Sewing 1.0

After I saved up money for a few months, Kirk bought me a Bernina sewing machine for Christmas. It is the basic model (Activa 220), but seems to be nice. I've sewed all of one pair of pajama bottoms for Edward so far. When you purchase a machine, you also can take a six-session sewing class at the store. I went to the first class last Saturday and found it to be very helpful. Here are a few things that I learned--that weren't in the instruction book which came with the machine: 1. Change your needle after every 4-6 hours of sewing. Obviously, you can estimate how much time you spent actually running the machine. 2. Clean your machine after every 6-8 hours, or about every other needle change, unless you are sewing with fuzzy material. Then you can clean more often. I learned how to take the machine apart and where to put the drop of oil. (You would think that this would be in the instruction book, but it wasn't.) 3. Use high quality thread and throw away your old thread if it breaks easily. European-made thread often uses a longer staple than domestic thread. The cheaper it is, the worse it is. 4. When you put on new thread, don't pull off the old thread through the machine; cut the thread near the spool and pull the cut piece off at the needle. This avoids introducing even more lint into the machine. 5. Don't blow into your machine to clean it out. 6. If you know how to use your accessories and the different feet, it can make your sewing much, much easier. 7. The descriptions of some of the programmed stitches in the book don't make much sense until someone explains them to you. I think my next sewing project is a pair of pajama bottoms for Andrew.