But today it's my sewing machine. I've been having trouble with the tension, with the thread breaking and generally being stopped every five minutes with some little problem. Finally I decided to stop making my self irritable I put the machine, which is only about 3 years old, aside and pulled out the one it replaced -- a Riccar (which I only in the last few years learned is basically a Bernina made in Japan, circa 1960) which I've had literally for 50 years. It has sewn maybe millions of miles of seams -- well, certainly many hundreds of thousands. It was beginning to limp, the presser foot lift is sometimes a problem, it rattles and makes a lot of noise and probably would stop if I got it a general tune up. The feed dogs seemed to be stuck. Well, I solved the last problem this morning. I found a lot of lint under the feed dogs and removed it and they are working just fine.
So, the new machine goes to a service place one day this week and the work I have to do today and tomorrow and the rest of the week will be done on the old machine and possibly I will take it in for a tune up the day I pick up the newer one. The older machine was made to last. It has only a couple of plastic parts, it weighs at least fifty pounds. It does nothing fancy -- simply zigzags other than straight sewing. But it's the kind of machine I really like. Made to last and it has lasted.
No computer today is made to last; they're all made to be superceded by the next model. And, indeed, my MacBook which I've been quite happy with, is about two versions behind and I'm beginning to long for a new one, slightly bigger. I don't want more bells and whistles, I just want to know I have the memory and that nothing is going to go badly wrong all of a sudden in the middle or something important. I have many younger members of my family who are far more competent than I on computers. But the truth is no one in the family is more competent on sewing machines than I -- when I arrive at a problem I can't solve, as today, I go to the white pages -- yes, they still exist -- and look for help.
2 comments :
Problems with brand of thread is sometimes the trouble. Some machines cannot stand some threads. I found that out with my 40 year old work horse Pfaff.
Also. tension plates have to be cleaned periodically, as some threads have a coating that makes them slick but can accumulate between tension plates.
I know you are an expert seamstress, and used to your machines so i thought I'd just mention a couple of off the wall type things I've encountered in my experience.
Thank you, Zippi, I've heard lectures about these things and I did find a couple of threads that caused problems. Mostly I expect machines to WORK -- period. I don't do fancy thread painting or other stuff like that. BTW, that icon of yours is very cute.
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