Sewing Machine Tip

(An online picture of my exact machine)

Clean and Oil your machine often.

Today I heard a little squeak in my sewing machine. I knew it needed to be oiled and cleaned out so, instead of sewing much further, I stopped and cleaned/oiled my machine.

This was not as easy as my above comment sounded. I have NEVER cleaned or oiled my machine. I've opened the bobbin space and dusted it out before, and even cleaned lint from area's that I could see, but I had never actually used a screw driver to take apart my machine for intense cleaning.

I found my manual and followed the instructions on how to open the machine. There were only directions for the oiling the bobbin and not the main compartment of the machine. Luckily there were some obvious holes for oil on the top half. The other places I made an educated guess. I oiled parts that moved connecting to other parts.

There was also a lot of packed lint under the feed dog. Wow. I thought my earlier cleanings did something - I guess not. After oiling and cleaning I closed up the machine.

Now my machine has been though a lot. By a lot I mean it started out as my Mom's machine and each of my 7 sisters and I sewed and learned to sew on this machine. It's had many miles of thread put through it. It's old and been around for decades! I have a Bernina 802. I love it! I don't know how often my Mom oiled and cleaned it, but I know I have never done it since I've owned it - and that's been close to 9 or 10 years.

Already I can tell a diference. The small squeak is gone and I can tell my machine glides much smoother.

Pillow cases

I was reading THIS Etsy Page today and thought this would be fun to be a part of. So easy and what an awesome service project. What do you do say? Can you help out as well? I'm sure we all have some fabric in our closets just dieing to be sewn on.


Here's another LINK talked about in the Etsy page for more information. Let's get sewing!! (Image taken from link above).

Will Summer ever end?

My sister just left this morning after visiting for a week with her son. We loved having her here! I'm going to miss her.

I keep telling myself when summer ends I'll get to work and start these many projects I have sitting in my sewing closet. Summer seems to not want to leave. I've really enjoyed all our vacations, visitors, and activities, but there doesn't seem to be an end in the near future. I have a few weeks before anything else major is going on, so I'm getting to work. I'm headed to Jo-Ann Fabric right now to pick up some piping for my newest project :) Hopefully I'll be posting about it in a day or two.

One Year

I was noticing yesterday I've had my blog for one year. There are exactly the same amount of post in 2009 and there are in 2010 (well, until this one). 46 posts each in 6 month chunks of time. Nice! Obviously I didn't even plan that. I wanted to do something fun when I reached a year but I missed that July 17th date a few weeks back. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait another year? Or perhaps a year and a half? We'll see. Anyway, here's to sewing and blogging!

Happy Saturday!

I may hit up some yard sales later? I'm still in search of a nice brown chest for our front room for my son to call his "toy box". Until then. . .

Taking in Wide Legged Pants - Gaucho's

I have a pair of gaucho's that I used to dance in during my undergrad. I love the cotton fabric and cute waist at the top - but I don't love the huge legs that look like a skirt!
I decided that if I'm going to enjoy wearing them again I need to do something about the extra wide leg!

(Sorry this picture is VERY yellow)

I turned my pants inside out and pinned a new seam line. After I pinned them, I tried them on for fit - checking to see if I would actually accomplish my goal of taking the leg in enough.
Once the pins were in the perfect spot, I did a basting zig-zag stitch (because it is knit fabric I wanted the stitch to give a bit. A straight stitch doesn't allow for give).

Once the basting was done and I knew the pants were how I wanted them, I surged over the zig-zag stitch. Perfect!