Show Notes

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  The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your Sewing Space: Our FREE mini-guide to setting up a space that makes you feel relaxed and creative, no matter how much space you have.


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• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.

Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And if you missed last week's episode, for the next few weeks, we're going to be sharing quick episodes full of tips to answer your most burning sewing questions. And today we're talking about sewing machine maintenance, so we have five tips to better care for your sewing machine. All right, our icebreaker for today.

Do you have any sewing machine bloopers, Haley?

Haley
I mean, sure. Outside of the occasional catastrophic thread jam and broken needles, which I feel like is, like, pretty typical stuff, the one that comes to mind isn't really, like, my blooper, but it's like, it's a pretty major blooper.

So when I was in college, I was a lab technician at the sewing lab, which meant, like, I just maintained the sewing machines. I clean them, I oil them, I help people, train them on them. And there was this guy who was in my class, and he also happened to be my arch nemesis. We did not get along at all, and he was making something out of Neoprene, but he didn't know how to work with Neoprene, so he was, like, going around and serging it. It does not need to be serged.

Sarai
It doesn't unravel.

Haley
No, I don't know why he was surging it, but he was surging it, and he broke every single serger in the department. I think there must have been, like, seven or eight sergers. There was a lot. He broke all of them.

Sarai
Wow.

Haley
And it was a semester that swimwear class was running, so everybody needed the surgery to complete their homework. And so I have all of these panicking people wanting me to fix a problem that I honestly didn't even know how to fix. What was going on.

Sarai
That's actually impressive. Breaking seven sergers? How do you even do that?

Haley
Maybe at the second, like, stop.

Sarai
Yeah, just keep going.

Haley
Just keep going. They were, like, really badly jammed, but even once I used razor blades to cut out all of the nests of thread, it messed up something with the timing. And so I had to wait for Ari, who was the guy who is the old man who maintenanced our sewing machines in a real way to show up and fix them all.

Sarai
So I have a question. Was he your nemesis before this happened?

Haley
He was my nemesis before this happened.

Sarai
And then he was, like, your double plus nemesis after that.

Haley
Yeah, I had, like, a confrontation and everything.

Sarai
I can see why. He sounds like a real piece of work.

Haley
Yeah, he was, like, really self involved, and I was, like, young, and so I didn't have a problem telling him that I thought so. Whereas now I would be like, whatever you do, you.

Sarai
Now just ask him to pay for the maintenance.

Haley
So tell me. Do you have any sewing bloopers?

Sarai
Kind of like you? I have the normal bloopers. I think of breaking needles, that kind of thing. Nothing really crazy, but I just have a lot of bloopers in my life. Generally, though.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
Just this morning I got up, okay, so I get up pretty early. I get up around 6:15. And usually what I do now is pour coffee in a travel mug as soon as it's ready, and I take Lucy out for her walk early in the morning at sunrise, because, well, she also has a nemesis. It's a golden retriever, and the golden retriever goes for a walk at seven. So we try to get out by 6:30 so that she doesn't have to see her most hated and dreaded nemesis.

I'd just woken up and I set out the travel mug and I took the coffee pot and I started to pour it in the travel mug, and I had the lights really dim and I didn't realize the lid was still on the travel mug. So hot coffee spilled all over my hand and I was just so, I don't know, flabbergasted, because I'd just woken up that I just ran with the coffee over to the sink, which spilled coffee everywhere, all over the floor, all over my sweatshirt that I was wearing. It was total chaos. But things like that happen to me all the time.

Just not sewing related at all. I just wanted to tell that story because it just happened.

Haley
Just regular old nemesis related bloopers. Yeah.

Sarai
I personally don't have a nemesis, but Lucy sure does.

All right, well, give us your icebreaker for a future episode if you have one. It could be nemesis related or not. If you're a member, you can go to seamwork.com/go/icebreakers, and that'll take you to a thread on our community where you can share your idea for a future question that we'll use as an icebreaker on an episode here of the podcast.

All right, so let's get into our topic for today, which is sewing machines. So your sewing machine is definitely one of the most important sewing tools you own, and it's likely one of the biggest investments you've made in your sewing.

But a lot of times when you buy one, you're just kind of handed it and you're expected to know what to do with it, and you don't necessarily.

So just like a car, it does need regular care and maintenance. So we are going to be talking about that today and exactly how to do it. It's pretty easy, but it's hard to remember sometimes what needs to be done.

So what was your first sewing machine, Haley, and how long did you have it for?

Haley
My first sewing machine was a Kenmore, and it's still my sewing machine. I bought it in 2007 and I just like it. It's like a nice machine. It's not like super fancy, but I was just about to go to college, and I was majoring in fashion, and so I was like, where do I buy a sewing machine? My stepdad was like, Sears, obviously.

So we went to Sears and I got a kenmore. And I still have it. I take care of it. It's in good shape. I'm also just one of those people. I'm this way with cars, too, where I'm just like, it's fine. It does what it's supposed to do.

Sarai
Point A to point B.

Haley
It's something that I don't I don't want to say I don't value it. I value it, but I don't feel the need for bells and whistles. That's my first and only sewing machine. When I do get a new sewing machine, it won't be to replace my kenmore. It'll be like maybe like a home industrial or something to use in addition to it.

Sarai
Yeah, that's smart. I kind of wish I had a home industrial.

Haley
Yeah, that's the only thing she struggles with, is, like, if I want to sew some really heavy bull denim or something like that. She can do it. It just takes some extra coaxing.

Sarai
I just love how fast industrial machines are.

Haley
Same.

Sarai
That's what I love.

Haley
What about your first machine?

Sarai
So my first machine was a white brand sewing machine, and my mom bought it for me when I was 16, maybe 17. So I had just started learning to sew for my grandmother. So I had been sewing on her machine and she got me one of my own to have at home.

And it was fine. It was fine. It lasted many years. I went to college in New York, so I took it with me and then I gave it to a friend of mine when I moved back, I think I was buying another machine. So I gave it to somebody or maybe I sold it, I can't remember. But I gave it to somebody I knew and it was a fine machine and it came with a lot of feet. That's what I remember. And I didn't really know how to use the feet. It took me probably until my next sewing machine before I figured out what to do with all the presser feet.

Haley
You're like, that's what all these things do.

Sarai
But it was fine. It was just one of those very basic, really simple machines that did what it was supposed to do.

Haley
Yeah, totally.

Sarai
But now I have a fancy BERNINA, and after using BERNINA for so many years at work, I just am addicted to them and I love them. And the quality is so wonderful, and all the feet are so wonderful. It's just a joy to sew with. But I'm perfectly happy sewing on pretty much any old machine that works well, that functions well.

Haley
Yeah, same. I'm also, like, a little spoiled because I've always worked places that had tons of machines, like at the office. We have an industrial machine. We have a BERNINA. There is a Janome kicking around there our backup machine.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
So I always work places where there's other machines. So if I'm ever like, yeah, old Kenmore just not going to like that. I just go to work. Use a different machine.

Sarai
Yeah. I think there are so many machines out there that are like you can get a top of the line if things really, really there are aspects of it that really matter to you. You can get a top of the line and spend a lot of money. And I think that's great if you know that's what you like. But I feel like there's a lot of machines out there that are like the Toyotas of sewing machines that just work really well. They last a long time, don't need a ton of maintenance.

Haley
Everybody knows how to work on them.

Sarai
Yeah. Does what it says on the tin. That's all you need.

Haley
Yeah, I'm a real Toyota kind of a girl, so that's me all the way. So what areas of sewing machine maintenance do you feel like you're really good at?

Sarai
None. Well, no, I shouldn't say that. So my BERNINA one of the things that I do love about my BERNINA is that it tells me when it needs oiling and cleaning, so I would otherwise forget about it. So that's really, really nice because it knows how much you've sewn on it and can calculate when it needs to be cleaned and oiled. So that part I'm pretty good at. When it tells me to do it, I do it. So that's a feature that I really value because I'm pretty lazy about that kind of thing sometimes.

Other than that, I mean, I'm okay at taking it in for service. Maybe not as often as I should, but I do take it in for service. My machine is pretty new. It's not that old, so I don't worry about it too much right now. But if I didn't have those reminders, I'm not naturally good at it. So what about you?

Haley
I'm really good at keeping my machine clean and remembering to clean it between projects. And also, I'm a little bit anal about things like that. I really have to clean my sewing space between projects and with that I clean my machine. So that's probably what I'm best at. And changing my needle.

I’m really good about changing my needles because it makes a huge difference in your quality of sewing. So it's an easier thing for me to remember.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
What about the areas that you neglect? What do you neglect?

Sarai
I do think I neglect professional servicing. Not a ton, but probably more than I should.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
But other than that, I think that's the main thing that I should probably do more of.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
What about you?

Haley
Yeah, that's what I'm guilty of. I just know my machine really well and so I know when she needs to be serviced. And I'm like, well, when she starts making weird noises, I'll bring her in. I know that I shouldn't wait until my machine is, like, in crisis before I service it, but that's kind of the way that I've dealt with it to this point. I could definitely improve on that, though.

Sarai
Yeah, that's how I learned to knit is my sewing machine broke down during the holiday season when I was just about to make a bunch of gifts, and so I decided I would learn to knit instead, not realizing that knitting is like, ten times as slow as sewing. But I did learn to knit from that experience.

Haley
But it's so inconvenient when someone, like, your sewing machine's gone for a week or two, you're like, what am I supposed to what do I do now?

All right, well, let's dig into these tips. We have five tips for you today, and I will kick us off with tip number one, which is don't avoid your sewing machine manual.

I think a lot of people are intimidated by it. It's this big, fat booklet, and you don't really want to dig into it. You're like, I know how to use a sewing machine, basically, so what else is there to know? But by reading it or even just skimming it, you can get a better understanding of how your machine works. You'll pick up some sewing machine maintenance tips, and you also might learn some cool features along the way of your sewing machine that you didn't know about before.

So I feel like being comfortable with your sewing machine is really, like, step one to doing your self maintenance, and your sewing machine manual is just a really great tool for that.

Sarai
Yeah, I totally agree. Plus, I like learning about all the different stitches and things that my machine can do. It's really fun because then you'll find uses for those things if you know how to do them.

Tip number two is to set a reminder for both self maintenance and for servicing. So I mentioned that my machine has its own reminder system in it, which I absolutely love, but if yours doesn't, you can still set it up for yourself and just kind of fix it and forget it.

So set reminders for professional maintenance once a year, and that's something that I should probably be doing that I'm not, but that's the general recommendation.

And then as far as cleaning it and oiling it, you can do that yourself in most cases. So the frequency really depends on how much you sew, which is why it's really handy to have your machine tell you, because it can calculate how much you've been sewing. But if you sew a lot, you might want to service it—or maintain it this way weekly, or if it's not so frequent, you could do it monthly. So it just really depends on how much you're using your sewing machine at that time.

So just make sure to give your machine a quick clean after any particularly linty projects. I think that's really important because it builds up in there. So if you're sewing something that has a lot of fluff coming off of it, then you might want to clean it right after the project.

Haley
And something to add to that is if you have any questions about the frequency of cleaning your sewing machine or the particulars of it, ask the person who's servicing your machine, because they might have some really good tips for how often to oil it, based on how often you're sewing, all of that kind of stuff.

All right, our next tip, which is maybe one of my favorite tips, is to change your needle regularly. So needles are disposable. They are not meant to be used until they are broken. You want to change your needle just about every 8 hours of use. I think of it as, like, one larger project, two smaller ones, depending on how large or small those projects are.

And make sure that you're also using a needle that is appropriate for your fabric and for your project. Because if you're using the wrong needle, you could be forcing your sewing machine to work a lot harder than it has to.

Sarai
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. It's not just for the sake of the project that you want to change your needle, but also for your machine's sake. I think that's something that I didn't realize long time ago. That's a lot more clear to me now.

All right, tip number four is to find your favorite cleaning tools and keep them nearby. So this could be makeup brushes, for example, which are really great for getting into all the little crevices and cleaning out lint and little bits of thread.

Microfiber cloths, which are also really great for getting large pools of that kind of dust that accumulates from the fabric. One thing to be aware of is that some people like to use canned air to blow their machine out and clean their machine out. This is kind of controversial. A lot of people say that that can end up blowing the debris further into your machine. So that's just something to be aware of. If canned air is something that you've used, that is a risk of using it.

Haley
Yeah, definitely. I'm not like super anti canned air, but I do try to refrain from blowing with my mouth into my machine because the moisture from your breath can be not great for all those metal moving parts.

Sarai
Yeah, I think with canned air, you just have to be very careful with it and make sure that if you're going to use it, you're using it at the right angle and not just blowing stuff into the works.

Haley
All right, and now our final tip is get to know your sewing machine's cues so you can triage. So is your sewing machine making a weird noise? For me, that's, like, usually the cue that she's unhappy about something.

Is your machine struggling to pierce through the fabric? Are your feed dogs, like, not grabbing onto the fabric? Are you just sewing in the same spot over and over again? Is your stitch quality weird? Start to notice your sewing machine's cues and what they mean, like, very standard course of action whenever your sewing machine is acting up is: stop.

Don't try to keep sewing because you might make it worse. Stop. Change your needle. Rethread your sewing machine, including your bobbin, and if the problem is persisting, you can give it a good cleaning, maybe oil it, and if it's still giving you trouble, then it's time to bring it into a professional.

Sarai
Yeah, oftentimes I feel like changing the needle and rethreading the machine solves the problem, like 90% of the time.

Haley
Yeah, nine times out of ten does the trick.

Sarai
Sometimes you need to adjust the tension, something like that. But I feel like that's usually where it ends. But I think if it doesn't end there, don't get frustrated. It just means that you need to do further steps to diagnose what's going on. Well, you can get frustrated. You'll probably be frustrated. I'm not going to tell you not to feel that way.

Haley
Feel your feelings.

Sarai
But just know we've all been there.

All right, so I'm going to recap for us really quick.

Tip number one is to use your sewing machine manual. I think this is a really, really great tip, and you can learn a lot from your machine manual.

Tip number two is to set a reminder for both self maintenance and for servicing. So remember, professional maintenance once a year.

Tip number three is to change your needles regularly.

Tip number four is to find your favorite cleaning tools and keep them nearby.

And tip number five is to get to know your sewing machine's cues so you can triage if something goes wrong.

All right, if this episode has you thinking about cleaning and organizing and taking care of your sewing stuff, check out our free Sewing Spaces Guide. So it's called The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your Sewing Space, and it's a free mini guide that has tons of tips and ideas for creating a better, more functional sewing area, no matter how much space you have. So you can download it at seamwork.com/go/sewingspaces.

All right, if you like this episode, I would love to ask you a favor.

Can you forward this episode to one of your sewing friends who you think would find it helpful? I think this is the number one way that our podcast grows. Our listeners are just so nice and kind and amazing. In addition to leaving positive reviews, you guys are always recommending the podcast on social media and in other places. And we really, really appreciate.

You know, we don't really have a way to advertise the podcast. It's not always easy to find new podcasts on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or other podcast platforms, so word of mouth is really the number one way that people learn about the podcast, so we really appreciate it if you share it with people that you know.

And that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.