bespokeminutiae asked:
Pink!! Thank you for all you do. I’m not in Lolita yet (lack of funds so severe even your guides cannot penetrate it), but I can’t wait to make use of your tutorials.
In the meantime, I have a question! I was given a sewing machine for Christmas in 2021, an Ever Sewn Sparrow 20. Unfortunately for my birthday in 2020, I was given Horrific Depression, and I still haven’t managed to find the receipt for it. My sewing machine has been in its box, never used, for a year and a half.
Recently I got some clothing from goodwill that I need to alter so that I can wear it, and I’d like to use my sewing machine. I know how to thread it and wind a bobbin and do all the normal setup things, but I wanted to ask: is there anything else I should check in addition to the normal setup things? Am I going to need to get it serviced before I can use it?
Thanks!
20dollarlolita answered:
The most common problems that people have when they take a machine out of storage are problems based around the fact that the machine was in storage. Baby, they are born to run. You won’t start a car up for the first time after leaving it alone for years, and expect it to be perfect. Your machine is the same.
So there’s two main concerns: dust, and locking up. If the machine was somewhere that dust could get on it, make sure dust didn’t get in it. Generally, most machines have holes near the bobbin winder where things could get messy. If there’s a lot of dust in the machine, you might want to take the plastic cover off and see if you can clean it. Otherwise, vacuum is your friend. Take your vacuum’s hose and vacuum the dust out as best you can. It won’t get everything, but better is better than nothing.
Locking up can be a bigger problem. Even if your machine was greased and oiled before it sat, sitting doesn’t things to the oil. If it’s gotten hot and then cold and back again, the oil and grease could have melted into weird locations. Sometimes, you will try to turn the hand wheel, and it just won’t go. First, stick a flashlight up to the thread uptake lever, and see if there’s any thread in there. If it looks clean, then it’s probably an oil bind. (if there is thread, you’re going to have to take that out first. Info on that in a minute). Patience is your secret here. Even if it won’t turn much, if you can get a little bit of movement, you can usually get a locked up machine un-stuck. Rock your hand wheel back and forth for a few minutes. Remember that your eventual goal is to turn it forward, but get whatever movement you can however you can. Once it’s free, turn it by hand for several full cycles. I like to go with about 20, but it’s really until it feels pretty free. Then, plug in your machine and run it for a few minutes. I put a piece of paper under the foot and “sew” along the paper until I’ve filled the whole paper up with holes.
If you’ve tried and you really just can’t get it free, try putting it in a hot car for about five minutes and then coming back to it. Melty oil turns better than cold oil. Try to run it while it cools so that you don’t have pooling oil in strange places.
If the machine is locked up, there’s a good chance that the presser foot had gotten sluggish or locked as well. Movement is key here, as well. You might need to put the foot down and then physically pull the foot down, but just like breaking the machine free, you can break the presser foot free with repeat motion.
So that’s the first things I check: dust, wheel turning, presser foot going up and down. If it looks clean from out of the box, good news!
I then generally do a fast oil. Most modern machines don’t need the user to oil it, and you can get into trouble if you oil it where you shouldn’t. We usually tell customers at my work to never oil their machines, and let the service tech do it. However, if you’re not going to, here’s some info on it. Most importantly, you only want to oil metal-on-metal joints. Oil plus plastic isn’t long term good.
I’m using a Janome Derby here because it was the easiest machine for me to get that wasn’t a Viking or a Pfaff. Those both use security screws and make getting into it a pain (and my Viking is still under warranty and don’t want to void it). The parts are the same in most machines.
Take off your metal plate so that you have access to your feed teeth and your bobbin case.
Make sure there’s nothing stuck in the bobbin case, like thread. Especially check your tension spring.
Under the bobbin case is a joint you want to oil. Many machines have a felt pad here to hold and dispense oil. If you have a felt pad, you want to put however many drops on it as you need to get it full of oil. If you do not have a felt pad, you will want to do one drop of oil, right in the center.
On this machine, because all of this is plastic, you don’t want to use any oil. However, any competent machine will have metal down here.
Check the top of your bobbin case for needle strikes. If there’s a really bad strike, you might need a new bobbin case. If you have any plastic burrs sticking out from a needle strike, you can usually carefully shave the sharp parts off with a sharp razor blade.
Check the plate for needle strikes around the needle hole. If there’s any burrs, you can use a nail file or some high grit sandpaper to remove them.
BTW, your bobbin case has Batman ears on it. Batman’s ears point up. If the bobbin case is in the machine properly, Batman’s ears will be point upward and the case won’t be able to rotate when you try to turn it counter-clockwise. There’s a little finger on the 5 o'clock position of the bobbin case, and that usually rests against a stop or sensor to stop the case from turning.
If you have a Brother or a Baby Lock, your machine may have a metal throat plate, and then a little L-shaped plastic collar. If it does, put the metal plate on first, then the bobbin case, then the plastic part. This will help make sure the bobbin case is straight.
Most machines will let you take off the front cover here. This gives you access to two important places.
If your presser foot is sluggish, cleaning and oiling the presser foot bar will free it. I like acetone on a q-tip for this, just cleaning all the parts of the bar that I can reach. There will be two metal sleeves that the bar passes through. Put one drop of oil on the top of each with the foot down, and then put the foot up and down to get the oil in the sleeve. You’ll want to oil this even if your foot isn’t sluggish.
Your thread uptake is the part that goes up and down when you thread the machine. It’s the thingy that’s the reason why you need to put your needle up before you thread your machine.
Thread loves to get wrapped around this. Take some time to see if there is thread, and if there is to unwind it. You usually have to turn the wheel backwards to get the thread off.
You’ll also want to oil the piece that connects to the uptake. It’s a big part. If your machine has a little hole on the front of the crank that turns the uptake, you will want to fill that up with oil. If there’s no hole, put a drop on the seam between the two pieces and hope that some of it gets down there.
And that’s about all I do. Stick the front plate back on (if it’s a Brother, make sure you’re getting the needle threader lined up with the little lever on the face plate that moves the threader). You should be good to go.
Remember: only sewing machine oil should go in your sewing machine. No other oils, just good old sewing machine oil. NOT three in one oil, no matter what the can says. You also only want to put a single drop on any space, unless there’s a felt pad or a hole to hold more than a drop.
And plenty of people will pull their machine from storage and use it with no problem. I’m just sharing this info in case you or someone else wants to do this. A lot of machines are considered disposable or not worth professionally servicing, and knowing how to do this can add some life to your machine. Just remember the number one rule, no oil on plastic parts.
