#Bobbin Cutting Machine

[mahirapoly]

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[rivertigo]

made good progress on my Jennifer Check costume today!

[lissomelace]

Ok, so I failed at working on my other projects.

Here's Finrod's emblem:

And in machine embroidery:

I'm pleased with it, although it took a bit of trial and error to get out (bloopers under the cut!). I do need to adjust the first black border. And I didn't have a great shade of green. I do like this green for some things, but here it's somehow giving me "sports team jersey" vibes. A green that's lighter and more yellow would be better.

Gotta say, I'm kind of having to resist scaling these down and doing...some kind of sash, I guess. Like a girl scout badge thing, but with elvish heraldry. Silm scouts!

(I never got past brownies, but my vaguely neurodivergent kid self did love the badges, and the way they all lined up and interlocked!)

Patch done with cotton brothread and YLI bobbin thread on linen, on a Brother SE630 machine. Digitized with Embrilliance. Original design by Tolkien.

Trial one, entitled Maybe I Should Cool It With The Satin Stitch Borders (and switch away from cotton canvas). Also, guess I have to start paying attention to my stitch density (sigh).

Trial two, titled Oh, That's Actually Looking Okay--

--Whoops:

(trying to fix that stitch density issue by making every bit of the torch flame a hole in the green field was a Problem)

[jewellery-box]

Dress, c. 1869

This ensemble is an example of fashionable women’s daywear for summer in the late 1860s. The light muslin bodice and skirt are unlined, but they were probably worn over an opaque under-dress. There is an overskirt over the back of the dress, accentuating the bustle that by this time was worn underneath. The off-the-shoulder seam and sleeves with width at the elbow are typical of the 1860s.

Cotton muslin, trimmed with satin, bobbin lace and machine embroidered whitework.

The dress is trimmed with applied bands of emerald green satin, and insertions of Midland Counties bobbin lace and machine-made white work embroidery. It consists of a blouse, loose-fitting and below the waist in length, with a high, round neck and a concealed front fastening. The sleeves are long and medium-wide. The matching skirt, which is very full, is straight-cut in front, gored and pleated at the sides and tightly gathered at the centre of the back. It is unlined, but has a deep facing at the hem. Over it is a polonaise, arranged in graduated swagged festoons. There is a satin belt trimmed with a rosette.

V & A Museum

[20dollarlolita]

To everyone getting a new sewing machine, as well as everyone who is working on last-minute holiday presents:

If the decorative stitches on your sewing machine are coming out ugly, there's a few things to try.

Your decorative stitches are basically embroidery, so give the project the same support you'd give a machine hoop embroidery project.

Bobbin: embroidery bobbin thread is much thinner than standard sewing thread. This really cuts down on the bulkiness of the stitch. If you want your decorative stitching to lie flat, you want to reduce bulk. You're having problems in a satin stitch, where the thread piles up on itself, makes a knot, and stops feeding? Embroidery bobbin thread will help prevent that, because it takes a lot more embroidery bobbin to make a knot big enough to stop the feed teeth. It's also thinner, so you can fit more on a bobbin and need to change your bobbin less. Embroidery bobbin is usually only available in two colors, but it's made so that your top thread will wrap onto the back and look prettier.

Stabilizer: For any hoop embroidery project, you need stabilizer. You can also put it behind your fabric in a decorative stitch. This will keep the fabric lying flat, and support your stitches. Some decorative stitch patterns will have the stitches very close together, and many woven fabrics can't support that many stitches. Stabilizer is meant to provide that support. There's versions that tear away (my current favorite is tear-and-wash), or that stay in the fabric permanently. If the back of your project isn't visible, keeping the stabilizer in there will show off your stitches and make it more attractive. You can buy a single promo pack of tear-away stabilizer for like $5, and if you're only using small strips of it to reinforce decorative stitching, it'll last you a really long time.

Thread: If you're doing a project with decorative stitching, you might as well use a decorative thread. Embroidery thread, must like my dear cat Teensy Buttons, is very pretty, but not very strong. While you don't want to use most machine embroidery threads for construction stitching, it does decorative stitching really well. If you're doing satin stitching, the shininess of the thread will really emphasize the stitching. For decorative stitching that's composed of single lines of stitching, switching to a 40wt embroidery thread will make the design stand out more.

Source:

Very pretty. Nothing going on in her head. We love T-Butt.

Anyway, when people call my store and are having decorative stitch problems, that's exactly what I tell them: Switch to embroidery bobbin, add some tear-away stabilizer, get some embroidery thread, look at how cute my cat is.

[tacit-semantics]

hey, apologies if this is an unwanted question, but do you have any tips on finding resources for learning bobbin lace? I’ve started learning myself, but I’m struggling to expand beyond a torchon ground bookmark, and to understand clean color + pattern changes, if that makes sense. Love your comic panel piece btw!!

Oh hey, not unwanted at all! I love answering questions like these!! Anyways in a move that is sure to surprise everyone, I got excited and this got a little long so under the cut we go

Anyways first off- cannot recommend Jo edkins’ site enough. Fantastic instructions, info on different styles, grounds, stitches, etcetera, and there are these animated demonstrations of a lot of the stitches that really helped them click for me :) anyways this is where I did (and do!) the bulk of my learning, in no small part because it’s also free sjsjjs

Bookwise, my favorite is Lessons in Bobbin Lacemaking by Doris southard. Relatively easy to find, and there are a lot of patterns for strips/edgings in there that you can copy over. My version’s also printed on this really nice thick paper which is not immediately relevant but I DO consider it a plus

I’ve also used The Torchon Lace Workbook by Bridget M. Cook with some success, though I did find the process of copying the patterns over a little more difficult with this one. The patterns themselves are very nice though, and while I went into this one already knowing how to work Torchon, from the looks of it the introductory section is pretty solid, and there’s lots of fun color stuff going on in the patterns

Anyways you’ll probably notice that this is mostly torchon stuff- that would be because as of right now, I mostly make torchon stuff and it’s also a very very good starting point. Now, as for finding resources on your own: antique pattern library my beloved. Light of my life. Anyways, this is all public domain stuff which historically I find a little more difficult to use in terms of actually learning how to do things; the text tends to be very small and I struggle to parse the illustrations, but a)that might not hold true for you aksjsj and b) once you’ve got a general idea of how things work there’s a whole wealth of patterns right there!! All free!!!! Antique pattern library I love you. Anyways going to internet archive and searching bobbin lace is also always a very good bet, and similarly accessible. This is generally what I do when I want to find info on something either without spending money, or if I know there’s not going to be a lot of more modern books on it, like for filet lace

Now, back when I first started, I also used lynxlace a lot which was a site dedicated to the making of various kinds of lace- unfortunately it seems as though the site itself is no longer available, but it’s still accessible through the wayback machine. This site often references the owner’s book- I haven’t read that and I’m not sure if it’s still available, but if you find that the way the free lessons are presented works for you, then that might be worth looking into. This site also has a resources section linking to other sites/books- as a general rule that’s also a fantastic way to find more, well. Resources aksjsj. Honestly, I’d recommend checking if all of the books/websites that you like have a resources/works cited/other books section or something equivalent. Following any links will probably require liberal use of the wayback machine, but it really is worth it if you wanna build up a bigger resource base :)

Anyways, I hope this helps!! My more general advice is to just have fun with it which I suppose seems a little obvious?? But it can get very very easy to get caught up in the specifics, and especially with something as fiddly as lace. Dont be afraid to experiment!! Try what sounds interesting!! I wish you the best of luck with your projects, and also I’m very glad you liked the comic panel piece I loved making that sksjsj that was so much fun

[chrissystriped]

I've seen this going around and thought it looks like fun, so here's mine

Bonus: If you tell me (tags, comment or dm) what you chose, I'll send you a pic of the thing 😃

[ahedderick]

Quilt

I think the Quilt Curse tried to strike again yesterday. I was working on two (2!) squares and had

the bobbin thread run out (minor annoyance)

the bobbin fail to return the top thread after a stitch, which results in a big, ugly snarl of thread under the fabric

a subtle but possibly-concerning clicking noise from the machine

and, while hand sewing, I stitched my finger to the quilt square by putting the needle right through one of my callouses. Which, to be fair, didn't hurt . . but I was sewed to the fabric and had only one hand to attempt to free myself with. For cripe's sake.

I soldiered on, I've come too far to give up. After completing the X-ray tetra I tried to fix up the S square. I had cut out a red squirrel and pinned it to green fabric (all those years ago), but, looking at it now, it didn't suit. I decided to give it a tree branch to sit on, just a bit more interesting and less plain.

I still have to fix a problem with Zebra and do some finishing touches.

[hidefdoritos]

Galaxy Print Knee Patches

I've just spent two hours locked in mortal combat with my machine, but I emerge victorious with awesomer pants!

Yep, we're working on the same tac pants as always. I have two other pairs of solid black pants, so I can confidently decorate these to match my primarily black-and-blue wardrobe.

Step one was cutting two 9-by-9 patches. (I thought about doing cool hexagons for about 30 seconds and then couldn't decide which way to orient them, so no.) I did my usual trick of putting cardboard in the leg of the pants. Then I folded the edges under slightly and pinned down all around. (Retrospect: Since I didn't iron those folds, I should've used more pins. They kept trying to unfold as I sewed.)

Step two was finding this bobbin of variegated purple thread from my grandma. Rather than hand-winding it onto a spool, I just put it on the machine. Seemed to work!

Step three was realizing this was gonna be difficult. The knee parts of the pants are already two layers thick, and I'm adding another folded layer on top of them. Plus, wrestling the heavy pants under the machine. Eliza has a lovely feature where the bottom comes apart to help you get into sleeves and such, but cramming this fabric in was still a pain.

The above photos are called "Why I'm not a quilter." Also, they show how much trouble Eliza was having with the fabric. The stitch lengths are uneven, I kept hitting pins, and every time I stopped and started, she pulled to one side or the other. On the very first seam, in the first photo, I tried to turn around and do a second row of topstitching, but it came up so uneven that I quit immediately and unpicked it.

Also, she's had this worsening problem where, when I finish a seam, I can't pull the fabric away without turning the top tension back to 0, or the thread will just break. This necessitates remembering to put the tension back to 4. Remember that.

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper sewing project if I didn't sew the pant leg shut on the final corner. So I pulled it off the machine, unpicked it, and went back over it again.

And forgot to reset the tension to 4! Just look at that mess on the back.

I clipped the loops and just sewed it all down again in eagerness to be done. It's a tad noticeable, but I don't care. It's done!

And here's the end result!

Would it be neater by hand? Probably! Is Eliza due for a spa day at the repair shop? Yes! And am I thrilled with the end result?

ABSOLUTELY!

[singeart]

Okayy we got a Voyager science officer cosplay to make, here(wa)s the plan:

Using an existing pattern I found on etsy, I made adjustments based on vibes reference pictures of Janeway from Night and seeing what other people have made before (shout out to thresholdbb I was Looking at their past cosplays).

Treksona presentation to illustrate the changes I made~

Half the battle was decoding what the vintage pattern instructions were trying to tell me 🤡 but eventually with the help of the internet and my mom on call I figured out each step!

Oh and I had to learn how to iron and how the whole dang sewing machine worked, oiling it, threading the bobbin and needle, I even took apart the foot pedal at one point because I thought it wasn't working lol.

The mockups below, I made one out of Swedish tracing paper and the next one out of cotton (curtains I thrifted) after confirming that it would probably fit:

Turned out pretty good but I decided to move the front seams over just a bit...

Laying out the final pattern:

Cutting out the final pieces was really exciting it was starting to look like something!!

Detail shots below... I didn't feel like I could get the crispness I wanted for the shoulder points with the machine so I did it by hand :')

The shoulder pads were very exciting to put in as well!! I asked the person at JoAnn what the difference was between the two different shoulder pads I had picked up and they said one was more 80s power suit-- that was definitely the one I wanted for this jacket hehe

The final jacket below with a top I found on ebay (also found boots from there)!!! I ended up putting the sleeves in with a machine and ummm there's some puckering I'm trying not to be annoyed about h a h a. I may go back and fix that eventually I don't know... The invisible zipper I got didn't work either so I need to replace that somehow too hrm.

Anyway, I thrifted pants because I didn't want to tackle a whole other piece; I just added fabric to the bottom because they were a smidge short and then cut the iconic vent.

Here's the jacket on me, taken with a weird camera angle so the shoulders are a bit wonky at the edges haha but look!! I lined everything up so well!!

(comm badge and pips from etsy)

I felt ready to go hop on a ship sign me up for first contact I'm ready 🫡

Awright Lessons I Learned:

sewing projects take much much longer than anticipated (I went to stsf and was sewing licherally the night before and morning of. I know it's the convention experience but I was a tad stressed lol)

hand sewing in particular takes forever but I enjoyed it!

people are right to complain about setting in sleeves what da hell was that

flannel (what I used for the black part because it matched the pants the best) was great to work with

linen (the best teal they had in the store) was not!! doesn't iron well, doesn't sew well I don't want to use it ever again <3

this was my first sewing project Ever and I still was pretty hard on myself e h e..........much to think about...

Final words of wisdom from my mom:

Back to the Scully blouse soon!! After a little break :) Thanks for reading!

[bomberqueen17]

Loftus Bralette Construction #2: completion!

yah so i finished the bra and tried it on and it was more comfortable than the RTW bra I'd been wearing so I just left it on the rest of the day, LOL.

But anyway I'll detail the rest of the sewing of it, and what I've learned and what I plan to do next.

[image description: a bent sewing needle, held between my fingers]

So the first thing I learned is that sewing through the many layers where the bra cup is attached to the band is enough that it'll snag on the feed dogs and if you try to pull it through you'll bend your needle. Had to yank out the entire bobbin raceway/case assemblage to free the bent needle so I could get it out and retrieve the in-progress bra, and then reinserting the whole bobbin assembly took forever to get right. So, don't recommend.

A bit later I shattered another needle when I misjudged how much of the metal eye there was underneath the fabric of the preassembled hook-and-eye closure I was inserting. They only came in a pack of 5 so maybe I need to order more microtex needles....

I wear glasses, but if I didn't, I wouldn't wear goggles to sew but I'd know I should, LOL.

Anyway. Bra sewing is not for the faint of machine. I am using an old mechanical Kenmore that fears nothing. I can't set the stitch width very easily, but that's the only downside I can find.

Attaching the band was wildly confusing. I'd watched the sewalong and it had seemed straightforward enough, but the written directions were baffling. They wanted you to pin... the center in place... from the top... then turn the entire bra and pin from? the other side? what?

I tried to follow the directions, failed entirely to get the thing on, and had to retreat upstairs to seam-rip and rewatch the sewalong.

She has you pin the center, then sew the waistband V to one side of the center gore, then sew it to the other side of the center gore, then pin the rest in place and sew the rest. And that worked. That is not what the written instructions say to do. I'm still not sure what the written instructions say to do. I could not decipher them in any way at all. (By "turn" do they mean like, fold the thing to get at it from the other side? or do they mean like, rotate the whole assemblage, to work on the same surface but from a different angle? what the fuck.)

But I did manage to get the band attached, in the end!

[image description: a pink bra with a black, inverted-v elastic waistband lying atop a sewing machine.]

i then had to attach the straps, and as I was doing it I was like "this is dumb I should make them shorter every bra ever has had straps too long for me" and I remembered someone asking "why put adjustable straps on a homemade bra you're making to measure" and the pattern designer or someone answering "because the elastic might stretch over time" but i'm here to tell you a little secret, those elastic sliders never fucking stay where i put them, every single bra i own the first thing i do when i get it is adjust those sliders as short as they go, and that's the first thing i do every time i put that bra on for its entire life, and it is still never short enough and sometimes i have altered RTW bras to remove the sliders and make the straps permanently shorter. But I was like "no they wrote the pattern like this for a reason i'll do it" and then. I got the straps on. And got the hook and eye closure installed. And I put the bra on.

And the straps are way too fucking long, like minimum three inches too long, and won't stay adjusted shorter and even at the shortest adjustment are too long.

So score 1 for whoever was like "putting adjustable elastic on a made to measure garment is silly", they were one hundred percent right. I have picked /cut the elastic back off and am going to just sew some on at a fixed length about three inches shorter than the pattern as written. I was completely wrong: i do not need or want adjustable straps. If the elastic stretches out over the lifetime of the garment, I will unpick it and sew it again shorter. The sliders never work and I don't know why I bought in to the propaganda that they would when I know better.

Anyway: making this not-rebloggable because I'm going to include a photo of the garment on, and I don't need that to be rebloggable. It can just stay in its original context here. Not that it's racy. But:

[image description: a size 38J non-wired bra, pale pink with peach elastic and a black waistband, worn by a torso that fills it out pretty well, with just a few wrinkles in the center gore and arms raised out of frame.]

The high center gore doesn't suit me, so I'll do the next one at the lower line option. The lack of pressing the seams shows; the seams are blocky and my boobs have low-poly corners, LOL. The Sharpie marks are funny everywhere. And I could stand to have less volume at the bottom of the cups so my boobs fill out the tops of the cups a little better, somehow. Not sure how to alter that.

But what I've done is I've since cut out a second one, using the nice kit I bought, and first I very carefully shaved down the edges of the paper pattern pieces, which i had cut out with my usual not super high level of care. But these pieces need to be very precise, and the seam allowances-- well, drawing the sew line on was good as an idea but in practice I missed it much of the time when I was actually sewing, because I couldn't see it or the fabric slid or various other reasons. What I need to do is use a seam guide to make sure I'm really sewing at the full 1/4" seam allowance, which I rather often wasn't. And that means there's a little extra space in this bra that I don't need.

But the fit is not bad really!!! so I'm going to go ahead and make my next one in the same size, and make it nicely, with all new notions and shit that matches, and doing all of the finish-as-you-go shit, the topstitching and the pressing and whatnot. And then we'll see how that one fits, and maybe refine things from there.

I got no cat photo for the finale here because I turned the a/c on today and the cat has retreated to the attic, which is not air conditioned, so she can sleep in the desert heat, which she prefers. (No we don't live in a desert but she likes to pretend.)

[handweavers]

just mentioned this to someone but if you want to get into papermaking you can make a mould and deckle for really cheap by getting a pair of matching picture frames from a thrift store/dollar store and tightly stapling a sheet of mesh onto one of them like that's literally all it is. and you can make your own pulp with recycled paper incl newspaper and a used blender that you also got from the thrift store/fb marketplace. and you don't need anything fancy to pull the sheets onto you can use cut up t-shirts or a roll of blue shop towels and they can be reused for a long time.

the amount of craft equipment in general that can be (relatively) cheaply diy'd with no noticeable difference between your diy and a purchased product is much greater than you might think tbh. like as a weaver, new bobbin winders are very expensive ($100 minimum) and electric bobbin winders even more ($300+) so i made my own with some hardware and wood from home depot and a sewing machine motor i bought off ebay for like $60 total and it works and looks just like the ones at my school's weaving studio lol.

[mamawasatesttube]

Kon-El

Headcanon A:  realistic

at ma's suggestion, he starts learning a bunch of different fibercrafts as ttk practice! he starts out with knitting and crocheting because there's only a few moving pieces there, but he eventually gets to working on pretty complicated bobbin lace. one of these days he's gonna just take apart a sewing machine just to see if he can control the needle and threads and bobbins and fabric all together himself.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

he gets krypto a matching leather jacket and pair of shades. ma is like now conner what are you doing to that poor dog? but krypto, mirroring kon, just struts around preening. he feels so fashionable. until he gets bored and eats the shades, anyway.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

for a long time, he assumes he's just not cut out for relationships because they always make him anxious. they always involve walking a tightrope to keep someone happy, and he's just always either never enough or too much. but it sucks because he's still lonely. he wishes he could have what clark and lois have. what's wrong with him that he can never make it work like they do?

(it's the grooming and emotional abuse that he doesn't even know are what happened to him. but shhh.)

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

he is a gay genderqueer man and figures this out in the years after his resurrection!!! his gender and sexuality ponderings are directly tied to his more introspective state after his death and the way he has to confront that he has a whole life ahead of himself to live.

[doll-princesse]

To draft a gathered skirt and ruffles:

For this skirt, I laid out a strip of fabric 2x as wide as the bodice, 6 1/2” long. This came out to 28”.

For a simple gathered skirt, I use a panel 15 1/2” on fold (31” flat) at minimum, but since this skirt is getting a ruffled tier, I am reducing the fullness just a bit. When I make tiered skirts it is very easy to wind up with a ruffle monster.

For the ruffle, I pieced together two strips 3 1/2” long to make a piece 2x the fullness of the main skirt panel. You could probably cut this in one piece, but I already had these panels cut out.

Then I ironed the ruffle panel in half. This makes it so you do not have to make such a narrow hem on a long piece of fabric.

You can do a gathering stitch on a sewing machine or by hand.

For machine: sew basting stitches, then pin mark.

Make two rows of stitches with your longest stitch length and low tension. Place the fabric pretty side up to get the bobbin thread on the wrong side. This makes it easier to pull the gathers.

I make the first row with my needle all the way to the right of the machine and stitching. The second is made by lining the edge of the foot with the first line of stitch. I move the needle a couple clicks to the left, and stitch.

Then I pin baste as described below, and gently pull the gathers to fit.

For hand stitching: pin mark first, then gather down.

Pin marking:

Next we will put in pins to make the seam allowance and centers of each panel. This can also be done with safety pins or pen marks.

Next find the mid points between these pins to quarter-mark. Repeat for eighth-marks, then again for sixteenth-marks. This seems like a lot, but there’s a purpose. These marks will help us make even gathers.

Continued in part 2

[dirtbag-linecook-kyloren]

I read a fic where Kylo as a fashion designer and that’s valid but I think it shows a lack of awareness for how fuckin tedious sewing is

like I have been working on a skirt today and I’ve spent most of my day while doing it measuring and cutting and doing math and trying to get my tension right

so imagine, if you will, a project runway-esque competition.

like Hux does his own sewing machine maintenance, oils that thing on a clear schedule and cleans the thread debris out once a week from his bobbin area where all that shit builds up like dryer lint

and so he watches kylo bullshit his way through projects on *vibes* and he’s guessing every time they go to the fabric store and he picks out thread and grabs the wrong type half the time, but it still works?

so while hux is out here making incredibly technical garments with perfectly finished edges and pockets and neat hems, kylo is draping some bullshit together and then putting a lace on it and the judges eat it up and Hux can’t fucking stand it

I literally have five au outlines open on my other screen I s2g I do not have time for another but here I am starting another google doc

[20dollarlolita]

Hi, I hope I didn't miss if this has been asked before. But I've owned two sewing machines now and can't seem to be able to fix the lower thread bird's nest problem no matter what I do on either of them. I've scoured youtube and tried every fix; kept thread tails long, adjusted tension based on fabric I'm sewing (used denim, t-shirt, or bedsheet cotton usually), changed needles, dusted the machine, the works, but no matter what I do I might be able to get through a couple of pieces of fabric before the tangling starts again. Is this a problem more common in cheap machines, maybe?

One has a metal case for lower thread bobbin that I can adjust but which I think gets too loose due to age almost immediately (mother's old machine of unknown brand, presumably lower-mid-tier when new), another was a $100 Brother on sale but new, that only has a plastic cover and no adjustable case.

The problem's at a point where I've lost all passion for sewing, dreading the next jam, just can't take the frustration and endless troubleshooting anymore. Would this be something more avoidable (using all the proper techniques) if I splurged for a better machine (though my max spending would be around $500)? Or am I just failing at something fundamental lmao.

What should I look out for in a new machine if I just want something basic that works without too much fiddling? Thanks so much if you take the time to answer!

I'm sure someone's told you to always thread the machine with the foot up, and then to put the foot down before using the needle threader?

We're going to break this into two answers, so skip down to the second heading if you're angry enough with your machine to throw it off a balcony and start over.

A) Troubleshooting very persistent bird nesting.

If everything looks absolutely miserable on the bottom, it's caused by there being very little or no tension on the top thread. I used to say "it's usually caused," but if there's big hairy loops of top thread that are tangling on the bottom, I've learned from experience that it is only caused by there being no tension on the top thread.

If it's just a little bit ugly, like you have eyelashing, then that could be a general tension issue, but if it's super ugly, it's a no-tension issue.

The question of why there is no tension can have several answers.

-When you put the foot down, the tension discs will close. If you thread the machine with the foot down, it's more likely that the thread will not go into the discs properly. You can test this by smoothly pulling some thread through your needle, and then (while still pulling) putting the foot down. If you feel that the thread catches or becomes harder to pull, then your thread is properly in your tension discs, and your discs are working correctly.

Another potential option would be tension unit breaking or going out of calibration. Unless you're working on a machine that's $1000+ dollars, your tension unit is going to be a couple of springs pushing on a plate. If something gets really loose, then the tension unit won't close when you put the foot down. On some machines (especially machines where the tension unit is a circle on the front of the machine) you can just open up the side and tighten a screw. On other machines, you need to take the top off and check if it's okay in there. While you're in there, you can...okay so I can't say "calibrate" your tension, because what you're going to do is better called "fuck with" your tension.

This is long so here's a cut:

Basically, there's an adjustment tool in a tension unit, which a technician can use to make sure that the proper tension is accomplished when the number on the tension dial says 4. It's a little gear with a stick on it. If you cannot get a decent tension by cranking your tension all the way up to 10, you can adjust the little stick on the gear to bring the default tension up. This will have the consequence of not knowing what number you just set the default tension to, but you can figure that out with trial and error and then stick a note on your machine that says "normal tension=6.5" and that's a lot cheaper than spending $200 to get a $100 machine serviced.

B) Just buying a new machine

Here's the thing: if you already are so frustrated with your machine that you don't want to sew anymore, you have a machine that's bad for you. Older and cheaper machines are prone to what my store's technicians refer to as "cascade failures", which is when all of the machine is between 45% and 90% broken. When you fix one part, it can last a very short time, and then another part will break. Pretty soon, you've put in enough money to buy a nice new machine, but you've paid the cost of a new machine and you're still sewing on a machine that's 45% broken.

If you're kind of handy and you don't mind occasionally opening up your machine and playing around with the internal parts to make it work better, then this might be a fun project. My store has a regular customer who has a borderline-nonfunctional Janome HD3000, and he really enjoys the process of figuring out how to make it work when something breaks. Apparently he used to be a helicopter mechanic in the army. Personally, I don't mind figuring out how to get one or two broken parts fixed. I have a machine where sometimes the stitch length goes screwy, and I have to 1) put the stitch length to 5, 2) flip it onto its back, and then 3) drop and then un-drop the feed teeth. I don't know why this works, but it does work, so I haven't gotten the machine serviced yet. But the vast majority of people who sew that I interact with just want a machine that works. They want to sew. They don't want to repair a machine.

So, if that's you, and you just want to sew when you want to sew and you want everything to do what you want, it's probably time to get a new machine.

A lot of people bring machines into my store to get serviced. Sometimes it's a machine that's not worth fixing. I can say that most of the "don't fix this, just replace it" machines that we see are either over the age of 25 years (and were not treated well in their youth), cheap Brother machines, and modern Singer machines of any price point. In terms of inexpensive machines, we sell a LOT of the Baby Lock Be Genuine collection, and we service a pretty small amount of the Baby Lock Be Genuine collection. We also have really good experiences with the mechanical Bernettes, the Janome HD line, and the Viking Emeralds.

For computerized machines, I'm very partial to the Janome QDC series. I have a machine from that series that I bought in 2009, got serviced twice in its life, and that is still going very strong.

I'm going to just spam some links here with a quick pro/con list. I'm not being paid to do this; it's just my own opinion based on what I know of the people who read this blog. However, if anyone is buying something from this site, please use PINK2 at checkout so that I get head pats from my company telling me I did a good job (it also saves you a little money).

C) Pink just lists sewing machines for 35 minutes:

Mechanicals: > Baby Lock Zest/Joy: These are two really popular basic machines that will be under $300. They don't have a ton of stitches, but they're all metal on the inside, and so they're going to last. I prefer the Joy over the Zest because of the stitch width option, but if you need the cheapest option, the Zest is the best cheap machine I know of in terms of life. > Baby Lock Zeal: As far as mechanicals, go, this one has all the features that are really necessary to be a full-fledged machine instead of a budget machine. > Bernette B33 and B35: These are basically the same features as the Zest and the Joy, with a couple of minor differences. These tend to be a little more expensive than the Zest and the Joy, but they're sometimes easier to locate if you want to shop local. > Janome HD3000 (white version) and HD 1000: These guys are tanks and feel very good to sew on. The 1000 has some stripped back features to get it in that price point, the same as the Joy and Zest do. The 3000 feels like it has all the features you'd expect from a mechanical machine. For some reason, a LOT of the HD3000 in the black colorway are trash. I believe Janome makes a HD5000 as well, but I don't remember if that's one that's weirdly bad like the black HD3000. I really don't know what's going on with that HD3000 black edition. > Viking Emerald 118: Personally, I think this is the best mechanical machine that's currently out there. They're powerful, last a long time, are fully featured, and are just good little guys. I have frustrations with their maker that I can't express publicly online, but the Emerald is good enough that I'll forgive it.

Side note: I have customers ask me "is it heavy duty?" which is a very vague question that doesn't actually mean anything. All of these machines can handle thick fabrics like denim. Machines with adjustable presser foot pressure (so not the Zeal, Joy, HD1000, B33, B35) will handle thick fabric better. That's what that adjustment is for. Every single one of these is more powerful than the Singer Heavy Duty line. Every single one of them had a metal internal frame, which is a big thing the Singer Heavy Duty will advertise. Every machine should sew through denim, and the fact that there's so many brand new out of the box machines on the market that won't sew through six layers of denim drives me ABSOLUTELY INSANE. It should be as absurd to have to ask "does it use thread?" as "does it sew heavy fabrics?" but instead we have to explain to people that yes, our sewing machines do the things that sewing machines should do, because there's so many reputable-looking brands putting our sewing machines that actually just can't sew.

Moving on: basic computerized machines

> A basic computerized machine has fewer complicated parts than a basic mechanical machine, meaning that if you do your normal expected maintenance, a basic computerized machine will last you longer than most mechanical machines. People don't like when I say that, but it's true.

Entry computerized machines that I like: > Janome QDC line: I have the precursor to the 3150 and it's a tank. Also you get push-to-cut, which is very nice. > Bernette B37 and B38: These have the same boards that the Janome 3150 and 4120 QDC have, but they've got some different bells and whistles. The 37 doesn't have push-to-cut, which is not a thing you miss if you've never had it. > Baby Lock Jubilant: This guy has a very nice needle threader but I find the dial on the front to be a clunky way of selecting a stitch. If the B37 is cheaper than the Jubilant, I'd pick it over the Jubilant. It's still a very good machine, and Baby Lock is relatively easy to buy online, so it might be more accessible.

If you woke up and decided you wanted to spend a lot on a sewing machine: >Baby Lock Brilliant: I prefer this over the one a step below it (the Presto II) because it's a lot easier to communicate with. A lot of Presto II's come in "broken" because the user changed a setting and didn't realize it, and the Brilliant actually tells you when you change a setting. > Viking Opal 690q: Unless you get a really good deal, I recommend the 690 over any other Opal. The features you get with it are very nice, and they don't come with the lower Opals > Bernina 335: You're not going to get build quality any better than a Bernina, but they come at a price. This guy is going to give you the same features as a much lower machine, but still run over $1000. They're very nice machines, though, so if you happen to win a lawsuit or something, you could spend your money on that. >Bernette B77 (or B79). The B77 has no right to have that many features at that price point. How did they do that? We just don't know. If you want this, subscribe to Bernina's sales info and to every sewing machine store you can, because it frequently goes on $999 promotion. And then screenshot the people offering it for $999 and ask me for my work email, and I'll match their price. I can match any price. It sure is nice to work for a company where I have that power. Anyway the B79 is the embroidery/sewing combo version of the B77, and it's an amazingly priced combo machine. This is useless if you're not interested in embroidery, but hey, thought I'd throw it out there.

And if you've stolen someone's credit card and you've got to use it on something before the police find you: > Brother 3100 is a very nice machine > Janome 9480 is very smooth to work on and basically reads your mind. The low bobbin sensor is good. > The Janome M6 is purple. > So is the Bernina 770 Kaffe Edition but that particular machine has a mysterious curse upon it so you probably actually want the 570 Kaffe Edition even though it's blue.

Thank you all for letting me vomit words for 90 minutes. Reminder that, while everything here I say is my own opinion that is not representing any company and is not endorsed by any company, if you want to support a small business in our fight against the big online sewing machine stores, you can click here and use PINK2 at checkout to save a little money and earn me some high fives from management. (If you want to go through the whole sales process and make sure you're getting the absolute best dead, I can also do that. Just message me off-anom to ask for my work email. The PINK2 code is for people like me who would rather save less money and get the thing Right Now and not have to talk to a human, rather than have to go through an online sales process).