I win.
This machine, an elderly Kenmore belonging to my Crafty sister-in-law, has been my nemesis for a while. OK, about two weeks. Crafty assured me that last time it was used (some years ago, admittedly) it ran just fine. Well, it ran—stiffly, as one might imagine—but it would not form a stitch for me to save my life. I messed with the needle orientation, the threading, the tension. Nothing seemed to work. It was like the bobbin thread was being pulled up at the wrong time to make a stitch. Crafty was, not, as you might expect, thrilled at the prospect of a $100 tune-up for a machine in that “old enough to be crusty but not old enough to be cool and vintage” age bracket.
A week or two ago, as I may have mentioned, Crafty and I found ourselves at loose ends in the mall whilst Crafty’s daughter (my fifteen-year-old niece) got her hair done. Neither of us are really mall people, so once we’d exhausted the one small bookstore, we were pretty bored. And it was Remembrance Day Sunday, so nothing but the mall was open. (A pity since there’s three or four little fabric and sewing-related shops within a few blocks radius of the downtown mall) But we did manage to find the tiny remnant of a sewing section in Sears (home, of course, of Kenmore,) and Crafty took the opportunity to pick up a few more bobbins, sewing machine oil, and, most importantly, needles. Well, finally tonight we had a chance to sit down and see if any of those things were the deciding factor. We applied oil (liberally. Stupid oil bottles with the cut-off tip that it’s almost impossible to cut off small enough.) We changed out the needle. I wound a new bobbin, and threaded her up just exactly like my Featherweight.
And she sewed. She even (since I thought Crafty might enjoy that sort of thing) stitched free-motion with the feed dogs dropped.
BAHAHAHAHA! TAKE THAT, SEWING DEMONS! In the name of all the sewing gods, I banish you! BAHAHAHAHA!
stupid needle.
… now if only I can get the bloody Piedmont re-wired…
*Also, am I the only one who learnt all my Roman history from reading Asterix and Obelix comic books?
Tanit-Isis Sews 
*wild applause* Go GO Team Isis! And, no to the comic books. While not that exact thing, I know plenty of people who learn history through the comic medium.
I didn’t learn my history until after I didn’t need it anymore; it’s too bad I didn’t know about history in comic books! Even now, the only way I’ll ever do my research on various time periods is if I’m interested in the costuming.
Perhaps oiling the machine is akin to anointing the altar, sewing god style? And the new needle is the ceremonial dagger? Possibly I am taking the analogy too far…
I definitely learned my Roman history from Asterix and Obelix, and now my two sons are doing the same thing.
Aren’t you the conquering hero! 90% of the time when the machine misbehaves, replacing the needle does the trick. It seems so small. Or maybe it’s the swearing that does the trick 🙂
not at all, that’s how my nephews learned. They picked up some nifty latin phrases too.
I swear needles are the work of the devil..Begone sewing demons!
I loved Asterix!!
Great job on the stubborn Kenmore. You are like the Sewing Machine Whisperer. 🙂
You are obviously on good terms with the Sewing Gods at the moment, well done! And I loved Asterix and Obelix. Made me want to learn Latin because I was that kind of geek.
Yay! Three cheers for success!
Oh thank god for banished demons and sheer cleverness. Yay.
Doesn’t everyone learn their Roman history from Asterix and Obelix? I’m shocked! I always assumed I only learned from some other sources as well because I’m a bona fide history geek…
Congratulations on getting this machine going!
By the way, in reply to your comment on my sleeve alteration post: For that coat, you started out with a pattern for a formal jacket. Those sleeves tend to be rather constricting (I’ve had that issue with E’s jacket as well). The alteration I explained should also help there but it will have some effect on the overall look (more fullness at the upper arm). If it’s a two piece sleeve, it will require quite a bit of fiddling: you have to split the lower sleeve at the lowest point (where it would meet the side seam if the pattern had a regular side seam), and put the pieces together at the top forming a sleevehead like that of a one piece sleeve, then you can alter it and re-divide the sleeve.
And by the way, it is my opinion that Carthage should be destroyed…*
*This was the main thing my father and I learned from Asterix and Obelix
If I ever end up with a vintage sewing machine that’s just not behaving, I know who I’m calling. Great job!