One of the most irritating things that can happen to those of us in the sewing, alteration, crafting, doll making and other “sewing” businesses is for a machine to break down in the middle of a rush project — or any other day of the week!  We simply do NOT have the time to spare to lug the machine to a repair shop, only to be told it will be a week or two before they can “get to it” to check it out and make necessary repairs.  Not only do we have to wait for the machine to be repaired, in most cases the repair COULD have been done easily and simply by YOU or me at our own home or shop, which would have resulted in almost no down time.

I learned a long time ago that unless you have a totally honest repair shop, and an efficient repair shop, you can look for long delays in getting the machine back, and THEN within a few days or weeks the same (or different) problem pops back up.  Interesting how “new” problems seem to happen so quickly after a visit to the repair shop.

For those of you who are like me and NEVER want to see my sewing machine leave my sewing room again, I would highly recommend a couple of repair books that are written in simple language, with diagrams and illustrations, that will allow you to repair your own machine, and get right back to work on those projects.

Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer is probably the most helpful repair book you can find –  it tackles the timing problems (have you hit a pin or heavy thick jeans seam and thrown it out of time?), shows how to take a tension apart and put it back together and gives great information on how to adjust the tensions (upper and lower).  And, oh those pesky problems with the needle and bobbin – thread breaking, knotting in the bobbin area, etc.  This book covers all of these problems.

And, for those Spanish speaking sewers, there is also the Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer written in Spanish  (Reparación de Maquinas de Coser en el Hogar  that is also available.

Serger Repair for the Home Sewer is written in the same manner that the sewing machine repair book is, except that it tackles the problems and issues that you’d have with your 3-thread, 4-thread and 5-thread sergers.

And for those of you who are lucky enough to have a treadle sewing machine, don’t forget to keep them in tip top shape as well.

 

By doing “regular” preventative maintenance on our precious sewing equipment will mean fewer breakdowns and fewer headaches while we’re doing what we love to do — sewing!