Monday, September 12, 2016

Sewing Speed Bump

My sewing machine has a thread cutter. It hasn't been cutting all that well, and yesterday it just decided to stop cutting completely. When it gets stuck like that, I can't continue to stitch.  Obviously the machine has to go in for repairs, but I have too much sewing to do to give up the machine right now.

What to do, what to do?

Answer: Don't use the thread cutter.

How can I sew without doing that?

 I can use a small scrap of fabric to sew onto,


then I can pivot, cut the piece loose, insert a new strip and keep going.

Which is nice, because I was able to complete the next step on these blocks. Each stack is actually four blocks, so there are 116 of these.  The next step is to sew a large white HST to the other side of that red strip.

I'll have to call the "sewing machine hospital" to find out if they can order the part without having the machine in house, or how long it will have to stay to be repaired, because there's no way I'm going to drop it off and wait indefinitely until the red flimsy is complete.

Little Miss thinks the sun is too bright on this, her first walk in the stroller.  Little girl needs a hat!  Pretty sure I can do something about that!


12 comments:

Nancy J said...

That's so funny, today I was on Pinterest, and looked at baby bonnets!!! For no real reason at all, maybe just because it took me back to when I sewed all our daughter's clothes. And that was everything, including cloth nappies !! Lovely sets of reds.

suzanne, dutchess county NY said...

In my Janome sometimes there would be a piece of thread or a build up of lint and my cutter would malfunction. I do hope it's a quick fix for you.

Pat said...

If I ever replace my current machine, there are some features that I consider a "must" and the thread cutter is right there!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I have a small old fashioned candy store glass container (sans the silver lid) where I stash a ready source of 2"-3" pieces of trimmed off fabrics. I use these to sew-on and sew-off whatever I'm working on. I tried the proper leader-ender method but I much prefer to focus on one project and not keep skipping back and forth with every seam. (I've never had a machine with a thread cutter so I just stitch on and off and keep on going.)

owlfan said...

My machine doesn't have a thread cutter, so I either use the small piece of scrap. Or more usually, I can just pivot the first piece out of the way and sew my next seam.

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I found the same thing as Suzanne, that if I took out the bobbin case and got down to the cutter area, there was usually a little pile of threads caught that I could pull out with tweezers and then it worked again.

Patti said...

Darling picture!! I cannot wait to see the red quilt finished.

Mary said...

Have you considered a simple leader/ender project instead of using a scrap piece to sew on? See Bonnie Hunter's website for more info. She uses the leader/enders to end up with another quilt, Little Miss is so adorable. I can't wait to see her in some grandma made bonnets.

Megan said...

Oooh - and sunglasses too please! LOL

Megan
Sydney, Australia

The Selvage Fairy said...

I use Levesque's in Hooksett. Nice guy, good work.

Millie said...

Mary, I can only have one lover at a time. Quilts are like that for me. Can't work on two at the same time.

Millie said...

Wanda, I've already checked and removed all the extra dust and fluff.