me. If I did, I think it would be too late.
4. Pop off the base plate and de-lint.
A few your years back I went to a LA Modern Quilt Guild meeting and they had a speaker talking about machine maintenance. She suggested not using the little weenie (my word, not hers) brushes that you get with machine but instead get a wide paint brush to help dust it all away. Dust and lint can do crazy things to your machine. My machine once stopped stitching correctly… like all together. It was very distressing! I broke the news to my husband that my two year old machine had died a quick and painless death. We Googled it, I popped off the base plate, lint, lint, lint everywhere! Now I always de-lint under my base plate, keeping it pretty darn clean. You can check if you want to!
5. Walk away! But say a few kind words before you leave.
Yup, just walk away. Turn it off. Talk nicely to your machine as you say goodnight. Alternatively you might want to say, “I can see you’re not feeling well, we’ll talk about it later when you’ve calmed down.” Give it a little pat (or a kiss if you prefer). Say, “night, night” and walk out. Be firm but loving. Don’t think about it until the next day. Perhaps watch a little IT Crowd? Get yourself some rest and when you greet your machine the next time you see it, greet it happily with a positive attitude. Truly tried and tested!
…and of course, if all else fails,
