When I made the trip to visit our boy a few weeks ago, I dropped off my sewing machine as I drove through a little mountain town with a wonderful quilt shop. I blogged about the shop here:
A Quilting Stitchuation.
Jackie's husband is fastidious when he cleans machines and my old faithful sewing companion now purrs like a kitten. Honestly, it worked fine before and I didn't have any problems with it, but I had no idea how off everything was. My sewing machine was an investment a decade ago. I almost hyperventilated when I bought it because I don't spend that kind of money, but it's been a gem and I want it to last many more years and I try to take care of it. I felt awful when I saw that zippered bag, but I'm sure glad Gene is so meticulous. It was $75 well spent and stitching can now commence because there are quilts to be made!
A Quilting Stitchuation.
Jackie's husband is fastidious when he cleans machines and my old faithful sewing companion now purrs like a kitten. Honestly, it worked fine before and I didn't have any problems with it, but I had no idea how off everything was. My sewing machine was an investment a decade ago. I almost hyperventilated when I bought it because I don't spend that kind of money, but it's been a gem and I want it to last many more years and I try to take care of it. I felt awful when I saw that zippered bag, but I'm sure glad Gene is so meticulous. It was $75 well spent and stitching can now commence because there are quilts to be made!
7 comments:
Wow--that is an eye opener! Fascinating.
Once when I had my machine serviced a couple of years ago they told me there had been a lot of lint collected, even though it had only been a year since its previous service (and I clean mine out when I change bobbins, too). I wish now they had saved it for me so I could see how bad it was.
That’s horrible! I hope that’s a rarity and not the norm in cleaning jobs! I regularly get my machine cleaned too. I have a Janome too and absolutely love it! I bought a cheap machine years ago and complained about it the whole time. My husband kept telling me to go buy a good machine but I couldn’t spend that kind of money! My husband finally had enough of my complaining, went to the local sewing machine store, talked to someone, got their business card and sent me back in there to try out the different machines. I even got classes on how to use the machine. I haven’t regretted it a bit!
I watched the last time my machine was cleaned, and I recommend it, if possible. It revealed the Cadillac vs Honda cleanings I had in the past. He took the machine down to the actual interior frame - bare bones and cleaned EVERYTHING.
An unbelievable amount of lint to find after being cleaned before. Your Janome should be purring like a kitten now. Thought of you early this morning when a fast and loud T storm rolled through and left a gentle shower all morning.
I had kind of a similar situation recently. After consulting with the local shop that services my Janome, I took my new-to-me-Featherweight to them for cleaning and whatever needed to be done. They charged me $75 and kept the machine about a month. A couple months after that, I had the opportunity to take a class about caring for your Featherweight. In that class, we opened up the machine and it became apparent that the machine hadn’t been worked on in decades. Old grease, a stretched out belt and general dirtiness made it obvious to me that I had paid the shop $75 for a very incomplete job. I am discouraged to see that others have experienced similar trickery. We would like to be able to trust that people are doing what they have told us they would do, and what we are paying them to do. I’m so glad your story has a happy ending. Here’s to many more years of happy sewing!
I have a large Bernina and I only have a few places to clean, that I know. I think that machine shows you use it, a lot. Also, I hope you are using a good thread, like Aurifil.
$ 75 is a buy for a cleaning! I;m in the Phoenix, AZ area and it runs $129, unless you can find a coupon or special.
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