 Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Skillshare session on sewing machine repair and maintenance. It's my absolute pleasure to welcome back Jenny Caminada this evening. For more than 10 years Jenny has run Cheeky Handmaid, where she teaches people how to sew and look after the sewing machines. Jenny has also run some of our most popular skillshares in the past, again about sewing machines, so we're really delighted to welcome her back this evening. She's a real expert, so it's a real treat to have her talking to us this evening. So, without further ado, I'd like to hand over to Jenny. Jenny, the floor is yours. Jenny is still muted. There you go. I'm unmuted now. Yes, I mean the other thing I totally forgot to say James that the other thing I have been doing which is also very repair related is I've been repairing and restoring vintage quilts in the last few years and lots of them, which is amazing. So I know it's got nothing to do with sewing machines, but it's, you know, people would otherwise have thrown things in the bin and now they come to me and I restored them. So that's beautiful, beautiful thing to do. But yeah, so my passion is repairing and making sure that people can and enabling people to repair themselves, you know, I don't always want people to come to me with the basic stuff. I'm much happier if people know how to look after their sewing machines. The basic looking after your sewing machine is really, really simple. I mean, ultimately it all starts with having a decent ish sewing machine so there are certain brands that are just literally sold and they are, you know, they to never work very well so some things just can't be repaired and that is sad and I wish that those things wouldn't be sold at all because they're not even cheap and ultimately in the end of course they're very expensive because you can't fix them. But most sewing machines don't take is not difficult to look after them. So I want to just I'm going to put my camera on a flip the screen around and I'm going to put it in my other stand so that we can get straight in. Because it seems like we have a lot of time but remarkably it flies. So there we go. So I have got to some change set up here. Just because they both have different bobbin systems everything else is the same. And I'm just going to mainly concentrate on this one but I'll show you the bobbin on the other one as well. So I first want to start with the biggest problem with sewing machines the most. The biggest reason why people come to me with some machines that are not working or not working very well is the needle that they use and I had an interesting chat with a sewing machine repair shop in the north of England online today, where they did exactly that and they posted a picture of a needle that somebody had in their sewing machine and the needle wasn't straight as in here. Let me try and zoom in a little bit more. I don't know why it won't zoom in anyway I'll just bring this a bit closer to the front of the needle. There's an eye and this needle, the eye was set off slightly to the side and of course that's never going to work very well. I'm really surprised at how many needles are utter rubbish straight out of the packet. A friend of mine bought some needles on the local markets, and some of them didn't have an eye, and some of them didn't even have a point so that's obviously not even a needle, but lots of needles you buy them, and they are rough at the point and they of course your machine shows it incredibly high speed and what it does is it has a very not narrow margin of error, it needs to pick up that Bob in Fred at high speed. If the needle at the bottom is slightly blunt or a bit barbed, you know, in any way rough or like I said if the need, the eye is set off to the side. There are needles that are up to a millimeter too short. Now if the needle isn't long enough, it just won't go in and pick up that Bob in Fred. So, over the years, I've tested and discarded all sewing machine needles and the only make that I use now is Schmetsch. And interestingly, the shops are exactly the same. So, you can't usually buy them in shops, you know on the high street or anything, not not even big department stores or sewing machine shops, sorry, sewing shops. So I buy mine online and I buy them in big boxes of 100, because honestly, even, you know, good quality needles they need to be replaced every six sewing hours and if you are, if you've hit a pin, or you've done some really chunky seams or you've gone through a fabric with which has metallic threads in it, it will be blunt much more quickly or damaged even so if you do find that your machine has been working fine and suddenly it's behaving badly so you might have loops at the back of your fabric, or it might be skipping stitches. I guarantee you, it will be the needle I'm going to try and bring this a little bit near I don't know why it won't zoom in, but there you go. And to do every now and then it's just run my finger in fact I'm going to run my pinky finger around the bottom of the needle it should feel completely smooth it's going to put the handle up a little bit higher. It also should be sharp enough to pick up the skin of your finger still. Okay, if I do those two things isn't happening if you feel any kind of burrs, or if the needle isn't sharp anymore, replace it because it will not be working very well. But do always make sure you have spare needles because there's nothing more frustrating than having to carry on with a needle that's damaged and is causing problems, because you don't have another one to hand, so have a bunch of needles to hand always. And if you are sewing, and if you're naughty like me where sometimes you leave your pins in, and you go slowly obviously because if you go fast over a pin you can absolutely kill your machine. If you go slowly, and your needle hits a pin, then you will probably have to replace it straight away. So you might be able to limp to the end of that particular scene but that's the end of that then. So, good quality needles so smash needles come in as with all needles really lots of different sizes so it's got the size on the front of the box there. So it has lots of different kinds of needles, so for Jersey fabric and leather and universal needles. So I'm just using a universal one here, I tend to use size 90 for pretty much everything, unless I'm making jeans. So, if you look at a sewing machine needle it's got a flat bit and around a bit so the flat bit of the shaft of the needle needs to go in towards the back of the machine, unless you have a really old sewing machine. So if you have a machine where the bobbin is to the left hand side of the needle, then your needle will also go in turned so the neat the flat bit of the needle really points away from the bobbin area. So like I said if it's all put inside ways, very, very rarely you might have a really old singer so machine where the needle goes in the other way around so you would further up from the right to the left. Often though it will have a little marking on this on the stitch plate here it will have a little arrow, because honestly the first time I came across that I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. And it's because the needle was in a very unusual way, but nowadays 99% of machines if not more the needle is the bobbin is facing you know it's in front of the needle, and the flat bit of the needle faces away from you so you. questions already. Okay, yeah. Take a few. So the first ones from Elaine, who asked, yeah, what needles are best to use on leather. Leather needles are the only ones that you can use on leather they're basically slightly triangular shaped and they cut a slit into the lever if you just cut a hole. It doesn't work very well so you need special leather needles, and you might have to buy them online you might not find them in you know your sort of local fabric shop. I'm struggling getting this needle in because I've got my my camera is kind of in the way. I have to move this out of the way a little bit so I can get my hands in there. Yeah, so there is lots of different kinds of needles you can get. And I mean I don't so with leather you kind of need a special foot as well so but like a Teflon e-foot that doesn't. Doesn't stick to your leather. There we go we're in. So there we go. Yes. Any other questions. Yeah. We have three more actually so yeah question from Rob are all needles the same length for all machines. Pretty much yes nowadays so there's some very very very old so machines where the needles the top of the needle is circular and the whole needle was very thin. You can still buy them there is still a company that makes them, but unless your machine is sort of pre 1920s you're unlikely to need one of those they're very fragile and super expensive. All machines have different sewing machine needles they have a round shank all the way up so don't ever try and use those in your domestic machines they're a different size. I do believe that some needles I think organ needles are specific to Japanese sewing machines, and they're ever so slightly shorter, but I found that mostly quite blunt nowadays as well so I don't use them at all anymore but they all modern sewing machines unless it's an industrial machines, all needles will fit all machines. So that's good to know right. That's great to know. Yeah. Just two more. So, yeah, question from me. He's wondering about ballpoint needles and whether they're less sharp the normal ones and if they can they get blunt too. Well they're blunt to start with they're basically when you look at them up close they have a ballpoint and, and they are specifically for sewing with knitted fabric so what they do is they don't cut a hole in the fabric they actually pushed in between the freds. And, you know, if you imagine you, you snag a hole in a pair of types and it starts laddering. If you use the normal needle on Jersey then there's every chance you end up with little holes where the needle has punctured the freds. And so a Jersey needle will just push those freds aside. I don't use them often enough I've never actually really thought about whether they can get blondes yes I'm sure well they kind of blunt to start with so they probably will last a lot longer. Actually, because these these are also called sharps and they have to be super sharp but yeah good question. I'm not 100% sure how long you can make them last but probably quite a bit longer. But I also tend to do if I'm using a different needle for different projects I just take this one out I don't throw it. I've got one of those cheap tomato pin cushions and I've marked different sizes and I just put my needles in there for safekeeping and then I could just go back and reuse them. And I do always test them I always before I put them back in and just make sure they're still sharp and still smooth. Brilliant. Perfect. And then the final one for now. Edel asks, regarding bullpoint needles. Yeah, also seen stretch needles. I wonder what the difference is. Yes, I've never, I'm never entirely sure what the difference is either this in fact loads of different kinds of needles that you can use on knitted fabric so I was doing a little bit of reading up today I've been using different kinds of fabric for a text needle so they're specifically for fabric that have some sort of elastic in them such as lycra or what have you. So they are super super super sharp and super thin. So they don't get kind of caught on the elastic because otherwise, you might find that you get a bit of drag on the needle as it goes in and comes out and it starts skipping stitches because it's literally being slowed down by a nanosecond as it goes in and out. I've never I kind of use ballpoint you know the Jersey and the stretch ones interchangeably I've never actually figured out what the difference is I'm sure there is one, but you often find that you can just use them interchangeably. It's just a case of giving a go but recently I've been making a few swimsuits obviously because I'm going on holiday and so they definitely need micro text needles or even non stick. Micro text needles because the elastic in the swimsuit material just you know you you just can't so a straight line without it skipping all over the place. Good to know, thank you. Yeah. That's it for questions for for now, some folks in the chat from people. Yeah. So I would say 90 90% of sewing machine repairs are due to, you know, I just changed the needle and they're basically fine again. So, which is kind of heartbreaking because I would like people to understand and I've got it on my website and at the bottom of my email address, please just change your needle before you call me because it's probably that. People don't generally believe me they want to, you know, think that there's something a bit more hideously wrong with their sewing machine, but honestly it resolves so many problems. And, you know, the other thing is sometimes you just need to refread your sewing machine because it might just be that it's not entirely caught in one of the, you know, gobbins is all Hicks or what have you so if you think that it's definitely not the needle you've got a new needle in there, you're being a bit weird that just refread the whole lot take the bobbin out to put it back on. So, which brings me to, well, actually let's do things in order so Fred is also incredibly important. So I'm going to show you some Fred that you shouldn't use this lovely stuff here is vintage Fred. So the problem with vintage Fred it's it's often cotton and cotton rots over time as we are all aware when you've picked up a vintage sheet or a vintage and literally you just pull it apart. So vintage Fred often just has no strength left in it at all. And there is a lot of tension that goes on to the Fred during it goes through the sewing machine. So cotton Fred is a no no, and you can buy modern cotton friends to you can buy friends that you know specifically for quilting or what have you. And they're just not very strong. So if I had so in great but I know people I love you know I only use cotton to sew with as in make you know cotton fabric, but I would never use cotton Fred is just not strong enough. And it often snaps as it goes through your machine. The other absolute no no is this nonsense from the pound shop. So it looks, you know you, it looks like you might be getting a good deal because you get 24 colors for a pound but actually there's almost no Fred on there. It is terrible quality. Often the end of the school is really barbed and your friend will kind of snap as it comes off so no thank you that can go straight in the bin. There I confiscate these when I have students turn up or people with broken so machines. They actually go right you're not allowed to have that back because that should never go near a sewing machine. So, the stuff that I move on. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. We've got one final question on needles before we dive into threads. Yeah. And it's a question from Gwen who asks is there a method to check whether the needle is straight. Whenever I just tend to look at it by eye, to be honest, I mean if you have any doubt you would also know the whole that the needle goes into isn't very big, really. So if your needle is hitting the stitch plate and instantly change it. Okay. So I would say if you if you are in any doubt at all that you need it is straight. If you've hit something with it if it's hit the foot or it's hit a button or it's hit the stitch plate. You should change it anyway you should never really risk putting it back in because you can end up causing really severe damage if your needle is hitting the stitch plate, you know over and over. So, I would say if you're not entirely sure just chuck it and start again I mean the needles are like 10 pH or something so I would not, I would not risk it. Let's quickly back to Fred then good makes a Fred so I tend to use. I mean this stuff is cheap this is from the market this like 70p or something for 500 meters. It's absolutely fine for pretty much everything and then if you want to splash out there's good to man, if you can see it properly, good to man Fred or coats duet Fred so they are I mean there's loads of other brands out there and you can spend a fortune on Fred's, but those are easily found in most shops. They're super strong they're very smooth. So they're just really easy to use and your machine will love you for it so those are good friends to use and they don't have to cost a lot of money. But yes stay away from the pan shop stuff and then just very quickly the other thing that's often I've got a whole box of bobbins that I've had to take off people. So these are all the bobbins that have come out of some machines where the bobbins were just the wrong size for the machine. So not all bobbins are the same size so this is a standard bobbin. You can get them either in plastic or in metal. I think they're called class 15. So this is pretty much a universal bobbin for machines nowadays. Okay. So very case you so fast so machines I think this might be a fast bobbin so it's actually slightly less tall than a normal bobbin and some of them also slightly wider so be very, very, very careful that you don't put the wrong bobbin in your so machine. Obviously, if your machine takes a shallow bobbin and you put a taller one in your lender breaking something. If you put a bobbin in that's too small so this one is really dirty. It's really small, it's got curved edges. It's too shallow compared to the other ones and it's also not wide enough. So if you put this in a normal bobbin case, then it just moves around whilst it's working you know acid sowing, and it causes all kinds of tension issues. So, often people just go well, you know, I've inherited all this stuff from my auntie and I'm just using all the bobbins that are in the basket, and then you find a whole collection of random bobbins. So be very, very careful. Also don't buy bobbins from the pound shop or even the market I bought bobbins, or I've seen bobbins rather where the edges are really rough. This needs to be smooth otherwise your friend will just snag and break. I've also seen bobbins where the hole in the middle isn't big enough to go on to the bobbin winding system so obviously that makes it quite a difficult bobbin to use. So you do make sure and if there is any snags on your bobbin, if somebody stood on it, then you know throw it away, probably, or what I do use and this is the tool that I use a lot of my sewing machine so this is, this is the my main repair tool. It's a nail file chip nail file. And so if there is any snags on the bobbin on a plastic bobbin case, you just file it off file it down until it's nice and smooth again. But obviously if somebody stood on and there's jaggedy edges, then it just needs to go because it causes untone problems. And so then the other thing I want to sort of jump onto is the damage that can happen when you hit the needle on the stitch plate or gets the needle trapped in the bobbin case. So this bobbin system here the drop in bobbin is more and more and more common so the other bobbin system I'll just leave this, leave my camera across for a minute. So this bobbin system here, front loading bobbin system with a metal bobbin. It's a bit more of a pain to thread up and you can't see how much thread is on the bobbin so if you run out. It's not a bobbin machine, but it's a really strong system you can take all of this apart will come to that in a minute I'll take it all apart. You can take it all apart, clean it out, put it back together and it will it's virtually in the structable, whereas these bobbin systems. I mean this is a ridiculously expensive sewing machine I'm working on here, and the bobbin system is fragile, it's just not not a strong bobbin system so. What can happen is, in fact I'll show you the bobbin case I've just had to replace so I've had this machine a year and a half and I'm super careful with things obviously I don't get things trapped I don't break needles really, but this is the state of this bobbin case I don't know if you can see. It's got rough edges all along here where once the needle hit it and it's easily done so there's a rough edge here there's more damage around the back here where the needle has scraped all along so it's gone into the back here. I've seen bobbin cases like this where this bit here is punctured with holes from the sewing machine because it isn't very strong so the machine will easily chase the needle into that bit there. So I'm just going to lift so this machine has got a really easy way to remove the stitch plate, normally you've got screws here and your machine is usually comes with a little screwdriver like this, or even a little sort of metal triangle that removes those screws. This one, I just plop it out, so to speak, not just. As you're removing the bobbin, the plate there, Jenny, I've got a couple of questions about bobbins. Yes, go for it. The first is, which is best plastic or metal bobbins. There is no real difference so they are both equally good. If your eyesight is not perfect anymore than you might find that the holes in the metal bobbins are easier to thread up if that's how you connect your friend before sticking it on the bobbin winder. But most machines are delivered with plastic bobbins and they're perfectly fine. They just obviously don't withstand being stood on, that's really the only thing. But there is no difference in terms of, you know, what would I prefer to use. So I just use whatever is to hand. Perfect. And then the second question from Avil is if you inherited miscellaneous bobbins, how do you tell which ones are right? Yes, so the how you tell is this. I'm just going to make the machine out of the way a little bit. So if this is the correct bobbin for your machine and this is a random bobbin you've inherited, I don't know if you can see there's about a millimeter height difference. And then if you hold them together like that, these are actually the same diameter, but often you find ones that just aren't so the diameter might be completely different. So these two here, this is a vintage singer bobbin and it's actually smaller, it's smaller by about a millimeter. So I would just check the handbook if you're not entirely sure what the what bobbins your machine needs, the handbook will absolutely tell you. So nowadays the machine handbook might not tell you because they just presume that it's everyone uses the same bobbins, but on vintage machines it tends to tell you what it needs. And you can still buy these, you know, you can just go on eBay or whatever and lots of so machines shops still stock them because lots of people do still use machines they were made in the 50s 60s 70s etc etc so. So yeah, you can still buy them but do make sure that and if you're really not at 100% sure just check, you know if you put your bobbin into your bobbin case, then see if it sits nicely it shouldn't wobble around too much it shouldn't stick out it shouldn't sit too deep. So that is, you know, like a visual gauge. If your machine is working happily with the bobbin that's in there then that's probably the correct one, you will notice if it's got the wrong bobbin in it just won't work very well. So yes, these bobbin cases here they are fragile they very easily lift out and sometimes it happens when you've got some Fred is jammed you're maybe you started with the foot up or something's happened, and you've got some Fred jammed around here. Then on one of those metal bobbin cases, you just the machine just stops and you have to take everything apart to get the Fred out on these ones what can sometimes happen is that this lifts out, and then this lifts over the top so I'm just going to zoom in a little bit more. This, this thing here, this little pin on the bobbin case, this bit here needs to sit to the left of that and the bobbin case needs to be in so it sits smoothly in there. So what should never happen is that the bobbin case goes in like that, but it will, if you've accidentally pulled it out with a bunch of friends stuck in there, and it will or, you know, and it will carry on sewing even though it's not in there properly. And then what happens is the needle hits that point there, or even all the way around. And before you know it's even with someone as careful as me who knows what they're doing, you end up with the points all damaged like that. So what can often be done, I'm just going to pull my camera back a little bit again so I've got bit more space. So when I get a machine where somebody has very obviously hit, you know, broken a needle on on their machine. And often what you can do is just file that point down with with a needle file, a nail file. So if you just file it down. And if you've got any damage underneath here just file it away make sure it's smooth again. It was too late to save mine I had to actually buy a new one and that cost me about 40 quid so that was kind of annoying. But likewise on the metal bobbins. So the bobbin is absolutely fine that it's almost indestructible that I'm just going to move my camera across to the other bobbin system here. Let's see, I'm going to put this in front. So I do I have to say I'm very fond of these bobbin systems because there's so much more. There's so much sturdier they're almost indestructible so I'm just going to take this apart so I hope you can see in there properly. So this is fairly universal though usually will be to catch us that hold this in if you have a vintage so machine this might be quite different there might be a screw at the bottom the holds all this in. You can basically we'll just take the needle up first. There we go. So we've taken the bobbin case, the bobbin and the bobbin case out. So I'm just moving this across. And then all of this comes out. So this is also a really useful thing to do every now and then you want to just go in here and remove the fluff. And the bits of Fred, if you've got a big Fred jam, you know, literally everything stuck underneath there, then please do just take this apart it's yours to take part it can't break but you know if you do that. But what you might find if you've had a big needle break, then even on this metal bobbin system, you might find that this has become a bit damaged so if this feels in any way rough. And just file it down it makes a huge difference if this point just smooth again, it will go back to picking up the Fred properly. So if you've changed your needle you've done everything you've refreaded your machine and it's still not picking up the Fred consistently, and it may well be that so just check that point there. And also actually once we've got it open I just realized I didn't get any oil, but we can just pretend I mean as in it's upstairs. So, even though these modern machines are supposed to be self oiling and you're not supposed to have to do anything to them. What I quite often will do is just put a drop of oil so I tend to tilt the machine back with a drop of oil in here, and then another one behind here. And then without having the machine threaded up I just put my foot on the pedal and run the oil through a little bit because it does really like having that bit oiled, I mean you just imagine it works away constantly. It gets bits of fluff dropped in there. It does really like a bit of oil in there every now and then you can't really open the rest of the machine easily. And the rest of the system had probably has all kinds of grease on it rather than oil. And by the way to put this back together again. Maybe I should do this a bit more slowly actually basically take a note when you take it apart. There's a half moon shape here that goes up against the half moon shape that's still in the machine. I tend to tilt the machine back a little bit because none of this clicks in. So if you have the machine standing up you might just find it keeps falling out this bit here. There's an opening at the top. So that goes well there's an opening there that goes at the tops where the needle goes in. These sticky outie bits need to face you because once all this is back together again. That's where the catches go out and it is important that you put those catches back on. Okay, and now we can put the bobbin back in. Like I said these bobbins don't tend to sustain much damage really I mean every now and then you might find that you know this this little slidey bit here might get damaged. In fact, I'll leave it out because I want to talk about bobbin tension next. But yes, if anything gets damaged in those metal systems, it's all replaceable also you can buy new bobbin cases, and they're like a fiver and then you have a whole new bobbin case. They're mostly universal, but Nina's have slightly different ones and possibly faff have different ones to industrial machines obviously have quite different bobbin cases but this is a universal bobbin case and it will fit almost all machines. So, is there any questions at this stage I'm sure there is. Yeah, I was about to say. Yeah, we do have a few questions. Yeah, so a couple on bobbins. Yeah. So, Charles, kind of following up from the other question about telling the difference between which bobbin fits in which one doesn't. Yeah. He's asking if you inherit a lot of bobbins. How do you visually check which ones fit best. Right, so there really isn't there isn't 100 different kinds of bobbins. So I think the four that I have here are probably the main ones. So, there were some singer went through a weird experimental phase in the 70s and they did have a few bobbins that were really wide and really shallow, you would probably not likely to have those. I would say if you are looking at, if you're looking at your bobbins, you can quite quickly see it might be difficult for you to say but we're from where I'm sitting it's really obvious that this one is much smaller than the other ones. And then when I look a bit harder than that one is also quite a bit smaller. So I would say, you know, class them by size, and then check. It isn't, it isn't the case that there are some bobbins that are half a millimeter smaller than that and others that are half a millimeter taller. I fairly sure that other than, you know, like I said some weird 1970s bobbins. These are kind of the main ones that you come across I didn't have any in my box of bobbins that I've taken off errands so machines. And you know I do this a lot so I would say you, you're not all that likely to have anything else other than this. Great. Thanks. Next question is from Elaine again. Yeah, he says, sorry silly question. Do you have been ready wound with the color thread that you need to match the rubbish. Yes, no. They are really often incredibly awful quality. So the other really important thing when you're sewing I mean when you want a nice stitch is that you use the same quality Fred on the top as you do on the bobbin and you know and it doesn't matter if the color doesn't match us but it is important that the quality matters so if you have an expensive Fred on the bobbin, and you have a cotton Fred or a pound shop Fred on the top the two don't really ever match very well and you might just find your stitches and consistently not nice. So if you buy pre one bobbins, you have no idea what the quality of the Fred on the bobbin is, and often they're also really shocking size so the bobbins they're often made of paper really really thin plastic and they're almost disposable. So the only exception to this is you can buy pre wound bobbins for embroidery machines, and I did always poo poo them but I recently did an online embroidery class and we're told that actually they are really really really good, because they are wound up. They are wound up with really high quality Fred, but they're also not cheap. So if you are looking at buying, you know, 50 wound up bobbins in all the colors of the rainbow and it's going to set you back for 99. So I just guarantee that the bobbins are not going to fit and the quality is going to be shocking of you know the quality of Fred and also you don't know what friends on the bobbin so you don't know what to match it with on top. But I dare say, it's probably this kind of quality, so I would stay well away from those. Nice as they look, also it doesn't take that long to wind up a bobbin. That makes sense. And then had a kind of follow up question which was also can you gauge how much Fred last what you need to so with. Yeah, you get better and better and better about as you as you get more experience so I would say always put slightly more on then you think you might need. It's an expensive Fred if I'm using the Goodman Fred, for example, if I put too much Fred on the bobbin then either I keep the bobbin with the fridge you can get little spiky things that go into the into the bobbin on one side and into the spool of Fred on the other side to keep the two together. I'm going to take the bobbin Fred off and put it back on here. If it is cheaper Fred, then I tend to just leave it on for future use but you know you might not need it but there was nothing more frustrating than almost being finished with something and then finding your bobbin Fred has run out, especially as on most sewing machines it doesn't tell you, and you don't notice sometimes for ages and you've been sewing and you've taken all the pins out and yadda yadda yadda and then you've got my friend on there. But you do get quite good at knowing how much you need, although we all, you know, play Fred chicken sometimes where you might win or you might not win in terms of how much you've got. But yeah, this, for example, that's quite a lot. I would say I could maybe make a pair of curtains with that or, you know, to make, if I started dress, for example, or a pair of dungarees, then I would fill the bobbin all the way up but I probably won't use it all. Really, unless there's lots of zigzagging and what have you. Thanks, Jenny. And Richard and Dave have got questions about oil. Yeah, well, or rather, Richard's keen to know what your thoughts are on using silicon spray rather than oil, and Dave was asking about PTFE instead. I don't even know what PTFE is. No, Dave, can you can you tell us in the chat what what do you mean by PTFE. What do you think about silicon spray? No, also, no, basically the only oil that's good for sewing machines it's sewing machine oil and I just buy it by the leader and then distribute it into little bottles and I've even got some little syringes to read how to reach areas but I've not seen anything else that does the job. The only thing is inside the mechanism of the same machine. So if I was to go inside here, then I will use on the gears and things like that I use grease that I've bought. I think it's axle grease that I've bought from a car shop. But all this stuff in here, sewing machine is one of the lightest, non this non stickiest oil you can get. And if you use anything else, then it just starts congealing and and clogging things together so old oil also will cause big problems if you if your machine hasn't been used in 30 years, then actually sometimes the biggest problem is the old oil will be sending to like a hard, it's almost like chewing gum and it just clogs everything up, but I tend to find that using new oil will eventually cut through that. And if it's really bad I'll use a little bit of WD 40 but that you don't have to re oil everything because it actually gets rid of oil it doesn't oil things, but now I wouldn't use silicon spray oil is perfectly fine. I've come across recently I came across so machine where the lady had been consistently putting free in one oil on it and the whole machine was black on the inside and sticky everything was stuck together. So that is an absolute no no, not all of oil. And so machine oil is really cheap and it's really easy to get hold of and most machines can even come with a little bit of oil when you first buy them so the really is no excuse not to use that. I would say. Oh, thanks Jenny and we've had some clarification on PDF. Yeah, is I'm going to, I'm going to say this wrong apologies. Tetra flurry filling. Or Teflon drive slash drive. Oh, okay. No, no, also no I don't think I mean there is so machine oil just does the job it lubricates it keeps everything running smoothly. It doesn't introduce anything else it also sounds like it would be more expensive, but it's just not necessary oil does the job perfectly has been doing for over 100 years. So, that's what you need and that's the one thing you could even buy from the brand shop because it just doesn't matter it's always the same stuff really. Yeah. I had a question about bobbins but I think Darren if you, we've kind of covered that already so if you took the recording, once it goes live, Jenny goes over that in some detail about finding the correct type of Bobbin. Yes. And then Helen had a question as well about the so machine oil deteriorate deteriorate with time and it sounds like it does. It really can do a bit yeah so I'm just going to pull this bottle of oil off the shelf actually if you just bear with me a second. So this has been in my studio, and it's been near the radiator. Right, bring this over. So this oil has gone quite dark so normally it's much more see through than that. I would still use it, but it's probably just become a bit impure, but it's not like, you know, olive oil or vegetable oil where it goes rancid. I've never come across that but I'm, yeah I probably wouldn't buy a liter bottle unless you are, you know, an industrial user. Like I am, because it can go a bit weird after time. In fact this might even have sediment in it so that's probably no good I'm not going to use that anymore. And whilst I've got this machine open by the way I'm just going to quickly show you again they're supposed to be self oiling but even these machines do quite like a little drop of oil in this actually little wick in the center of this. So if you put a drop of oil in there. So the main thing with oiling your machine is don't over oil it. I have actually seen flames come out of the machine because it was really stuck it was a really stuck machine and I, you know what I tend to do with machines that haven't been for a long time. If they're very stuck. I put a bit of oil on I run it through and then I leave it for a few days to put a bit more oil in I might even tilt the machine on its side and let it sit on its side for a day etc etc. And this one I've had to use so much oil over time that eventually when I next plugged it in. It got the oil got hot and then it's like a flame came out of the bobbin area it was absolutely fine because it was an all metal sewing machine. It was totally fine and then I was retelling this story to a student at the weekend and he said oh my dad is a tailor and they regularly used to burn off all the fluffs and stuff from their industrial sewing machines by just running a flame across it. So bit like a stubble burning. I don't know whether this was common practice but anyway he said it was I mean it was said it was fine anyway but you don't want to over oil you don't need to put tons and tons and tons of oil on generally if it's oiling just for maintenance purposes. Just a drop in all the bits that you can see moving so here everything that moves around. Just don't you know no oil on the motor no oil on any rubber belts you might see etc etc but other than that bit of oil and then like I said just put your foot on. Oh, it's not. This machine is a bit some it won't work unless I put the stitch back on so let's do that. And then you can just put and just run it through to get the oil moving round machine. I even recently bought myself a hairdryer I don't use one for my hair, but I bought one to warm the oil up if I've got a really old stubborn machine that's a bit stuck. Then sometimes just warming it up a little bit just releases everything a bit so definitely worth doing. And the other thing I just wanted to show you so there are other issues that can happen when you if your needle hits the stitch plate. So this one is in pretty good condition obviously it's mine and I don't generally break needles, but I recently saw one and this is again not unusual where that's it. I'm just going to show you like that, where the whole edge of the whole wedding needle goes in looked like it'd been chewed by you know rats were very small sharp teeth. Every time your needle hits the stitch plate or breaks, it takes a little dense out of this corner here and it the whole edge was so rough. Every bit of thread that was going up and down it was just getting shredded and breaking eventually. So if it's not too awful, then you can. Again, get your nail file. Sometimes I peel bits of nail file off and get into those corners and file it down. Have a look underneath file that down too. But if it's really bad and if you consistently do this, then you might have to actually replace your stitch plate which isn't fun. And I definitely would question if you're the kind of person that's constantly breaking needles that really shouldn't happen at all. So the people that tend to break needles a lot what is often actually happening is so I'm just put this back together again. What is actually often happening is that they're pulling the fabric out of the back of the machine shouldn't do that. Your machine will push the fabric out when it's ready, you know when it's done with it. If you're pulling it what's actually happening is you're bending the needle back a little bit and you can imagine if you do that enough. Then that gap there is no longer big enough and it will hit the back of that or if you put in the fabric this way, it will hit that side of the stitch plate there. So really, your job is to guide, you know, not even guide the fabric, your job is to steer the fabric. So, and to make sure that there's no pleats or folds or anything going in, but your job is not to push it under the needle nor to pull it this way that's not what you should be doing at all. Also, if you're breaking needles because you're hitting things at high speed then you're obviously you're actually just sewing way too fast. Okay, so it shouldn't be. Mostly you don't sew very fast unless you on a big straight line because you're doing curtains or duvet covers or whatever but generally, so a lot more slowly, because then if you do hit a pin or you hit the stitch plate it's not the end of the world. And anyway, if you're sewing too fast you'll be unpicking forever as well. And the final thing I just wanted to talk about is this one is quite clean because obviously I have just reason, you know, recently cleaned it. But just every now and then just blow into your bobbin area because it needs to be free that shouldn't be I mean I found some horrors in there. I found sequins and buttons and broken needles. And often when people use the pins that don't have heads on them, those pins can end up it going in here, or, you know, the heads from needles, you know, the end of the needles. There's threads lots of friends end up in there, and all of that needs to not be in there at all so get the paintbrush just give it a little bit of a dusting every now and then. There's no real timeframe for this but you know you will know how often you use your machine. It takes quite a lot for it to build up to the extent that it's going to cause problems but it's best to keep on top of it. Definitely, if you've had a fridge and or you know that you've been sewing with fake fur or sequence or whatever then just have a little investigate and see what's there. I often come across machines that haven't been cleaned for so long that the grooves here between the feed dogs are completely full. I mean there should be nothing in here because I clean mine regularly, but I've what found once where you do that and this massive lump of felt where all the fluff has just felt it together and this big lump of fluff comes out that it's completely dense. So and likewise, you know I've taken the bobbing paces out and found this is enormous layer of felt underneath here because all the fluff just gets denser and denser and denser. So definitely keep on top of cleaning your machine. And when you don't use it, cover it up. And yeah, be mindful if he use things like fake fur or whatever you because it will leave a lot of fluff in your machine so give it a bit of a clean. Any questions. Yeah, so we've, there's a bit of a chat going on, which is great. Yeah, so some tips being shared. So, Peter from Fixit Clinic says that they regularly use WD 40 on the hopelessly frozen sewing machines. Yes. Yeah, that's exactly it. I mean I would, it's very rare. I tend to just try and do it by putting new oil over the top of the old oil because it does cut through after a point but if they're if a machine hasn't zigzag for, for example, if somebody's only been using on a straight stitch and then it's been sitting in the cupboard. And there's the zig, it was zigzag. So the needle will not go left to right. Then sometimes the only thing for it is to stick WD 40 on top of it. But it isn't I think a lot of people think that as part of the maintenance their machine needs WD 40 because it feels like it's a lubricant but it's actually the opposite it does chew away at the oil. But yeah, if your machine's very stuck, then absolutely I will use WD 40 but then make sure you re oil everything because it will. I mean some machines that especially vintage ones that need oiling a lot you know they need oiling. I don't know if you use them a lot they need oiling a lot. And I've come across ones that have been so dry you can hear them crunching in and they just really slow down they just so you give them a bit of oil and you let the oil run through and they're so happy again. I've also got some advice, but Martha shares that she regularly vacuums her sewing machines after every project. Yeah, that's absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, because actually blowing into it sometimes you just blow stuff further into the machine so yes, hoovering is not a bad idea at all. And just a couple of questions from Beal. They ask what can cause the threat to catch and effectively stopped material threading through ie you end up sewing constantly in the same spot. Right that is usually if you say for example you're starting on a piece of fabric that is quite chunky. So, and you're the fit on your machine let me just put this back on. Let's give her for a second. I mean there's a variety of reasons why this could happen but if your bobbin if the hook on your bobbin system is not. You know if there's no bulbs on there, and it's not your needle, then it could just be that like I said the fabric you're sewing with if you are starting say you're starting on the edge of a pair of jeans. If you start on the seam and you can see this foot is like at an angle and it will not go over that lump, then you might just find that it just will search stitch in place. What I sometimes do if it's not instantly catching if I can see that the fabric isn't moving towards the back, then I might just turn the hand wheel by hand and just gently, gently force the fabric through a little bit or even, you know, as the needle is up, put your foot up, move the fabric a teeny tiny bit along and then do it that way. So, but if it's constantly have you just need to start slowly I think it's the main thing so if you can see that the fabric isn't moving. You really should catch that within a few stitches. And it could be that your stitch length is too short, it could be that your needle is, you know, too chunky or that your fabric, there's too many layers of fabric going on. You need to be on top of that because if you let it build up if you do 20 or 30 stitches on top of each other, that's it, it will never move from there again, you know, you've created a big lump that is catching under the foot. Thanks Jenny. And a couple more about cleaning specifically so people asks, would you recommend the use of dry air spray to clean and Jackie also adds to that saying she was told not to use your breath to blow into the machine because the moisture might cause the metal to rust over time. Yeah, I mean you'd have to blow into you'd have to have fairly wet breath and do it quite a lot. I generally will just blow into you're not supposed to, you know, I get it you're not supposed to blow air beds up with your mouth either. Yes, I used to use what's it called the condensed air that you use on keyboards and computers and stuff like that. But I actually got bit sick of, you know, second by how many canisters I was going through. And sometimes they fit it feels like there is some sort of condensation going on those canisters also. So now I've got haven't got it done here but it's like the opposite of a vacuum cleaner and it blows at high speed and it's got loads of different nods or so I can get into really small areas but Yeah, I would say if you just every now and then blow into your machine then it's not going to cause things to rust, you know, it takes quite a lot. People have them so machines in sheds and they don't rust so easily so you mostly will be okay. Just don't spit at it. It's good advice for for most kinds of repair probably. Most kinds of things really. And finally, Claire was wondering whether you're going to touch on the tension on the bobbin on the bobbin case. That's exactly what I'm going to do next. I've just looked at my list quickly and that's the one thing I haven't covered it. So there is difference. So on the different bobbin systems I'm just going to pull my camera back a little bit there. So if you have a bobbin. So if things are still not happy. So I tend not to really touch the top tension I tend to just leave that where it is because even though this one is way out because I've moved. Oh, yes. So if you know, yeah, the top tension, as in, you know, at the top of the machine. I always have it on for the really unless you're using a completely different thread like a metallic thread or a really chunky thread, then I would just leave that on for and that should be fine if then you still have tension issues and it's definitely not the needle because most tension issues is actually because your needle is damaged, or you've put your bobbin in the wrong way around or you're using the wrong bobbin etc etc. But if you're absolutely sure and you've been maybe doing a lot of sewing or you've got a vintage sewing machine, then every now and then the bobbin tension might need to be adjusted so you know your tension usually is correct if you can do that. And then when you jiggle it, it just very slowly lowers. If I was to pick up this bobbin, if this bobbin is threaded up correctly to also make sure your bobbin is threaded up correctly etc etc. If this if you do this and the bobbin drops straight down, then your bobbin tension is way too loose. If you do this and it just doesn't drop down at all, then your bobbin tension might be too tight. Also, if you notice so that the interplay between the two threads, if your top tension is correct where you have too much. Too much of your top thread is showing at the bottom so you have loops at the back of your fret, your fabric, it could be that your top tension is wrong as in you have the top tension is too loose you have too much top thread going in. But if you know that it's not it's not that because it's on for and it's fine, but it could be that your bobbin thread, the tension on your bobbin is too tight and it's pulling your top thread through. So I would just say have a little go with this screw here so this is on the top the front loading bobbin system. Also check it could be that there's some fluff underneath here so there's like a slidey thing here that this screw makes it either you know come up a little bit or tighten up and that's what causes the tension on the bobbin. It could just be I mean I've come across bits where you know bobbin cases where there's just a teeny tiny bit fluff underneath here and therefore there is no tension on here and nothing you would do with the screw would adjust that. But you can just get a tiny little screwdriver in there, turn it one way a little bit the other relate little bit if you turn it to the right it will tighten the tension up. You can just have a go if you're bobbin if you are sure that it's your bobbin tension that's causing the problems, then have a little experiment, turn it a little bit to do another line of stitching if that's. If it looks a bit better than do it a bit more if it looks worse than you might have gone too far etc etc now on these bobbin systems here. It still has the same screw, they often are covered initially with a little blob of red. But it looks like nail varnish, so you might have to break through that to adjust the tension. Sometimes you can get into them, you know when you when your stitch place is gone you might be able to get at that screw. In fact, yes, I can get to that one here, or you might need to take it out. And then same thing, but check first that there's no bits of fluff stuck in this. In this disk here you know this like groove here, because again that can cause problems but same thing, just adjust a little bit and see what that does and just you know have a go have a little play you can't break anything. Very worse comes to the worst if there is actually something wrong with this thing here, then you can just replace your bobbin case, but definitely over time. So often on vintage sewing machines or if people do a lot of sewing, then that screw will sometimes loosen itself a little bit or tighten itself a little bit and can cause tension issues. But I would say definitely make sure that in the first instance you've changed your needle you're using that you've threaded up your machine properly there's no fluff anywhere else. I once had to floss the tension the top tension discs in a really high end sewing machine because there was a teeny tiny bit of fluff in there which meant that the tension discs just wouldn't shout. And it appeared like there was just no tension on the top thread at all but it was actually there was something stuck in there. And that's another thing you can do just get a really strong thread and just floss floss in the discs and and see what that will do but yeah sometimes you will have to adjust the the bobbin tension. We do have a couple of questions. Yeah. So one, another from people who asks if the machine is sluggish pulling material through what would be a likely cause for that. And she said it's filthy in the bobbin area so I'm going to take this off again. I mean it's not something I come across very often I have to say I did have it recently I repaired a sewing machine and she said it's not, you know the stitch length remained really small, and then when I open it up, it was full of dust and fluff and friends and stuff. The way it moves, you know the stitch like the sort of feed dogs go down, and then when they come they come up to the front and then they come up to the top and pull the fabric back. So if that isn't working properly, and then do check that it's not really filthy and possibly also just give it some oil on all the bits that you can get to on some machines you can actually get into the bottom of the machine quite easily I wonder if I can. Let's have a look I'm going to show you on this one. So to get to the bobbin area in this machine, you'd first have to remove this bit here, and it's just a bunch of big screws, you know you just get a big flat head screwdriver take this off, and then this bit this screw here removes the bottom of the thing and you can actually get a load of fluff out of there, often you can oil things if you need to. So if it's, and then you can, like I said you can get oil in a little bit further along. So do not hesitate to take this apart if you need to. Just remember which screws go where but do I would unplug it before you do that because you will quite quickly get to the motor which is right there. So if you don't want to electrocute yourself. But yeah if you do need to get any further written than that is generally, it's a lot more difficult on this expensive sewing machine but generally speaking you just take the bottom off, and then you can get to the underneath of the bobbin area as well. Perfect. Thanks Jenny and final ones for now. A question from Jonathan. I'm asking, are there any tips for the setting of the timing of your machine so talking about the needle and the feet, the feed dog position. Yeah, it's really hard. I tend not to fix timing because it's so difficult to do, I mean to knock your timing out takes quite a bit. You know, it's so it's where the timing basically for those who don't know which is probably most of us. The timing is so the needle goes down at exactly the correct time. So that's when the top Fred, which is in your needle, it gets kind of presented to the hook in your bobbin area, and the hook then goes round to the back of the needle and picks up the loop of top thread just there. And then as your needle comes back up your top Fred gets taken around here and picks up the bobbin Fred. Now if you need or goes down at the wrong time either too soon or too late, then your your that hook is in the wrong place at the wrong time or timing is all about to knock your timing out. It often means you've done something really quite bad to the machine so if you hit a needle on something solid like a really chunky denim seam or a needle, you know, pin or a button or something like that, then what can actually happen is that this whole mechanism here jolt up a little bit, and especially on computerized machines it's much more of an issue, because on a mechanical machine. As soon as something hits something else, then everything stops at the same time whereas on computerized machines sometimes so even though the needle is hit something, the bobbin carries on turning for a little bit and that's when you often end up with things that are slightly off sync, it's really hard to fix. I tend to actually pass this on to a sewing machine shop down the road because it takes me hours to fix timing and then often that it doesn't. I have even had machines repaired by, you know, proper brick and mortar sewing machine shops and then the next time I use them the timing went again. It is often a thing that you actually just need to avoid at all costs because it is quite hard to fix. I mean very occasionally you can fix it by if you go inside of here, there is two little allen key screws behind here that regulate the needle bar so you can actually drop the needle bar down a little bit or put it up a little bit. Very occasionally that will work if that was the issue if you've hit something and just that all that happened is that the needle jolted up a bit but if it's something to do with the gears behind here so the gears have become misaligned it's I find it really hard to fix to be totally honest. That's really interesting. I've got quite a few questions that aren't kind of about a variety of topics do you have some more common things for us to talk through first or should we get to those kind of other questions. No really all I was going to say is in order to look after your sewing machine, as long as you're respectful, you know, by all means have a go at tinkering and taking things apart. You can't take out screws that you then don't remember where they go back and if you know take photographs and take videos of how you're taking things apart. But I would say certainly if your machine is completely broken you've got nothing to lose by having a go anyway. And you know it's really empowering to know that you can fix all you really need is a nail file flat head screwdriver, any teeny tiny flat head screwdriver and some machine oil and you can repair an awful lot with that. And it is really satisfying to do that. I mean the main thing is of course make sure you look after your machine in the first place. Keep it clean, keep it covered up when you don't use it, don't sew too fast, don't sew through, you know, don't sew into need, you know into pins or buttons or anything like that. Don't let your needle hit the stitch plate because that would that's the quickest way to knock your timing out also. But that's it so get asked away because I've run out of basic machine repair. I'm sure that's not true. Well, what a great takeaway, thank you. Okay, so I'll go back to some of the questions we had a bit earlier in the session that we couldn't get to them. Yeah, and then I'll come back to some recent. Sure. So question from Nigel from a while back, who's mending a machine where he suspects the motor is burned out, and he can't get hold of the right motor is there anything that he can do at that point. Yeah, so I don't touch electrics at all because I don't know anything about electric so I know with vintage so machines that motors are fairly interchangeable in fact often they just had one motor that bolted onto the back. I'm sure I'm sure you can, you know that they're reasonably interchangeable. I know my dad would just put something else in and make it work but I don't understand electrics enough. So I don't touch. I'm literally just deal with, you know, the mechanical side of it all. If there's anything wrong with the electronics or the motor then I do tend to pass it on to people that are more qualified because I don't want to electrocute someone or Okay. Then next one is from Joyce, who asked when her machine starts sewing. Yeah, just started going backwards and just to switch it off and back on about three times before it goes forwards again. Okay. Yes, it's not. It's not ridiculously uncommon so often on computerized sewing machines they do end up misbehaving a little bit and it is often again when they are quite heavily used and they're a bit filthy inside. So I tend to find they're taken apart and given a really good clean and an oil inside tends to solve that and it is really bizarre I don't know why they feel like sewing backwards is the answer or the way to tell you that they need, they need sorting out. But it is not uncommon and like I said usually, I've never not been able to fix it. So usually it is something to do with just giving it a really good clean all the way inside, and that tends to solve it. I mean I recently had one where the stitch length just remained on zero pretty much no matter what you did and then if it did and then and the feed dogs were going backwards instead. So, but yeah it's generally just it needs a good clean, I think, unless it's, you know some machines, unfortunately some machines are not fit for purpose even straight out of the shop and it does always break my heart a bit when people buy sewing machines in Ikea or, you know, a small or whatever because they often there is no. They're not they're not fit for purpose they're not often not good I mean you might have a half decent one you might be lucky but you know once they go wrong they are wrong I was told by a very reputable sewing machine repair shop that especially on this drop in unless you have a very expensive one, all the cheaper ones this actual bobbin system so this thing here lasts for about 20 hours and then that's it. So, I mean that's crazy right I guess for a lot of people that might be five years worth of very light use of occasionally fixing a hem. But for me that would be less than a week. If you think about that if you also think that people used to spend at least a month salary on a sewing machine, and now you can buy one for 50 quid that 50 quid sewing machine is just never going to work very well and it certainly isn't going to last all the bits inside a plastic. They're not replaceable they're not repairable, and they often are a bad fit even straight out of the factory, you know I've come across people that come to my classes with a sewing machine in the box, and they take it out is first time they ever use it and nothing really works very well. So some of them just are a bit and unfortunately not fixable. But yeah if you know for a fact that it was a good quality sewing machine. I tend to mostly recommend people buy you know me so machines that's what mine is they are so so good. I know I shouldn't probably be you know selling brands here but john Lewis so machines are made by do you know me, do you know me I just an excellent brand of sewing machine and I've never come across one that that hasn't lasted many, many, many decades. Unless you, you know killer. But some of the cheaper ones are just awful, absolutely awful. So he goes into a question that Peter had. He says amongst their learnings at fix it clinic is that vintage show machines are way more durable and reliable. So he's asking what are the advantages if any of a modern machine. They often have a lot more stitches but you know people tend not to use those stitches so actually I love auto machines and I used to teach on the auto machines. I'm a little bit more engaging with so it's not, you know, in not the case of just turning on and not having to think about it. So in the same way I used to drive vintage cows and yes you there were often not as reliable. I mean the older so machines are much more reliable and vintage cows. But you know when there was something wrong you could just take it apart and because it only does a few things it does those things very very well old so machines the older ones tend to be all metal inside, and they are literally indestructible. You know, I have no, I, yes, especially if somebody wants to start running a business or they want to sell a lot of jeans or they want to start making canvas bags. Or, you know, or yeah like I said, start running a business where they want to spend eight hours a day sewing, and they haven't got room for an industrial machine I would always tell them to go from vintage sewing machine. Really, I mean this machine does buttonholes in one easy setting a vintage machine might not do buttonholes at all, although you can buy amazing contraptions of which I have a few that are called vintage buttonholers, and you attach it to your machine. So if you have a vintage machine it might not even do a zigzag it might just do a straight stitch, but you can attach a thing that you then set what you decide what size buttonhole you want and what kind of shape buttonhole you want. You can just go right off you go and it moves the fabric rather than moving the needle. So you can still make beautiful buttonholes, even with a machine that only does a straight stitch. So, yes, I, you know, people that come to me with machines that they've had for 60 years. In fact, recently somebody brought machine she had to she had a 1950s sewing machine and a 1970s one. In the 1970s one was destroyed, you know, the plastic inside of the cracked and the 1950s one was absolutely fine it just needed a bit of oil and a clean. So they often just incredibly reliable, super sturdy. And all the parts are still, you know, still, you can still get all the parts for it. And you know even the motor burns I need to go on eBay and buy another one. I don't know. I mean, this one, this one virtually makes me tea, but then it should do for that kind of price you know and this is my job so but I do have a couple of vintage machines that I use quite a lot so I use them for quilting etc because they're just strong. They will sew through fingers you know they will that you can make sales on those old machines that you can't do with this one. So yeah, I would say definitely vintage machines are fabulous. So there's some discussion about what vintage means in the chat. I've also got a question from Claire about asking whether there are any machine, any makes to be avoided. Yes, I was wondering if I was allowed to say that but of course I am I'm not you're not sponsored by anyone. I would say anything pre 1970 is on the whole amazing. I mean absolutely amazing if you lift up a machine and it and it gives you a hernia, then you know it's not going to bounce off the table when you're sewing it will go through curtains it will accept you can make I know people that don't have any sales on their vintage so machines so heavy duty met all metal so machines from the 60s are on the whole absolutely fantastic 1970s onwards they got a bit happy too happy to use plastics and old plastic just goes so if you have a machine that's now, you know 5040 50 years old, then you might just find it all the gears inside of started cracking and it can be a bit of a never ending story to start replacing bits of it, and some bits you just can't get anymore. So, but yeah if you if you can get your mitts on. I mean unfortunately they've become a bit desirable and there's lots of people selling vintage so machines for you know 150 200 quid on eBay, but even then even though that's not what they used to I've picked up so many of them for a tenner and then charity shops for 20 quid etc etc but even then you know you buy vintage so machine for 150 quid it'll probably last you another 70 years, so it's still there's still a good thing to have. But yeah generally not 1980s that's that's too new with that makes sense. That's really helpful. Yeah, thank you. And yeah yeah brands to avoid absolutely definitely don't buy singers own machine modern singers are awful. I know shops that won't sell them, most repair shops won't touch them, because they are made in some random factory in China the name, the name singer has been bought and sold seven times in the last 10 years, it no longer means anything and it's heartbreaking that people buy them because it's always been good, and it no longer means anything. So that's why they sell them in shopping centers and in our course and in little and you know in Sainsbury's etc etc. And they are awful and pretty much every single sewing machine that comes to me most of them are singers, and most of them are shit. I would say they are just not worth the money you've spent on them. So, I do always say don't buy a sewing machine, you know, in a supermarket because that's not where they should be bought, you know go to a proper shop and have a conversation with somebody and they will tell you the machine that would work well for you, you know go to a shop where they sell really good reconditioned second hand machines because you often get a lot more machine for your money. You don't don't whatever you do turn up, you know, having bought a singer sewing machine they are often absolutely diabolical but weirdly it's different in different countries so the singers that in America are much better quality than they are here. Cheap braver sewing machines again are an absolute nightmare but they're made in a completely different factory from the more expensive braver sewing machines which are outstanding. So there's all kinds of like almost no brands, what is one of them now, can't remember what's called butterfly and things like that. So if you've never heard of the sewing machine brand then do absolutely Google it and the other things don't buy sewing machines on eBay on the whole unless it's a reputable dealer. I've had so many people they buy sewing machines on eBay because they look nice or the selling point is they've you know they've got 700 stitches or the selling point is this used to be my mum's I don't know much about it but I think it works. And then they buy it and of course they know very well that it actually doesn't work very well at all anymore it's been dropped on the floor. And I get a lot of I've spent you know 200 quid on this sewing machine and it doesn't work very well. So do be really careful if you buy second hand buy it from a proper shop. And there's a lot of, you know reputable shops on eBay selling stuff but check out the, you know their feedback, or, you know, go to a shop, just go to a shop if you have or nearby. Really handy advice good to know about singer and yeah it's so hard because people just feel that they have this oh my granny had a singer and my mum had the singer and you know you should be able to and it just isn't that at all anymore. Christine actually had a question about the old singer travel machines. Yes, they're amazing. Yeah. Just a heads up everybody we've got still quite a few questions to get through and only about 10 minutes to do it. So I'm sure, you know, we'll do what we can, but at this point we can't promise to get through any new questions that come in, but we'll do our best. Jamie we've got another small questions about bobbins going back. No. And so Darren wanted to know, in terms of finding the right bobbin. He's maybe inherited the machine and has a lot of different bobbins but isn't sure which one the good bobbin is so he's not sure what to compare it. So, generally speaking you should be able to for almost all vintage so machine she can all older so machine she can buy the, the manuals online, not buy sorry you can download the manuals. So be aware of people that trying to sell your manuals because you should be able to find it for free so the singer website has all the old manuals listed online and you can just download them. And tell you what bobbin it takes. So, or if otherwise if you're in doubt then Google it but yeah I think we had, we had a similar question earlier on if you have tons and tons and tons of bobbins, then, you know, maybe just drop them in and just go right and just look like the right size, you know, does that look right. It doesn't look really baggy is it too small is it too tall. But definitely you should be able to unless it really I mean I've come across so machines that wasn't where I couldn't find any information on at all because they were made in some tiny factory in Melbourne and I don't know how it ended up here. So it is really hard to find but most so machines you'll be able to find something on them, some enthusiasts will have written a blog or done a YouTube video on it and you should be able to find out what bobbins it takes. Perfect, thank you. And two quick questions from Julie. So does it matter which way the bobbin goes into the bobbin case and the same with the thread at the top. So I use the thread of the thread on top doesn't matter but the, the bobbin Fred, going into. So if you look at the Fred here, it's really important pretty much always that your Fred comes off over the top and down to the left so if you have it like that it makes a P, not a Q, and that is absolutely vital so that your Fred comes in. So if you look at the, the lid for your bobbin case it tells you on there to comes off over the top and down to the left. Same of your metal bobbin case your bobbin Fred goes in over the top, coming down to the left and that is really really important. Your Fred on top doesn't matter, luckily, but that if you have your friend in the wrong way around it may well cause issues. But it should also mean again you have some old singer so machines where the needle is set in sideways and then the very case Lee I've had once where the Fred goes in completely the opposite way around. But if that is the case, it should be, you should either have a handbook for it if you really cannot make it work, then Google it because you may well find that it's one of those, you know, 1940s singer so machines but everything is back to front. And by the way, if anybody needs to ask me any questions after this I am really super happy to, you know, have chats by not not over the phone at the moment because I'm super busy but I'm happy for people to send me emails or whatever. Or Facebook Messenger chats just so you know I'm happy to do that. Amazing. Thanks Jenny. The second one from Julie was whether correct. What are the common symptoms of incorrect tension. You are sewing so when you have, when you've done a line of stitching, if your tension is correct then you shouldn't be able to tell the back of the front of the stitching, you know from each other they should look exactly the same. If you have any, can you believe that I'm in a sewing studio and I've got no stitching right here let's have a look if I can find something very quickly. It'd be good to show you. Yes, I think this will do so stitching should look the same. So that's the front of the digital the back I don't know should look the same on both sides. If you find you've got tiny little lumps in between the stitches on the top of the friend. There's the stitch the line of stitching, then your top tension is too tight and pulling the bobbin friend up to the top, or if it's not your top tension it could be that your bobbin tension is too loose. More likely though you'll have loops at the back of your work. So that could be because your top tension is off. If it isn't, then it could be that you've missed a bit so it is also really important that you. It could be that you've actually missed your tension this can your friend is sitting to the front of your tension system, or if it hasn't gone into the take up hook, or has jumped out of there. And that will cause tension issues to or if you need less damage. But yes, if you have big loops hanging out of the back of your fabric, then, first of all, refread your machine check that it's not that check your friend if your bobbin are properly change your needle. So, because that is all you know that the order in which you would do things, but the needle being blunt or damage definitely causes tension issues but that is so if you if your tension is not correct. This is now a really strong line of stitching. If you do this and you can pull your fabric apart. And you see all the friends then there's there's a tension issue going on because the top friend in the bottom friend wrap around each other to make a friend a stitch and that wrap around should happen inside the fabric which is obviously a very thin. You know it's a very small place for that to happen. And if that wrap around happens underneath the fabric or on top of the fabric then one of your tensions is off. Okay, we've got six minutes left and I'm going to try and get through as many of the questions as we can. But for anyone for any questions that we don't manage to get to. I've just put Jenny's email in the chat. It's a little bit up, but if you scroll up you'll be able to find it there. And there's also a guide on our repair wiki to sewing machines that proposed in the chat in a sec. And so you may be able to find your answers there but well we still do have some time with you Jenny. We've got a question from Claire who says locally they've got a guy who comes around and advertises servicing of sewing machines and she was wondering whether that's ever really necessary given that they do, they look after some machines. I find it an interesting one when people ask me if I will service their sewing machines is generally because there's something wrong. So I might most modern sewing machines servicing just means change the needle. You know clean it out a bit check whether your Bob intention has gone off whack. And I know some shops charge you 80 quid for this one actually it takes about 10 minutes, and it's the kind of thing you should just regularly do anyway. So I would say if there's a problem with your machine it might need a repair. It probably doesn't need servicing. I'm going to go out on a limb here I know a lot of people that do get their machine serviced but I think this is just stuff you should just do as a matter of course anyway, but then I also don't service my boiler on my car so don't listen to me. But you know you can do all this yourself really on the whole. Okay fantastic that's that's good to know. And lots of really nice comments in the chat any people loving information you've shared which is excellent. I've got a couple of questions. So Fred says, this is an awesome thank you. He's got a Burmina 1000 at work. Oh, they're the best. Yeah, the timing has gone and it's been repaired by a professional twice but it's broken straight away both times. Yeah. So you're showing something you've always had that problem. Is it okay to use that machine for parts or would it be a good idea to buy broken machine by by broken for parts machine trying to replace the bits. It's difficult to know really. Yeah, it's difficult to know I mean, you know, see if the repair shop has any advice on that I once killed the faff a beautiful faff sewing machine by making a pair of jeans on it and the timing went. And no matter what I tried I couldn't fix it and I gave it to a proper repair shop, and they fixed it and within five minutes of getting it back it went again they fixed it three times and it never just it never worked again. Yeah, it can be because a lot of the gears are plastic once they're out of whack it can just be that it just carries on continuing. You know, and obviously they're extremely expensive sewing machines and they're super super super lovely. I mean you might just want to see if you can find somebody else who can have a look at it. It could just be that it is yeah beyond beyond repair. Unfortunately, but you've got nothing to lose by, you know finding parts of it you find most machines will you know you can buy the parts on eBay which is, you know, pretty good people just strip machines and sell bits. So if you can find the gears and you're happy to have a go because after all it's already broken. What have you got to lose. I think at restart that's a philosophy really. Yes. Have a go. Have a go. I mean that's how I learned there is no course you can do to become a sewing machine repair person. I learned we're just having a go and just being curious going well if this bit works and that it doesn't work then the bit in the middle has to be broken. So is there a spring that's gone or is that bit of whack or is it just filthy. So that is really you know what I've what I've learned you can learn to listen there's no magic to it. Okay. I'm just looking at time I think that might be all we have time for this evening. It always flies by doesn't it. It flies by. And there are still some questions we haven't got to yet. Apologies for people with questions that we didn't manage to answer. So please do get in touch with Jenny email, which was in the chat, or check out our guide to repairing some machines that Jenny helped us create in one of the previous culture sessions, which we will also post in the chat. But until next time, thank you so much Jenny for sharing. Thank you James for sorting this out because I do. I want everyone to keep sewing and I want everyone to have happy sewing machines. This is the name of the game. Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much everyone else for coming along and asking brilliant questions. And at the moment we start we are accepting donations so if you're feeling particularly generous feel free to head to our site, but obviously no pressure to do so. We're just happy that you're all here and interested in keeping the sewing machines happy and healthy and going for as long as possible. If you want to stay in touch with restart and future sessions that we run on maybe sewing machines Jenny, there's always demand, you never know. Other topics, you can sign up to newsletter. And I'll be linking a chat shortly and we'll post news about it there, or you could also sign up to a forum where we post this stuff too. In the meantime, thanks so much again Jenny. Thank you everybody. Have a great rest of the evening and take care. See you next time. Take care.