Sewing machine pains
I don’t remember what year it was exactly. I think it must have been 2007. That’s when I bought my first decent (read: not one I bought from Aldi) sewing machine. I had been taking sewing classes for about a year then, and I knew I wasn’t going to give up sewing at all. So I thought I’d make a proper investment.
I don’t remember what my standards were at that time either. That it could sew more than one stitch, I suppose. That it was affordable. I found it on the internet. But instead of visiting the shop first and listen to what the salesman had to say, I just ordered it online. Since that would grant me a 5% discount.
The chosen one: a Brother Innovis CS 8060. With a threader, which would make my life easier. Hahahaha… Silly me.
It didn’t make my life easier. On the contrary. The thing has cost me loads of time and thread already. Sure, it’s nice in theory. You place your spool in its holder, get the thread in it and you place the threader in your machine. And by just placing it there, your thread is immediately where it’s supposed to be, and your needle is threaded as well. Easy peasy. But for some reason, the thing messes up my thread tension. And not just a bit, a lot. Like a big disappearance act. No tension at all, so I get these big loops while sewing.
I took the whole machine back to the store once. Thought I was doing something wrong. I got a new threader, but the problem remains the same. So everytime I need to change spools, I’m overwhelmed by a sort of thread dread. I take my thread, and gently pull it, to see if the tension is right. You have to do this while your presser foot is down, and you must feel the tension. If not, start over. For the zillionth time.
After a very long search, a lot of cursing and even more thread-pulling, I found a solution: compressed air. I know, you’re not supposed to ever blow in your sewing machine, it messes up your mechanism. But for this one, you really have to do it. And not just you blowing in it as if you’re blowing out the candles on your birthday cake. No, strong air. From a can. And then, if I’m really lucky, the threader may just work as it’s supposed to.
All in all, a pretty simple solution. So if I know learn to keep those cans of compressed air close and not quickly put them out of sight whenever we have visitors to never find them back again, I’d save so much time. And thread.
Once you get it going, it’s actually a pretty good sewing machine. I love the automatic button holes, where you just press start. It’s just, that tension. Never again will I buy a machine with a threader, that’s for sure. I don’t even want to think how many projects I could have sewn if it wasn’t for this.
How about your machines? Love at first sight? Or do you secretly hate it now and then as well?
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Ik heb een al iets oudere Brother, in opvolging van ook een eerste uitprobeermachine van ik weet niet meer welk merk.
Mijn enige eis : een vrije arm.
En het automatisch knoopsgaten was mooi meegenomen, hoewel manueel ook wel lukte.
Nu dient ze nog enkel voor verstelwerk, maar ik heb er in een niet zo ver verleden kunststukjes voor Lauren op gerealiseerd.
Sommige heb ik weggegeven aan vrienden of kennissen, en achteraf heb ik daar spijt van. Hoewel ik er zelf niets meer mee kon aanvangen behalve een soort archief aanleggen.
Gelukkig zijn sommige werkstukken nog op foto functioneel te bewonderen 😉