I
had just begun to sew when my Singer XL1000 started making a
horrible noise. I called my resident handyman, who dropped
everything to take her downstairs to his workbench for
troubleshooting. Fortunately, I have a backup machine, my trusty old
Singer Athena that I haven't used in several years. I pull her out
of the closet, dust her off and, well, she's making an awful noise
too!
OK,
fine. My mama's basic Singer Simplicity is sitting under my sewing
table. She will do for what I want to sew today. I set her up,
threaded bobbins, and you guessed it...more growling noises! What in
the world?
I
check downstairs, where Jerold had my good machine apart on his
bench. This will take a while, he says. So, I head back to the
sewing room and start my own mission to fix the Simplicity. I found
a maintenance manual online, got my tool kit and went to work. Next
thing you know, I have this machine apart on my craft table. I had
the back, sides, and top off; I oiled, dusted, changed needles, made
some adjustments and put her back together. VOILA! She's humming
right along now.
Me
upstairs and him downstairs, both of us doing sewing machine repairs.
Maybe we should have taped this for submission as a new reality show.
The XL had a lot of lint jammed way down inside, which threw
something out of alignment. After lots of tricky and fiddly
adjustments, my man saved the day and fixed her. Athena had a loose
wire on her circuit board, and unfortunately a cracked gear, which
may eventually cause her demise.
Thankfully
for now all are up and running like sewing machines should. I'll need
to blow lint out of the XL after every project, and use my backup
machines more often to keep their mechanisms lubricated. Any
solution that requires more sewing is just fine with me.
The
experience was challenging but extremely fulfilling. I'm lucky to
have a husband who's willing and more than able to work on nearly
anything. I'm thankful that I'm mechanically inclined and capable
enough to fix a few items on my own. The down side to fixing them is
that I missed a chance to buy a fancy new machine...
“If
we all did the things we are capable of doing,
we
would literally astound ourselves.”
--Thomas Edison
“Never
underestimate the power
of
a woman with a sewing machine.”
--Unknown
