Sewing Machine Breakage, Fixture, and I Think It is Thursday…

Yesterday, I had a small hiccup with the button machine.   Basically I kept breaking needles and was forced to take it apart after struggling to get the last few stockings finished.  I have experience this before as the tension spring slips and causes the string to seize up.   This forced the needle to pull one way or another and hit the base plate…..”Plink!”   another broken needle.    At $1 each, it starts becoming expensive….and nerve wracking as the stash of emergency needles begins to dwindle and you are down to your last one with the nearest store closing in 10 minutes! 

Luckily  I survived.  We finished the stockings for the day using Cheryl’s Old sewing machine.   The back up to the back up.   It also pulls double duty as a bobbin threader.   Cheryl has been wanting to get rid of the thing…but yesterday….By “Pack- Rattery” paid off if only for a moment.  It is not as “customized” as my machine is for buttons…but It still managed to pull through.  After it was all over, I took both machines totally apart and oiled them up to a smooth running tick.

So today we had only 31 stockings, but still managed to finish around 7 pm.   yesterday we actually had more ( 34 total) and managed to fit in an Iowa City visit.  By the way…I think it is Thursday!   I swear the days are blending together now and I can’t seem to keep the cycle straight.    I guess time flies when you are having fun.   That would naturally lead you to believe that time slows down when you are NOT having fun.  ( i.e. working!)   By this definition….I guess making stockings is “fun” and not really “work”.  But I’m not really feeling that at the moment.

  Of the 31 stockings today,  only three did NOT have names.  The rest were  a mix of ( mostly ) embroidery and even some old glitter names.   I’m almost ashamed of the old glitter names now that we have the PE 770 Embroidery  Machine.   The Embroidery looks WAY more professional. 

So, as mentioned previously,  I sew on the buttons with the sewing machine.   It’s fairly easy.    I modified the button foot to hold the buttons the way I want them to be.  It’s light years faster than if Cheryl has to sew them on by hand.  The only bad part is if the machine decided to mess around for a day and that sends us into panic mode until we figure out the problem. 

By this time though,  I have a pretty good idea on most of the “problems” associated with this particular machine ( the Singer tradition)   It is a simple machine and easy to take apart and put back together. Knowing the “in’s and out’s”  of the machine help you trouble shoot things rather than have to call an expensive repairman.   Also it helps that I’m a frugal scrooge that never wants to give hard earned money away when I have the opportunity to educate myself on something new.  Namely:   How to fix a sewing machine with nothing but a screwdriver! 

So now, we are caught up with several custom orders that have been waiting on the shelves for their “unique designer” to come purchase them.  We still have several custom orders on the shelves that I’m sure we will never see those people again.  It is moments like that that make me think that this “fun” argument  previously discussed is flawed somehow

And as I write this and wind down for the evening,  I’m drinking ESB Schlafly Beer.   The ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter.   Which is deceptive as it is actually quite smooth and fruity with only a faint hint of bitter at the end.  We found this in our “Schlafly Hopped UP” 6 pack as a stowaway.  I’m sure either somebody was haivng fun and slipped a few bottles into other 6 pack containers to “mix things up”  I’m not too upset about it.  After all I enjoy finding and tasting new beers and sometimes I don’t want to pay for a full 6 pack of an unknown.  However,  the Alcohol content on this guy is only 5.8 %.   It’s good for an “after work beer”  because I really don’t need any more help to feel drowsy at the moment.

So that is it!  Stockings, Sewing, and beer!   ( Sometimes…. And only after the work is finished.)  It was a fairly busy day and I’m looking forward to a nice hot bath and maybe an anime later.  In the mean time…I’ll leave you with the shop cat…who occasionally hangs out in the studio in his pile of ruffled packing paper.  

Rain and Stockings. An Adventure in Sewing Machine Repair

It has been raining here in Iowa.  Over the last several days, it has maintained a gloomy "threatening" atmosphere of rain, even though it only started late in the afternoon on Sunday. I can not really stress enough how lucky we were that the rain held off for the entire race on Saturday, especially since it rained on us on Friday.   But rest assured, rain.  Here in Iowa.   For the rest of the week, at least.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to the rain.  The rain keeps me mostly inside and away from sidewalk chalk or any other outdoor activities.   And even then,  when we run and bike ( which we did this morning)  I dislike being wet and cold... even when we get the entire trail to ourselves and get to experience the great outdoors  in the cool temps. 

On the other hand, I have been wishing for rain for a while now.   First,  it clears off the sidewalks of all the chalk we had put down over the last month.   Second.  Mushrooms!   They usually sprout up after a good soaker.   And finally,  It allows me to focus on "Indoor things" that I have been putting off for the last few months.  I should also note that the entire area, including the rivers, could use the moisture.  The river is pretty low this year.  As are many of the local ponds.   A little bit of rain would certainly help. 

We have been busy with stockings over the last couple days.  We did 15 stockings yesterday and 7 today,  with a whole bunch more "show and tells"   Cheryl is a little concerned about our future, since the "pandemic"has made our dreams of "getting back into the work force" seem pretty unlikely and futile at the moment.  This means we have to make as much money over the next few months as possible! Even with the inevitable rise of Inflation!

The Button Machine

But back to reality!  I was on my last stocking yesterday when my button machine stopped working.  I call it the "button Machine" because I have modified the Singer Tradition to do exclusively buttons.  And everything is "just how I like it."   Imagine my horror when it stopped working!

Well, with the rain keeping me inside, what better time than the present to take the machines apart and do a little upkeep and maintenance.   The button machine is pretty much built out of spare parts already, so I simply had to take it apart to see which "wrong" part was failing.  

Turns out, it was the Spring for the hand wheel.  ( I actually don't know  most of the real names to most of the parts on the sewing machine.)   It works like this:  When you step on the pedal, the spring tightens around the main shaft, causing the machine to push the needle up and down. The Spring also allows the shaft to "slip" if the needle hits something hard;  Protecting the gears from any permanent damage. When you want to thread a bobbin, you slide the bobbin winder over and it moved a stopping arm over to keep the spring from tightening.  This causes the bobbin to wind and keeps the main drive shaft from spinning.   

I had "fixed it" so that the spring was permanently tightening around the shaft.  Meaning: every time the bobbin threader was winding bobbins, the shaft would continue to move.  Annoying!  Yes, but functional.   I was forced to do this because the spring became unwound a long time ago, and I was forced to shorten it. Eventually, I inherited it from Cheryl and made it mine.  

All that explanation to say, I simply bent the spring back into shape and put everything back together.  It works WITH the bobbin part working properly.  Why I had not fixed it properly before I can only imagine was because I did not have any tools 10 years ago. ( Yes! It has worked all this time, sewing thousands of buttons each year without any hitches.  Pun intended!) Not to bad for a non-sewing Machine Mechanic...

The shop cats continue to "help" and the rain continues to fall.  Cheryl has another run coming up and I wanted to blog a little between  races.  Seems like I have only been blogging about her lately.   but that only means that nothing terribly exciting has been happening in the mean time.   If you managed to read this entire boring post, I applaud you. Writing about sewing machine repair to non-sewers is similar to a surgeon describing brain surgery! Or a Computer nerd talking about Binary code! Your eyes glass over, you nod in agreement, and then slowly move away to another conversation you can  actually follow. 

But thanks for bearing with me.   Perhaps something more fun will happen this week and I will be motivated to actually blog about it.   In the mean time, thanks for stopping in.

42 Stocking Monday.

A quick post as it is currently 12:14 in the AM and I’m still wired, but have to wind down before it gets even more late. 

So first:   We finally finished 42 stockings…..as the title of this post suggests.   Mondays are always rather frantic.  Maybe it is because people have had the entire weekend to settle in and Sunday they log on and surf for Christmas stuff they could not find at the mall.   Who knows?   What I DO know is when I looked at this very blog a year ago, Past Ethan and Cheryl were having the same problems we are currently having.  We may be down in sales slightly from last year, but the numbers and the troubles were about the same as this year.  And who knows!   There is still time left this year to pull off a miracle and perhaps catch up to last years number.   We shall see.    Then again, That would mean even more days like today…..Hmmmm..

  The night was going smoothly,  we had our errands in Iowa City   ( probably should have stayed home today though) When we got back,  The Sewing machine I was geeking about a few days ago….decided to get back to being fussy.   Luckily I finished the day using the back up sewing machine….but not before Cheryl's “Hello Kitty” machine decided to suddenly stop before the last 8 stockings had their tops on!   What to do!

Well.  After slugging through the last few stockings and finishing up the order….and having way too much afternoon coffee.  I decided it was time for “Handy Man Allen” to work his magic!   I decided to work on Cheryl's machine first.  easy enough….She has thread wrapped around the tension arm that causes the machine to sieze up.   A couple of cotter pins and and a quick brush and the machine should be good as new! 

About an hour later….I finally have the cotter pins off…and the entire machine sprawled all over my area.  But the string is clear and the machine moves like normal.  I reassemble and wipe everything down.  only to plug it in and have it NOT WORK!   No Lights, No humm……nothing.    Cheryl was not very impressed. 

I take it apart,  look things over….decide nothing is broken and plug it back in….It WORKS!   no Idea why it was messing with me. 

Time to fix mine.   Take it apart. ( I’m a champ by now) And find that the tension disk has slid off a small guide arm….causing it to pinch and release the thread at inappropriate moments.   ( namely…when putting on buttons)   Hopefully I finally have that one fixed and we can run the special button machine once more. 

And finally.   Godzilla was a DUD!   Maybe if I was 8 years old again…. but as an adult I guess I’m thinking that the story could have been done much better.  in the end….monsters destroy everything…Godzilla fights them and…after winning,  retires to the pacific once more.  I’m not sure…but I think there were actors in that movie.  I guess I’m nostalgic for guys in rubber suits having a wrestle mania in a miniature model city…

Hello Kitty Sewing Machine…With Bugs

Origami Bugs, that is.  A few days ago, my sewing machine had been acting screwy and Cheryl finally had enough of my complaining.  She offered to purchase another sewing machine..for herself….and gave me her old one.   Lovely!  Actually,  ever since we saw the Hello Kitty sewing machine at Target, we knew we had to have it.  I blogged about getting it in previous years, and now, it had finally become available again.  We just needed a little nudge to justify the purchase.

Cheryl loves it…it has more power than the old one with less lint build up.   Time will tell, of coarse, how it hold up under the grueling stocking sewing season.

In other news, I finished folding up a few bugs to add to mu shop.  There are cardstock, but I think they turned out pretty good.  Enjoy! 

Origami Bugs VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Oh!  And stockings are picking up…sort of.  Today was a rather long day. Probably because we took yesterday off and had to catch things up.  Perhaps not the best choice, but we pulled though and are now back up to par.  The thing is, sales are down from last year and last month..   I’m not sure what is going on in the world at the moment, but people are being a little more fickle with stocking purchases.  We shall see how the season hold out.  In the mean time,   More and more names are in the future. 

End of the Week... End of the Season!

Wrapping up the season.

 Mostly!  Cheryl closed the shop at the beginning of the week and we have spent the majority of it catching up orders that were behind.  Yesterday we spent most of the day sewing up custom orders and replacing "lost orders" or damaged stockings.  Today was the first day we were able to take a breath and "almost" get back to a somewhat normal routine. ( what is normal, again? ) 

Adding in A few Replacements.

So the shop is mostly closed down, but there are a few "Custom Requests"  we will be working on this weekend.  But tomorrow,  Cheryl wants to spend the entire day NOT looking at the shop and instead... running in Muscatine. 

Running in the rain.

Speaking of running...  Today, it has rained for pretty much the entire day.    This did not stop Cheryl though, as running is the only thing that "relaxes" her at this time of year.  We ran in Coralville for a change, as I'm sure the Kewash trail would have been a muddy mess... AND we happened to have to do a few errands at the bank.  

Good Stocking therapy.

Running in the rain is always a fun way to experience misery.   To get the Full experience,  you should really go running out in the rain... while it is cold ( preferably just above the freezing mark.)   With a strong head wind.    Do that enough times and you can shave off a mile or two from the run to get the full miserable treatment.  

I mentioned that we have been "replacing" lost or destroyed stockings.   The lost ones we can do nothing about.  The "Mishandled" ones that are currently sitting in Cedar Rapids are simply delayed and hopefully will get moving after this rush is over. 

Don't use blades on Stockings.

But every now and then one of the stockings gets damaged.   Either by an excited dog or a knife-wielding husband.  Case in point.   A  couple days ago,  a customer was distraught that her hubby "cut off the tip of the custom stocking she had purchased!"  She was very angry at him.   Thankfully, it was only one of the two stockings she ordered so we were able to sew up another one and send it on its way.  But I wanted to have a little fun with this one,  choosing to acknowledge that men do dumb things sometimes...  I should know...  I am a man... ( Most of the time)   So I included a warning label with this package to prevent another incident and possibly save their marriage.   

OR Torches!

However,  with every effort to make things "idiot proof,"  Murphy's Law dictates that "they" will find a "Better Idiot."   So.. as a Back up,  I prepared this small 4 panel instruction on what might also be possible.   IF she sees her hubby rummaging around for something in the garage..  be warned!

The next disaster was a dog that must have been eager for the treats inside the stocking.   The Customer says he tore up the stocking and it needed to be replaced, but we closed the shop.  Upon seeing that this happened just a few days ago,  Cheryl decided to ship out out for free.  ( don't tell anyone.)   But since this was a dog and not a husband, she refused to let me have any fun with my "dog meme" that I had just printed.

Working the Machines...Hard!

And lastly,  the breaking of the Machine.  As mentioned before,  I broke my super specialized button sewing machine after 10 years of  continuous seasonal use. Thankfully,  We have a number of machines in reserve that I occasionally scavenge parts from.  I was able to replace the button foot post with a similar one from one of Cheryl's Hello Kitty Machines.  (She has replaced both of them now.)  

Not Manly...

I wanted to write up a dramatic reason on how I broke it with my Hard, Masculine sewing, but when I tried to find a picture that could offer a visual,  all they offered me was a rather "un-masculine"  unmanly man. 

Now that IS Manly...

Without Bob Vila or "Tim the Toolman",  I was left with only Rambo sewing up his arm with a rusty needle.   And as cool and  "MANLY" as that might seem,  there is no sewing machine anywhere to be seen.   NOW!   Rambo sewing up his arm with a Modified Singer Sewing machine....  Now THAT would  be Manly!

Petitsfours

There are other stories of Cats, clouds, and Christmas Presents, but I see this blog post is getting long. Perhaps I will reflect upon those things another day if something else has not moved them to the back of my mind.

Leo the Part-Timer.

I wanted to at least mention that a Year ago today ( or at least close enough)  I took Leo to get fixed by the vet and he has been a "Part-Time Indoor cat" ever since. Has it really been an entire year?   He has certainly come around to a feisty cuddle bum who has "pudged up" since that time.  Looks like Part-time Domestic Life agrees with him.  Hopefully for many years to come.