Cleaning My Sewing Machine

As I've been stitching the last few items I've been working on, I noticed that my bobbin thread was getting tangled and the tension was pretty messed up. The upper thread on my machine snapped a few times, and there were knots in the thread on the underside of my fabric.

This was an obvious signal that I needed to do some trouble-shooting. I had been changing out my needle regularly, so I knew that wasn't the problem. I also hadn't switched thread types or the tension settings. 

I realized that I've been sewing with a lot of linty fabrics lately. Flannel, fleece, bamboo velour, cotton velour, zorb, toweling, and the like. And of course, that's going to create a lot of lint and dust inside my machine.  I remembered it's been a while since I last cleaned out my machine, and that's one of the quickest ways to get my tension wrecked.

So I cracked that puppy open and went to work. And here's how:

My sewing machine came with a little baggy of parts, as do most machines these days. You may have seen some of the pieces and wondered what they were for. That little disc-washer-looking thing is actually a screwdriver. It's just the right size for reaching the little screws that hold the plate in place that goes over your feed dogs.  After removing the needle and the whole presser foot apparatus to get them out of the way,  I used the little screwdriver disc to remove those two screws, and then the metal and plastic pieces of the plate there.

The other important piece of equipment here is that little paint brush. It's a magical little lint brush.  I don't know how the magic works, but instead of pushing the lint around inside the machine, you actually use it to grab and lift the fluff out of the nooks and crannies. You don't want to just push the lint down farther into the machine.

Once I got the plate off of my machine, I discovered that it was just full of lint.  Of course.  So the next thing I did was to pull out the bobbin housing (is that what it's called?).  It's that black plastic piece in the middle there, that holds the bobbin and directs the thread.  Mine just lifts right out.  I gave that a good cleaning with my handy lint brush.  Once that was cleaned, I went to town for over a half an hour, cleaning every little crevice my brush could reach.  It was so bad!!  Look how much lint I got out of there!

Now, the thing is, you can certainly buy some canned air from the office supply or the fabric store.  The thing with canned air though, is instead of getting all of that lint out of the machine, it just blows it down further inside it.  That's a problem.  If that lint is already gumming up the works, what would happen if you just blast it down in there?  And what if you were to keep blowing more lint in?  Sewing machines are full of sensitive parts, and mine has lots of  electronic bits.  I just don't want to mess with that jazz.

So this is how it looked once I got everything all cleaned out.  So much better!  I certanily could have used a small screwdriver to take more of those pieces out and clean a little deeper, but frankly that just freaks me out.  I don't want to break anything.  I'm sure it's fine for someone who is more confident with machinery, but I'm just not.  Instead, I plan to take it in for some maintenance one of these days to get everything all squeaky clean and oiled.  Until that time, this is a good way to keep things running smoothly.  One other tip is to pull out your camera and take a picture or two of things as you take them apart, so you know you're putting them back together properly.

Once I had removed all the lint I could, I put the bobbin case holder thing back inside and turned the flywheel to make sure it all still moved properly.  Then I plates back on and tightened the screws with my little screwdriver.

I replaced the needle and presser foot, and gave it all a test run with thread in the machine, and tada!  Everything was back to normal.

I first learned how to clean my machine by watching a video by So Sew Easy, which you can watch yourself here.


Just remember to be careful and slow as you go, and don't force anything to move if it's resisting you.  And keep in mind that cleaning your own machine is by no means a replacement for regular professional maintenance, but it will save you a lot of aggravation in between tune-ups.

How-To Videos: RUMPs

I started making my own cloth, reusable menstrual pads last year. If it's something you're interested in, it's really very easy to do if you have some basic supplies and sewing skills. And if you're just learning to sew, it's a good project to learn on.  (The pads in this photo were made using a pattern by Versodile, which is available on Etsy.  I'll be doing a review on the pattern at some point.)

As I looked into the idea, there were some videos that I watched that really gave me the confidence I needed to get started. And since then, I have come across a few more that have really helped me to improve my technique, speed, and create more "finished" pads. I'm listing the videos here that have been the biggest help to me.

These first few are by Amy Nix.  I love her.  She has several Facebook groups that you can join for support and information on the topic.  If you look her up on YouTube, you'll see that she has loads of videos about materials, tips, and using upcycled items from around the house if you don't want to invest in any specialty fabrics yet.  These are just the 3 that got me started.

How to make your own basic symmetrical pad pattern:

How to make your own asymmetrical pad pattern:

How to sew your own pad:

Okay, these next videos have helped me take it up a notch.  I started out using flannel and a hidden PUL layer, like Amy demonstrates.  Since then, I have been trying out some higher end fabrics (more exotic I guess), that are harder to work with.  I also wanted to increase my speed and although I've been happy with what I was making in the beginning, I wanted to see if I could make something of a more professional quality.  The videos put out by Courtney of Versodile really helped me with those goals.  And here those are:

Of course, Courtney has more videos, but these were the three that have really helped me out the most.

I hope these are as helpful for you as they have been for me!  Questions?  Ask away.

Pattern Review: Versodile

Well, I've been testing up a storm on these mama cloth (reusable menstrual pad) patterns.  I don't have any idea what I'm going to like once I start needing them again, so I'm making lots of styles and lengths and combinations for absorbancy and things.  My current goal is to find patterns that are fast and easy to cut and sew, and that create a nice looking finished product.  I also know that certain widths are not going to work for me.  That part won't usually come up in these reviews, though, because I realize different widths are better for different people.  The only time I'm going to mention it as a problem in a review would be if it just seems like the width is totally unreasonable.

This pattern, though.  Winning in every way.  

The Shop: Versodile
The Pattern: 10" Tessellation Cloth Pad Sewing Pattern

The designer, Courtney, created this reusable menstrual pad pattern to work with some tessellated fabric that she came up with and will be selling on Spoonflower.  Honestly, I have no idea how Spoonflower works or what it is, but I had come across Courtney's how-to videos on YouTube, and they basically blew my mind.  She gave some tips for stabilizing stretchy fabrics and keeping seams straight. So I felt the need to give the pattern a try. I contacted Courtney with several questions, and she was just great.  She answered all of my questions, very quickly, and was a huge help with some troubleshooting for general pad construction patterns that I had (not related to her pattern).  One of the things I learned from her was that this pattern can be used with any fabric you would normally use.  Although it's designed to work with her specialty fabric, it's not a requirement.  And the shape of the pattern really reduces waste.  (You know - because it's tessellated.)

One of the things that I loved about this pattern was that it included not only the template for the topper, backer, and core, but it also includes a template for a stitching line.  This is placed on the back of the topper fabric and traced on, and then when you're ready to do your stitching, you just follow the line you've drawn instead of maintaining a particular seam allowance in relation to your presser foot or sewing machine.  This is a dream for assembling pads, because there are so many layers involved that they can get pretty shifty, so it can be really hard to get a nice, straight seam. Especially for someone like me.  And that will really effect the finished product once it's been turned and topstitched.  Because of this stitching line, my finished product was probably the nicest looking pad I've ever made.  (Of course, that ice dyed organic bamboo velour helps too!)  Because this was a pattern with all straight edges, that saved me some time with cutting, which I appreciated.  Those straight edges and the stitching line made it so that I just didn't feel like I had to be so careful with the cutting.

 

Although this pattern is for a 10" pad, my finished product turned out to be close to 11" long.  (I don't know if that's due to my fabric choice, though.  OBV is really stretchy, as opposed to the flannel that I used in my other tests.)  It's also nice and trim when the snaps are closed, measuring just 2.5" across the center.  Here it is with my hand for size comparison.  *I have smallish hands.

 

I just really loved this pattern.  It was well-designed for waste reduction and quick, easy cutting and assembly.  Although there are a few extra steps involved (like drawing the stitch line), I found that it added very little time to the process of creating the pad, and the additional effort was well worth it.  It doesn't create a pad that's as "fancy" looking, so I had moved it to the back of my stack of patterns to try.  Fancy is fun!  But I'm so glad that I decided to move ahead with it, because if it turns out to be as nice to wear as I think it will, it will definitely end up being one of my favorites.  In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to get her 13" pattern too, to use for when the baby comes, and then for overnights.  And I'm glad I did, because that one offers additional features that weren't included in the 10" version. 

If you'd like to take a look at Courtney's how-to videos for assembling this pad, just click the link above.  Got any questions for me?  Feel free to ask in the comments.

DIY: Reusable Nursing Pads

I recently made a few video tutorials for contoured reusable nursing pads that I thought I'd also share here.

I've been using reusable nursing pads for the last 2 babies, but didn't like the styles.  Mine were all purchased on Amazon.com, before I really got into sewing much.  They are flat circles, with a serged edge.  They worked fine, and I never had any leaking issues.  The problem was that because they were just flat, you could really see them through my clothes, and they flattened out my poor chest pretty badly.  They were not flattering or discreet in any way.  Once I started sewing, I looked into making my own, but the tutorials that I found online were almost all the same style.  I did find a few tutorials for a "contoured" nursing pad, but the contour was created by making a dart.  You would cut a triangle out of the side of the circle, then stitch the triangle closed.  This made a cone-shaped nursing pad.  I really didn't want to look like a breastfeeding, 1980's/1990's Madonna.  So I recently did some research. I hunted around online and purchased and tried out some patterns.  Some of them were awesome, and I'll share links another time.  

I wanted to figure out a pattern that would be free, easy for a beginning sewer to make, one that would be discreet (with a real contoured shape, not a cone shape), effective, and that could be made with readily available and inexpensive materials.  Once I got the videos done, I realized there were a few things I could have done a little differently (like cutting the pattern from just one piece of paper), but whatever! You'll get the idea.

In the videos, I show you how to make your own pattern, cut out the fabric, and assemble the pads.  And I talk a little bit about fabric choices.  I haven't learned yet how to edit videos, so these are a little on the long side. But they're broken up so that you can watch just the segment that is relevant to you at the moment, and creating your own pattern and pad will go much faster than the videos!

And here they are, in viewing order.

Creating the pattern:

 

Cutting the fabric: 

Assembling the pad: