Thursday 21 May 2009

Machine Trouble

Where does the time go? it doesnt seem that long ago since i blogged!

Okay so I've had a couple of problems (not just the sewing – but hey at least that’s straightforward) – here it is

The underneath sewing line had loops every so often – there appeared no pattern – so of course the first thing was to clean out of my machine of fluff (hang ones head in shame – that’s only a bit of it on the photo! I did mean to keep cleaning out the fluff regularly honest!)
 

Anyway I did several more test runs – no change mmm? Maybe start to disassemble the machine – see the tools – and yet more fluff and gunk came out – more test lines…..no change... oh dear.
 
Changed the needle, changed the bobbin, changed the threads – surely now? No change – the only thing that helped was to lengthen the stitch – why? I looked like a tension problem – but I cleaned and tweaked the top tensions – still no change

 

Feeling defeated I asked my husband to see if he could take it apart – see if it was the motor or hook race sticking? Anyway coz he is great he took it apart, cogs and everything, and got YET MORE gunk and fluff out from underneath. Each bit of fluff made me think .this time it will fix it...

Well all reassembled – a couple of times as we had to line up the cogs for the timing of the needle and hookrace – (forgot to mark where it was when we took it off) this time …. But no still the same

 

Desperation now kicking in – and he says ... have you changed the foot? Duh!!! No!! So I changed the foot and lo and behold …fixed…HURRAY ….. Or so I thought ….after several sewn lines I saw just a couple of loops and started to worry it wasn’t really fixed – and anyhow how had the foot fixed it. So we look at the old foot – hence the magnifying glass and it was a bit bashed where the needle had hit it – so maybe it wasn’t tension just catching – eeerrr why is the loop catching on the bottom though ?

 

Checked the plate and it too had been bashed by the needle and had a burr on it – sanded it off and hey presto fixed!!!! Really HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Funny how I remember now that I broke a couple of needles and why didn’t it occur to me earlier?…oops but hey my machine runs with a purr now – it’s been serviced and its LOVELY so a BIG THANKS to my lovely man!!!

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Sunday 3 May 2009

Bagging again

Been busy making bags again - There is a satisfaction about turning out a useful item in an afternoon. This is for grocery shopping

 

I really like the detail - it's a technique that I haven't tried before - and I think i will definitely do it again; with a few tweaks - a fastener and a longer strap - I think it will make a nice over the shoulder bag

 

I got the inspiration from this picture - the white tote - which is the starting point as clearly mine has evolved due to the type of fabric I had - it's sort of hessian.

 

in this book

 

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