Tag: sewing machine

The Sewing Machines are Fixed!

Published on by essieofwho

I have wonderful news! My sewing machines are fixed! I was planning on taking them to someone to get fixed, but my duty as a caretaker for an ill family member forced me to delay this. Finally, I became so frustrated that I couldn’t sew that I began to look up how to fix sewing machines online in hopes of fixing them whenever I needed to. Both attempts to fix the machines was successful and both can sew straight stitches normally.

Posts like this one do not involve any photos to look at, but just to make things more interesting here is a photo of the machines I fixed…

sewing machines

Both are Singer brand machines. One has more stitches than the other so, right now, I have the machine with less stitches set up with the gathering foot so I can switch between the two without changing the foot so often. I’ve heard of seamstresses with more than one machine doing this, but I never imagined I would have more than one machine allowing me to do this as well!

Well, now that I know I can fix my sewing machines myself, this means I can fix the machines I inherited from my mom. All of them have problems, some I think need a good cleaning, others need more major work done. (Maybe even some parts replaced) I plan to eventually take the bottoms off the machines, see what is wrong, and if I can fix it I will. If it is beyond my very limited knowledge, then I’ll set them aside so I can take them to someone who knows more about fixing machines than I do. None of my mom’s sewing machines have computers, so it’s easier on me to figure out what is wrong with them. 🙂

Anyway, now that my personal sewing machines are fixed I can now start sewing again. I already started on an Easter dress to sell in my Etsy store, but progress has been slow for a verity of reasons. I also have a HUGE pile of personal projects I wanted to work on but couldn’t because I needed sewing machines to make them. One of them is to re enforce some of the seams on Anna’s coronation dress. Some of the seams do not need re enforcement, but I want to re enforce the serge edges of the skirt for my own piece of mind. I also want to remake some of my old costumes because I outgrew so many of them. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to sewing everything, but it will get done eventually!

That’s all for now! I’m still working on my blog posts about Anna’s coronation dress and the pattern I’m using to make it. I hope to get that done by the end of the month. *crosses fingers*

Thank you for reading!

2016 Sewing and Life Update

Published on by essieofwho

It’s a new year and I have so many things to talk about! First, I need to talk about my sewing machine…

I have some bad news about my sewing machine: I bent the timing on it. I did this last month while sewing so I was unable to work on anything for my Etsy store for the past month. I was hoping to get my machine fixed last month, but the holidays and a family illness forced me to delay getting my machine fixed. It still isn’t fixed, but I hope to get it fixed this month or next month at the latest.

This isn’t going to stop me from sewing my personal projects, costumes, or things for my Etsy store. I can still sew because before I bent my machine’s timing, I bought a new serger! I’m very happy with it, but I’m a little annoyed by my purchase because after my serger arrived, I found my mom’s serger in storage and found out I’m now it’s new owner. So, now that I have two sergers to work with. Because of this, I’ll still be able to sew things. I won’t be able to make things as fast as I’d like to, mostly because I’m still learning how to use the machines, but hey! I can still sew!

Although it’s taking me longer to finish anything I sew, I have a few blog post coming in the future about things I’m sewing and photographs I took recently. I’m not done typing them, but they are coming soon! I’m also working on some new drawings and fabric designs. I’m not sure when I’ll be done working on them, but they’re coming as well.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Playing with the Blind Hem Foot

Published on by essieofwho4 Comments

Unfortunately, I still don’t have a lot to talk about sewing, art, and photography wise, so I decided to talk about another sewing machine foot I’m trying to learn how to use: The blind hem foot.

blind hem foot

The blind hem foot is from the same set of feet as my gathering foot. I’ve heard of the blind hem foot but never used it before so while working on a skirt, I decided to give it a try. Normally I like to look for tutorials on how to use the foot before I use it, but the paper that came with the set of sewing machine feet explained how the foot works in a way I understood. So, I went right into practicing with the foot.

This is what the skirt’s hem looked like after I sewed it for the first time…

rolled hem pratice 2

The hem looked good from the outside of the skirt, but from the inside it looked a little sloppy…

rolled hem pratice

In my defense, it was my first time ever using the blind hem foot. I expected my first hem to look bad, but it turned out better than I thought! I think I should’ve practiced on a straight piece of fabric before trying it out on my skirt. The skirt has a curved hem so it was harder for me to handle than a straight piece of fabric.

Overall, I liked working with the foot. It made hemming a skirt so much faster than pinning it or using bias tape. I hope to use the foot more in the future.

New Sewing Machine

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The past few weeks have been hard on me post-wise, especially when it comes to sewing. The reason why is because of my sewing machine.

I already had a sewing machine, a Singer, but I messed up the timing of it a year ago. I would have been more than happy to get it fixed, but I had trouble finding someone that lives in my area that can fix a Singer. (They can fix a Brother, Jerome, ect. but not a Singer) I made do with my grandmother’s old machine, but it has some serious problems of its own. Still, the timing works and if you work with it very gently, it would sew straight stitches and maybe zig zag stitches if it wants to cooperate.

Recently, I’ve begun to work with fabric that needs to be sewn using a more dependable machine (Specifically the taffeta for my Snow White dress) and my grandmother’s machine has begun to act pickier and stranger than before. A few months ago, I began looking for a new machine to serve as a more dependable back-up machine than my grandmother’s. I finally found one, a Singer 4411 Heavy Duty sewing machine and I ordered it.

After waiting a long time for reasons I won’t go into, the machine finally arrived at my house. Here’s how it looks….

001b Continue reading “New Sewing Machine” →