The biggest struggle to any new hobby is the easiest part, getting it out of the box. Once it’s out of the box the next hurdle is figuring out how to use it. After you begin vibing with your new hobby maintenance is more often than not forgotten. To be honest, unless there is an error with the machine, I won’t open it up to investigate if it needs to be cleaned. Don’t fix what ain’t broke right? Well this could be harming your machine as build up of dust and broken threads pile up inside of it.
Ever heard of the quote “dust is a silent killer”, it’s true. One may think that the dust factor is eliminated if they are storing their machines with dust covers or inside cases. The video below will show that this simply is not the true. My embroidery machine lives with a dust cover on it while being housed in a cabinet when it’s not in use. A blue zip up roller houses my sewing machine whenever it is not being used as well. Both of these machines needed some extra love and attention but one was extremely bad. I never forget to put away my machine, our place simply does not afford me that luxury. Meaning every machine needs to receive maintenance yearly, if not more. This will depend on the amount of use each machine is worked.
Now you may be thinking it’d be a pain to bring your machine into a shop to get it properly assessed but there are things you can do yourself to keep it in tip top shape. When you think of maintaining your machine if your first thought is to oil, the manufacturer recommends oiling the machine per so many stitches or if it is unnecessary. Adding oil may actually do more harm than good for some machines. For both of my Brother machines they advise against any additional oiling.
Start from the inside and work your way inward. I like to use water based baby wipes to rid the machine of any build up on the outside. For instance, if you use any adhesive sprays they may leave residue or have areas that look grimy. Next head toward the bobbin housing and start investigating further. My machine came with a little kit to help remove dust and to remove the difficult screws. Here is a machine kit if yours did not come with one which includes stubby screw drivers, brushes and more. I also recommend using a pair of tweezers to remove the bigger clumps of dust too. Once all the dust bunnies are removed use a small vacuum to pull any stragglers out of the crevices. Here is my favorite mini vacuum which is cordless and rechargeable. After the bobbin area is clean, go upward to the threading area to see if there is anything there that needs to be cleaned.
Watch the video below to see which one of my machines was the dirtiest.
- Machine Cleaning Kit: https://amzn.to/4bi6GTN
- Cordless Mini vacuum: https://amzn.to/4dgqMAk
- Similar Embroidery Machine: https://amzn.to/4oFIvVo
- Sewing Cabinet: https://amzn.to/4p9pAS7
- *I do get a small commission from Amazon if you decide to purchase one of the items using the links above.
MaddieAutumn 