Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Don't Scare Me Like That!

October can be a scary month filled with jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and goblins. These fools are nothing compared to the fear and dread of your sewing machine (for the first time in your life) not working. Last week, I lowered my feed dogs to work on something and when I went to raise them, they would not come back up. I read my manual and did as it said. I lifted the presser foot, flipped the feed dog lever to its raised position, and turned the handwheel until I was supposed to hear the feed dogs snap into place. The lever didn't engage. The feed dogs didn't snap into place. Nothing was working.

When TK heard my moans of desperation, he came and asked what the problem was. Through my anger and frustration I tried to explain what was going on and that I needed the feed dogs to be in their raised position so that my fabric would be pulled through the machine properly. He proceeded to commandeer the machine's screwdriver and rip apart my baby.

I warned him repeatedly to not mess with the bobbin and that if my thread's tension was off or destroyed at the end of this, we would have serious issues. I have every confidence in my husband's ability with tools and his ability to discover the inner workings and mechanics of most things. I do. But there is a whole industry in sewing machine repair and I didn't want to take any risks, especially with several projects lined up in my sewing queue.

He persisted. And persisted. And persisted. In the end, I had a machine that was working, feed dogs raised, bobbin/tension intact, and a very proud and accomplished husband. Evidently it was a more complicated issue than just what I had thought, but my hero worked it out. Ye of little faith! I breathed a huge sigh of relief and immediately got to work sewing to make up for lost time.

14 comments:

Alissa said...

Oh how great he was able to fix it!! I have nightmares of the day my machine lets me down...

Anonymous said...

So glad he got it working! Loss of a sewing machine is a nightmare! I have been there. We only have 1 working machine for three seamstresses in the house. Cry!

Melissa said...

YIKES! I'm so glad he was able to fix it. I can imagine how nervous you were!

Amy and Andrew said...

I like boys who fix stuff.

Erika said...

I thought mine was broken a couple of weeks ago. The needle wouldn't move--up or down. I tried the pedal and the hand wheel-y thing. I managed to fix it somehow.

simplicity said...

Your hero worked it out. I love that.

Swedish Colombian said...

You are one brave woman, and you two must have some serious trust happening there!

Back in the day (before you and half your readers were born, I'll wager!), I used to sew a little, and my machine got a little messed up, so that bobbin tension ended up being as elusive as the Holy Grail.

I sure could have used a TK about then.......

Amy said...

Would you mind if I borrowed him for a few hours?

The Blonde Duck said...

Awww! Hooray for men who can fix things!

peanenluv78 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
peacenluv78 said...

fabric bandit? totally feel you on that, haha. i wish my bf could be as handy...haha.

ryc: thanks so much! hopefully there will be more!

lgaumond said...

How bizarre. The same exact thing happened to me last night. Minus the fixy husband - mine was sleeping.

What a terrifying thing when the machine stops working. Especially when you're on a roll (and it makes a loud "THUNK" like mine did).

I'm glad we both got our machines working again. I started to wonder if I'd be hand-stitching all of my Christmas presents (gah! I can't even imagine.)

amylouwhosews said...

Ugh, I hate when things you need stop working. . .

I had to tear my machine apart the other day to inspect the lightbulb apparatus. Long story - but I had to superglue the socket back in place so I can continue to easily change the bulb. I should have just read the owner's manual in the first place...

Michelle in Parkton said...

I had that exact thing happen to my machine (exact same machine). I've had to send it to the fix-it man because my repair job just did more damage.