Are you ready for Christmas? Only 10 more days! :) While completing the projects on my Christmas list, I found that my vintage machines needed some maintenance. Nothing too significant, but just a little TLC. When I was doing some FMQ (free motion quilting) on one of my Singer 301s, I noticed the original pedal that I had rewired was getting way too hot. Initially I thought the pedal was going bad and ordered a new one. Well, I was flat out wrong! :) The new pedal did the same thing! Jeanie at vintagesewingparts.com taught me that the original style of pedal gets cooler, the faster the machine goes. Well, you typically go a little slower when you FMQ, so no wonder both pedals got too hot! I ordered an electronic pedal and tried it out this past week and whola! No heat! Its wonderful! I also noticed that the little rubber feet on the bottom of both of my 301s and my featherweight needed to be replaced so I ordered those from Jeanie too. Not a big deal, but over time the original rubber feet get hard, crack or gum up and can make the machine rock when you're sewing. All you need is a flat head screwdriver and a little muscle to remove the old feet. If they're really stuck or gummed up, you may have to pry them out after you remove the screw. Be sure the well is free of any rubber residue before you screw in the new foot. You can usually scrape it out with a smaller flat head screw driver and some patience. :) I finished up my maintenance by oiling and lubing all 3 of the machines and cleaning out all of the lint that seems to accumulate so quickly! Many modern machines do not require oiling or lubing, but they still need to be maintained. Are you having issues with your stitch quality? How often do you clean your machine? If there is a bunch of lint built up in your hook race (where the bobbin goes) or in your feed dogs, it can really mess up your pretty stitches. So pull out your lint brush and try it! You will be doing yourself and your machine a favor! And before I forget, I want to welcome all of the newbies that have subscribed recently! Thank you for joining us and I hope that you find something new here that you haven't thought about but can use in the future! Tell your friends to join us too!
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Do you participate in ornament exchanges? Or do you have people on your list that you need to make an ornament for? I usually have a dozen or so ornaments to make for people outside our immediate family. The challenge seems to be making them similar enough so I can work them up quickly, but different enough to show that I care. Here's what I came up with this year....mittens! I started out by drawing a simple mitten shape on a scrap of paper. I cut it out and sprayed the back with temporary spray adhesive. I pressed it on to the colorful felt scraps I had and carefully cut out 12 mittens. Since felt is reversible, I flipped some over so they wouldn't all have the thumbs facing the same direction. After all there have to be right and left mittens! :) Then I threaded a needle with some white crochet cotton and hand stitched a simple snowflake motif. I used large straight stitches and then french knots for the end points. I knew I wanted to cover up the stitching on the back of each mitten and give them a little more heft, so I decided to sew them on to white felt. To make this easier, I laid out six mittens on a 9 x 12" piece of felt, allowing some space in between. I used white thread in top and bobbin and sewed them in place. I repeated the process with the other six mittens. Next, I cut approximately 1/8" around each mitten so that each would have a white edge. (No need to measure, I just eye-balled it!) For the finishing touch, I took scraps from the white felt sheets and sewed on "cuffs" to each mitten. Depending on the colors of thread I had, some were sewn on using thread that matched the colored felt, while on others I had to use white. Cute either way! The final step? Thread another piece of crochet cotton (about 6" long) and go through the entire mitten about 1/4" down from the top of the cuff. Tie a knot and that's all there is to it! Have anyone on your list you'd like to make a mitten for? I'd be happy to give this fun and simple little pattern in PDF format to anyone who emails me. Happy Stitching! :)
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About MeFiber artist, wife to a wonderful husband and mom to 2 awesome, grown kids Archives
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