Following basic maintenance tips for your sewing machine will help avoid repairs. Sewers should make a maintenance checklist to follow daily, weekly or monthly to prevent costly repairs down the road. Taking your sewing machine in for yearly checkups with a local sewing repair technician and following the sewing machine manual's maintenance guidelines can ensure a longer sewing life.
Machine Protection
Covering your sewing machine with a dust or plastic cover ensures that unnecessary lint, dust or any other particles do not enter the machine. Keeping the machine covered when not in use is especially important for computerized machines, which have sensitive circuit boards. You should also keep your sewing machine away from open windows or direct heat and sunlight when not in use. It is beneficial to keep a lint brush handy during large-scale sewing projects to clear away lint buildup from areas such as the machine's throat plate, bobbin case and thread guide.
Maintaining the Feed Dogs and Shuttle Area
The exposed metal grooves or teeth--called feed dogs--emerging from the center of your machine's throat plate gently grip the underside of your fabric and push it through while sewing. This area must be free of lint, dust or thread to ensure your fabric and stitching run smoothly. You should clean the feed dogs after every major sewing project, such as completing a suit or dress.
Lint, dust and tangled threads typically accumulate in other areas of the sewing machine as well, including the shuttle and bobbin areas. The shuttle cover is the area that covers the bobbin, and the shuttle is the moving holder that carries the bobbin during the stitching process. Read your sewing manual for the exact location of these areas and specific guidelines for cleaning.
Compressed Air
It is essential to refer to the owner's manual prior to using compressed canned air to avoid blowing unnecessary dirt or lint into different areas of the machine's mechanism. If the manual approves this cleaning method, you can use it to clean the small areas your brush can't get into. Generally the can has a nozzle that is gently inserted into small areas and the air is blown from back to front, making sure it does not blow into different areas of the sewing machine's mechanism. This can be done after several completed sewing projects.
Soft Cloth Cleaning
You can use a clean cloth like muslin to clean the bobbin tray of a sewing machine. You can also fold the cloth and pass it gently in between the tension discs to remove dirt and buildup, according to Karen Kunkel's book "The Complete Sewing Machine Handbook."
The type of project and fabric used will dictate how often you will need to clean the bobbin tray and the tension discs. For example, certain textiles, such as heavy surface naps, velours or velvets, will cause an excess buildup of lint and fuzz. It is beneficial to clean the bobbin and discs at the completion of projects that use these types of fabric.
Sewing Machine Oil
Over time a sewing machine can become somewhat sluggish. It is important to read your manual to check which spots can be oiled. You can add a few drops of sewing machine oil--1 to 2 drops twice a year is plenty, says Karen Kunkel--in the designated area and the machine will begin to run smoothly.
It is important to use only sewing machine oil and not household oil, as well as to avoid adding oil onto any plastic parts. Also, says Kunkel, "Not all machines require oil. Computerized models don't; neither do machines with oil permanently embedded in them."
Replacing Light Bulbs and Broken Needles
The sewing machine's light bulb illuminates the sewing area. When the light goes out, you can replace it yourself. Make sure you have the bulb's model number and that the sewing machine is switched to the "off" position prior to changing the bulb.
Bent or broken sewing needles must be replaced immediately. By raising the needle bar to its highest position and loosening up the needle clamp screw, you can slide the needle as far as it can go and tighten the clamp. You can test the new needle by stitching onto a piece of scrap fabric.
Major Repairs
It is strongly recommended to take your sewing machine to a sewing repair technician for any major repairs such as motor problems, stitching problems or problems with the sewing machine's mechanism. According to Karen Kunkel, sewing machines should be brought in for a checkup and retiming once a year. Retiming is associated with the major parts of the sewing machine's mechanism.
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