Tag Archives: how it works

Sewing Machines, Site News

Blame Canada? Shipping realities

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From time to time, I get an email from someone who wanted to purchase something from the shop but got sticker shock when they went to check out when they saw the shipping price.  Most times, people are understanding when I explain but there have been a couple of nasty ones lately complete with profanity and I mean, come ON.  Really?

The cost of shipping is an unfortunate “feature” of living in Canada and in fact a large part of what made me hesitate so long to even open the shop up in 2020.

We have a small population density for the huge landmass we live on.  For instance, our land mass is 1.6% larger than the US but we have about 1/10th the population.  We’re 40 times larger than the UK and we have just over half the population.

That means that packages are fewer for every kilometre (mile) travelled and so we pay more to ship.  What’s also really unfortunate is that through nearly every carrier, I can often ship for less to Florida than I can to Calgary which is less than 240miles (400kms) from me.

Compounding the issue is our postal system is terribly inefficiently run (Crown corp and no real accountability, very frequently mis-routing packages which costs a lot of money and time – i.e. my parcel that came through customs in Richmond BC had no business going to Quebec on the way to Alberta, then there was the pensions debacle that we’re still paying for… ) and fuel prices.

With fuel prices soaring, Canada Post for instance has started adjusting their fuel surcharges on a weekly basis.  Yes, weekly increases.  That means that a quote I give on Friday is out of date on Monday and not usually in my favour.  All of the parcel companies are doing similar things and recommending that shippers evaluate their shipping charges regularly because of this. Continue reading Blame Canada? Shipping realities →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

Never Know Unless You Give It A Try – Replacement Featherweight Bobbin Cases

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Around 2 months ago, I received 3 Singer featherweight 221/222 (and 301) bobbin cases from my Canadian parts supplier.  The cases varied in quality and perhaps accordingly in price.  They’re also 3 of the cases most commonly seen in the wild when someone goes looking for a featherweight bobbin case.  Like me, you’ve probably read a lot about variable quality and about some not fitting at all, some stitching out poorly and other issues.

The purpose of ordering the 3 bobbin cases was to investigate why there were so many issues with some cases and if anything could be done once you got the “wrong” case.  (Caution: Long “shoot out” style post warning! You’ll also want to click on pictures to view the bigger versions.  It will probably make what I’m saying a lot clearer. )

3 different Singer 221/222/301 bobbin cases as they arrived here in July.

Initially, I’d planned only to evaluate 2 cases – the Korean made Towa and the Japanese made Towa case but Continue reading Never Know Unless You Give It A Try – Replacement Featherweight Bobbin Cases →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

The loosest thread – Those pesky thread nests

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Some of the most common sewing machine issues I hear are:

  • “The bobbin thread is bunching up around the bobbin”,
  • “I have loops under the fabric”,
  • “It looks great on the top but the bottom looks awful!”,
  • “No matter how high I turn the tension on my bobbin, I still get a mess on the bottom side of the fabric!”,
  • “I keep lowering the upper tension but I still get loops underneath!”
  • “It’s the tension”
  • or something similar.

Something like this: Continue reading The loosest thread – Those pesky thread nests →

Sewing Machines, Site News

Scope and Archaic Arcane

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When I started posting about sewing machines, the intention was to cover what I was doing along with some of the maintenance we should all be doing and some of the basic repairs that nearly everyone could do.

Eventually, I started to get requests for certain posts and videos which is extremely flattering.  It told me that people were enjoying – and learning from – what I was doing.  Some of the requests have been excellent suggestions and often form the basis of the posts you’ve seen on this site. Continue reading Scope and Archaic Arcane →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

A search for things that you can’t see – Singer motor lube replacement

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A “controversial” post today folks.

Motor Lube for Singer motors.

This one causes a lot of sometimes heated discussion on forums.  Many people have done tests and lots of opinions have been stated.  Today, I’m going to state my opinion, back it up with my reasoning and testing and then you can decide what you want to do with your own machines.

A couple years back, I mentioned that I could still get Singer Lube that was still suitable for use in Singer motors.  In February of this year, that changed.  I spent some time posting about it on Facebook.

Because I still get requests for Singer Lube, I thought I’d discuss what happened to make the Singer Lube no longer suitable for motors and what I recommend to replace it. Continue reading A search for things that you can’t see – Singer motor lube replacement →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

Motorin’ – Electric motor theory

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Electric Motor theory – why and how we lubricate

There have been a lot of discussions about sewing machine motor lubricants over the years and I thought I’d take a step further back and discuss why we do this, how we do this and why some of the information “out there” is sort of F.U.D. (<- Wikipedia Link)

First off:  Why do we lube or oil a motor?  (I’m a why person, have you noticed this yet?? I’m quite sure I drive some people nuts with my “whys?”… )

Continue reading Motorin’ – Electric motor theory →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

Quick Note: Why I don’t recommend…

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simply re-threading your machine when you have problems with it.

A quick note today folks! I’m inside waiting for the anti-inflammatories to kick in before I go back outside to do some bodywork on the truck so I thought I’d jot down a little note for you.

The traditional advice when you start to have tension problems with a machine seems to be “Re-thread it.  Everything, the bobbin case and the top”.

Most of the time that usually means that people yank the thread out from the back – or some will cut it and remove from the front – then they re-thread and…. it doesn’t fix it.  Sometimes it will but often it doesn’t.

Why? Continue reading Quick Note: Why I don’t recommend… →

Longarm Quilting, Quilting, Sewing Machines

Bring me some water – the importance of humidity in a quilting studio

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Note:  I talk mainly about long arm quilting in this post and how humidity affects it because it’s so much more quickly noticed with the speed of the machines but this post is relevant to anyone with a crafting space that uses thread and other fibers that can change for the worse with humidity changes.

Living on the prairies in Central Alberta, we seem to get a lot of weather extremes.  Normally, this doesn’t affect the inside of the house or my studio much – thankfully now that the roof thing has been taken care of! – but there’s one particular situation that I do have to manage – humidity.  With plummeting temperatures and the liberal use of a forced air furnace, the air becomes extremely dry down here.   I ignored it for the first winter that I had Lucey – not really recognizing it as a problem.

Last year – around this time – I started having major problems with thread breakage on Lucey.  No amount of pleading or bargaining or whining helped.  Continue reading Bring me some water – the importance of humidity in a quilting studio →

Sewing Machines

Cuts like a knife – Scissor care from a sharpening professional

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Some of you might have seen me post on Facebook about my outing on Monday. I finally took my favorite but very abused Gingher scissors in for repair and sharpening. I’m a little embarrassed to say that in the few years I’ve had them, they’ve had a very hard life.

They’ve been dropped on their points, bent and even done a little bungee jumping.

GingherG7z2

These were my first “good” scissors and none of the abuse was ever intended – it just happened. Somehow, I have a knack for storing scissors on the ground, usually from sewing table height. I don’t think I ever did that when all I had were my craptastic scissors. Figures, right? Of course, at least 2 times they hit the floor they landed points down. Continue reading Cuts like a knife – Scissor care from a sharpening professional →

Sewing Machines, VSM Repair

PSA: Sometimes it’s not what it seems with your seams

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So today I sat down at my industrial to sew a couple of hems.  Yes, overkill but I like to exercise my machines a little sometimes. 😉  Immediately after sitting down, I noticed tension and stitch length problems.

Strangely, this photo doesn’t really show that there are 2 hems here.   Stitch lines 2 and 4 are the problem hems.  The bottom one is the most obvious, you can see loops and the stitch length kept changing. Continue reading PSA: Sometimes it’s not what it seems with your seams →