Sewing projects

[alforddm]

Try this sitehttp://shop.sew-classic.com

I've ordered from here before. They even have new hooks for some of the vintage machines.

 

[Miss M]

Miss M - check eBay - I needed a pedal/cord for ODD's machine and was able to buy another whole machine, carrying case, and pedal/power cord for less than just the cord! It took a while, but with patience I finally found just what I needed. Soooo, now I have a parts machine for her!

Thank you! Nothing there for me right now, but I'll keep an eye peeled.

It took a while for me to get the bobbin parts back in correctly. It was actually popping out... I just kept fiddling and turning it by hand until things settled in correctly.

I've taken all this apart lots of times, but maybe I didn't get it back quite right this time. I'll work on it before I use it again.

Try this sitehttp://shop.sew-classic.com

I've ordered from here before. They even have new hooks for some of the vintage machines.

That's awesome! New pedals, just wire them to your existing wires! Thank you!

If I can figure out and fix the thunking, and I have a significant reduction in problems, I'll order one.

 

[bikegurl]

Thanks to y'all, I have now realized the importance of oiling my machines... The sewing machine oil should arrive Monday. It appears that my two working machines are Singer 457 and Homemaker 491. Both were given to me; the Singer came from the person that grew up in the house we are living in - his lady friend just decided she wanted to give me her machine! It even came with a buttonholer - which is wonderful! :lol: The Homemaker came from a neighbor whose former housemate left it in the house. It seems to be pretty difficult to find any information on the Homemaker, so I have no idea of the quality of the machine. It is a beast...weighs at least 25 lbs and comes in a carrying case!

 

[Miss M]

Yep, keeping them oiled is essential. It's amazing how loud and stiff and clanky a machine can get, and then how quiet and smooth it can be after oiling.

Only one or two drops at each place. Your Singer manual should show you all the places to oil. If you don't have one, you should be able to find it online. I'd use the Singer as guidance for oiling the Homemaker.

I tend to use my husband's steam engine oil more than my sewing machine oil. The dispenser is much easier to control and has a longer tip. My husband encouraged me to try it, because it's a little heavier than sewing machine oil. I have to admit, I believe my machine likes the steam oil better than sewing machine oil. It's quieter and can go longer between oilings.

Update on my machine: I took the bobbin assembly apart and put it back together again. The thunking has stopped, but the tendency to nest up has not. I checked the outer edge of the part that has the hook on it. No places for thread to catch. I don't know what's up with this machine, but I dread sitting down to it to sew. I don't want it to be that way.

 

[alforddm]

I'm sorry it didn't work. I told my son he could download a large game this and that used up our internet allotment for month. I'm using my phone for just the essentials...Like RabbitTalk.... Or I would try to find something else it could be. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is bobbin tension. If you have a bobbin casing that comes out of the machine check and make sure the tension screw is in place. It should be a tiny set screw on the side of the bobbin case.

 

[bikegurl]

I know this may be a lame question...but...have you double checked to make sure it is threaded correctly? I know in the past when I've had the bobbin thread turning into a nest it has often been related to something other than the bobbin...incorrect threading or something going on with another part of the machine, such as thread tension, the take-up lever, or something else. :shrug:

 

[FourRingCircus]

I know this may be a lame question...but...have you double checked to make sure it is threaded correctly? I know in the past when I've had the bobbin thread turning into a nest it has often been related to something other than the bobbin...incorrect threading or something going on with another part of the machine, such as thread tension, the take-up lever, or something else. :shrug:

I have tried different tensions with no luck... it's not a consistent birds nest like major tension issues. It's like it's catching on something, then springing back... goes fine for a while, then *pop* and the top spool spins like crazy. I have tried re threading, and used the manual my grandmother had in it, but no luck so far.

 

[Miss M]

I told my son he could download a large game this and that used up our internet allotment for month.

I know the feeling... Bunny-Wan Kenobi loves trawling the 'net for funny memes and gifs. I'm pretty sure an especially enthusiastic stretch of this led to our being throttled only halfway into the month. :? :lol: We get new bandwidth tomorrow, and I've explained how it works to BWK.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is bobbin tension. If you have a bobbin casing that comes out of the machine check and make sure the tension screw is in place. It should be a tiny set screw on the side of the bobbin case.

I will check on the tension when I get the chance. I've had less trouble with it today, perhaps because I switched from heavy thread to regular thread, but I've noticed that it will sometimes skip several stitches at a time. I guess taking the burr off of the hook was too much. I didn't go overboard... just got the burr off. :shrug:

I know this may be a lame question...but...have you double checked to make sure it is threaded correctly? I know in the past when I've had the bobbin thread turning into a nest it has often been related to something other than the bobbin...incorrect threading or something going on with another part of the machine, such as thread tension, the take-up lever, or something else. :shrug:

It's not a lame question. But I have threaded and rethreaded the machine and bobbin multiple times with no real change. It may be related to top thread tension, but the top tension on this machine has never seemed to work properly -- my mom recalls taking it to the repair shop a couple of times when she could not get the tension to behave. She got this machine when I was a child, after a moving company broke her previous machine.

What's the take-up lever?

I will see if I can do anything with the tension.

 

[bikegurl]

The take-up lever is the little arm with a hole in it for threading the thread through. It is right before the thread heads down to the needle. Possibly not all machines have them, so maybe yours doesn't.

I was struggling with sewing fleece for the first time today and after troubleshooting on the internets it seemed that skipping stitches(one of the issues I was having) could be related to the needle. Wrong needle size or dull needle maybe?? I really don't know...just throwing it out there because I was dealing with this today!
My machine has other problems though...I couldn't finish what I was sewing because the machine started to get stiff. :x Now I'm waiting for oil to arrive! :roll:

 

[wamplercathy]

I'm glad there are still people that can sew. Me, well I ran over my fingers a couple time and broke 4 machines in high school. After that my home economics teacher said my place was in the kitchen. :x :lol: :lol: I can put a button on and am handy with a stapler. Hemmed many pairs of pants with it. :lol: :lol:

Love the pics of the clothes.

 

[FourRingCircus]

I'm glad there are still people that can sew. Me, well I ran over my fingers a couple time and broke 4 machines in high school. After that my home economics teacher said my place was in the kitchen. :x :lol: :lol: I can put a button on and am handy with a stapler. Hemmed many pairs of pants with it. :lol: :lol:

Love the pics of the clothes.

The main story I remember from my grandma as she was teaching me was when she went through her thumb :x . I shudder just thinking about it...

 

[Miss M]

The take-up lever is the little arm with a hole in it for threading the thread through. It is right before the thread heads down to the needle. Possibly not all machines have them, so maybe yours doesn't.

Okay, I know what you're talking about now! Yep, got one.

skipping stitches(one of the issues I was having) could be related to the needle. Wrong needle size or dull needle maybe??

HEY... you know what? I still have a ball-point needle in there. I should have a sharp. Maybe that's my problem.

I couldn't finish what I was sewing because the machine started to get stiff. :x

Yeah, that's what happened when I first learned about oiling my sewing machine. :lol:

I'm glad there are still people that can sew. Me, well I ran over my fingers a couple time and broke 4 machines in high school. After that my home economics teacher said my place was in the kitchen. :x :lol: :lol: I can put a button on and am handy with a stapler. Hemmed many pairs of pants with it. :lol: :lol:

Love the pics of the clothes.

The main story I remember from my grandma as she was teaching me was when she went through her thumb :x . I shudder just thinking about it...

I put a needle through just the first layer of skin once. Definitely a wake-up call! My mom says she put a needle through her nail bed. :fainting: <br /><br /> __________ Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:59 pm __________ <br /><br /> *** UPDATE ***

Okay, so I changed the ball-point needle (which I actually had to use with a woven cotton -- the second time I've ended up using a ball-point with a woven fabric because the sharp pulled the threads :shrug: ), replacing it with a new sharp properly sized for the fabric. I still had skipped stitches, so I looked up my manual and it listed about six possible causes. The only one that was a possibility at that point was the top thread tension being too tight.

Meanwhile, I noticed that I was supposed to be putting a drop of oil on the post of the shuttle (the thing with the hook on it). It wasn't on the oiling pages, so I had missed it. I went ahead and did this.

I loosened the top thread tension (and it did cooperate, which surprised me). I did still have a couple of skipped stitches, but no multiples. I thought maybe things would change with a different thread. After a few passes on some test fabric, this was confirmed. I barely got any skipped stitches with the new thread -- so few, I'm not even going to worry about it.

I did verify that the bobbin tension screw is in place, and I took apart the bobbin housing and put it back together again, hoping to fix the clunking problem. That did it.

I have had a marked drop in nesting attempts by my machine.

 

[bikegurl]

Yay!

I just found the delivery of sewing machine oil on the ground next to the mailbox :roll:for some reason the mailmen cannot seem to manage to consistently deliver packages to our door ...so my machines should be back in business today too!

 

[alforddm]

*** UPDATE ***

Okay, so I changed the ball-point needle (which I actually had to use with a woven cotton -- the second time I've ended up using a ball-point with a woven fabric because the sharp pulled the threads :shrug: ), replacing it with a new sharp properly sized for the fabric. I still had skipped stitches, so I looked up my manual and it listed about six possible causes. The only one that was a possibility at that point was the top thread tension being too tight.

Meanwhile, I noticed that I was supposed to be putting a drop of oil on the post of the shuttle (the thing with the hook on it). It wasn't on the oiling pages, so I had missed it. I went ahead and did this.

I loosened the top thread tension (and it did cooperate, which surprised me). I did still have a couple of skipped stitches, but no multiples. I thought maybe things would change with a different thread. After a few passes on some test fabric, this was confirmed. I barely got any skipped stitches with the new thread -- so few, I'm not even going to worry about it.

I did verify that the bobbin tension screw is in place, and I took apart the bobbin housing and put it back together again, hoping to fix the clunking problem. That did it.

I have had a marked drop in nesting attempts by my machine.

Awesome!

 

[FourRingCircus]

*** UPDATE ***

Okay, so I changed the ball-point needle (which I actually had to use with a woven cotton -- the second time I've ended up using a ball-point with a woven fabric because the sharp pulled the threads :shrug: ), replacing it with a new sharp properly sized for the fabric. I still had skipped stitches, so I looked up my manual and it listed about six possible causes. The only one that was a possibility at that point was the top thread tension being too tight.

Meanwhile, I noticed that I was supposed to be putting a drop of oil on the post of the shuttle (the thing with the hook on it). It wasn't on the oiling pages, so I had missed it. I went ahead and did this.

I loosened the top thread tension (and it did cooperate, which surprised me). I did still have a couple of skipped stitches, but no multiples. I thought maybe things would change with a different thread. After a few passes on some test fabric, this was confirmed. I barely got any skipped stitches with the new thread -- so few, I'm not even going to worry about it.

I did verify that the bobbin tension screw is in place, and I took apart the bobbin housing and put it back together again, hoping to fix the clunking problem. That did it.

I have had a marked drop in nesting attempts by my machine.

Awesome!

Nice! Want to come work on mine?? I need to just take them time to do it. One thing I have never learned much about is needles - what to use when. I just stick one of whatever I have in and go :? . I will have to try something else and see if that makes a difference. There was oil all over th bobbin house, but maybe it's time to just clean it all and start over. The manual that my grandma has with the machine isn't terribly helpful. It looks like it's the right one, but the pictures are very different on the inside. Maybe I can find a PDF of something better.

 

[Bunny-Wan Kenobi]

Nice! Want to come work on mine??

Maybe not... all my progress vanished today. It all came roaring back -- the tension issues, the nesting, the skipped stitches. :angry:

We for real spent more time today trying to fix the machine than we spent actually sewing with it.

I need a new machine.

 

[Miss M]

Nice! Want to come work on mine??

Maybe not... all my progress vanished today. It all came roaring back -- the tension issues, the nesting, the skipped stitches. :angry:

We for real spent more time today trying to fix the machine than we spent actually sewing with it.

I need a new machine.

 

[alforddm]

I think it might be time to take it in for a professional evaluation. Like all mechanical things, sewing machines eventually wear out and need parts replaced. At that point no amount of tinkering will fix them.

Of course with those old machines it sometimes cheaper to just buy a different machine.

Post the make/model of your machine and I'll try to find some resources for you if you want to try digging down and replacing things.

 

[Miss M]

It's a Kenmore 385.1264180... but my mom took it in to a repair shop -- more than once -- with the same tension issues when I was just a kid, so I'm thinking maybe it's a bad egg that just needs replacing.

Mom was no newbie to sewing. She had been making her clothes, my clothes, maternity clothes for her sister on her previous machine. That machine was dropped by movers and ruined, and she got this one. She thought for some reason that she couldn't figure out the tension, but with how much sewing she had done before that, I think that's silly.

Also, because she kept having problems with it, and because she now had two kids and a job, she stopped sewing. She hadn't used it a lot, and then it sat for years and years... until she pulled it out for me five years ago. With my sewing habits, it's probably had about a year's worth of frequent use total with me.

Those Singer Basics are looking really nice right now. And now that my husband's been at his new job for a couple of months and the $$$ situation is smoothing out, I'll be able to buy a new machine here pretty soon.

Mom loved sewing. If she still had her sight, she'd probably have a new machine herself, and she'd be sewing like crazy.

Strangely enough, the machine did behave for me last night, when I was basting fabric to heavy interfacing and doing some other things. Same machine that I couldn't get to behave earlier in the day. Capricious thing. I hope it cooperates today.

 

[alforddm]

Can you post a picture of the machine? I'm not finding much information on it.

I'm not as familiar with the Kenmore machines, but I'm thinking those were made right about the same time as singer introduced the touch & sew which marked the decline of the great american sewing machines.