Sewing 101: Cleaning your Sewing Machine

I have some sad, sad, SAD news. My sewing machine BROKE! *Insert dramatic pause here*

I was working on my {What is it?} Wednesday post, when all the sudden, the thread got bound up in the bottom of the machine as i was sewing. *TEAR*

So I took my machine apart to see what happened. I thought maybe, just maybe, I could be Super Sewing Woman and fix it.

But no. I have no clue what’s wrong with it! Even my engineer-minded husband couldn’t figure out what was going on. Wah.

So….I thought since I had my machine in pieces anyway,  I would go ahead and make light of the situation by creating a post about cleaning your sewing machine since clearly, mine needed it.

Well, here it is. Here’s how I cleaned my sewing machine.

First, would you take a look at that?? My machine is growing fur!

I’m guessing that when thread runs through the eye of the needle and out of the bobbin, it rubs off little fibers and sticks to the inner-workings of the machine.

And, I can only guess a regular cleaning of your machine is a good thing and can only help keep it in tip top shape.
Almost like keeping the oil in your car changed. Yea.

So, I thought, I’ll use some of the hot air in my lungs and blow some of the fuzz out, since we all know I have a lot of hot air to go around.
It’s ok, I admit I’m a bit of a talker. Ok. Maybe a lot of a talker.

ANYway… Even though blowing on it helped a little bit, there was still a small cat living in my machine. So I took a piece of scrap fabric and gave some of the parts a good dusting.

Then I stole a pipe cleaner from my daughter’s craft stash (she’ll forgive me later), folded it in half
and used it to clean out the hard-to-reach places. That really seemed to help.

See, here’s little Fluffy..she’s come out to play. Ew.

What are the ways you clean your sewing machine? I didn’t want to use any chemicals in fear that I’d ruin the machine completely, so I am happy with my cleaning solution.

Oh and Pink Beauty is going to the Sewing Machine Hospital tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get her back in tip top shape soon so I can finish my featured tutorial for you all.

Have a great Friday!