Needle-threader case

[Joy Beeson]

The last time my teeth were cleaned, the hygenist prescribed fuzzy
toothpicks to clean between my teeth and under my bridge. Each
package of "soft picks" comes with a "convenient case" for carrying a
few in your pocket. So far, I've accumulated three.


Not too long ago, one of the Aldi finds was a tiny sewing machine for
fifteen dollars. After verifying that it has a wall wart, I bought
one. Full review will appear when I've found some spare time to
finish playing with it. So far, it appears to be fragile but
functional. Very fragile; the instruction manual emphaizes that this
is not a toy and children should not be allowed to play with it.

Pushing a button to start and then pushing it again to stop might
concievably be adequate for a large industrial machine that never sews
seams shorter than ten feet, but it's an absolute non-starter for
garment stitching. But the machine also comes with a "foot control"
in which pushing the button will start the machine and ceasing to push
the button will stop it.

The hand wheel is tiny and hard to turn.

The machine also came with a zipper bag containing four bobbins of
thread, three needles, and a needle threader. The needles are in
cardboard holsters, but the needle threader's delicate wire was in
great danger

I was thinking about finding a bit of card stock to duplicate the
folder another threader is in when I remembered the spare toothpick
cases. Easier than folding card, easier to open and close, and the
threader is in full view. I'm forever finding the folder in the futon
and wondering "what is this?".

I intend to replace the pill-pouch of pins in my Altoid-box mending
kit with the other spare toothpick case.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

[Joy Beeson]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2022 20:46:33 -0500, Joy Beeson
<jbe...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:

> Not too long ago, one of the Aldi Finds was a tiny sewing machine for

> fifteen dollars. After verifying that it has a wall wart, I bought
> one. Full review will appear when I've found some spare time to
> finish playing with it. So far, it appears to be fragile but

> functional. Very fragile; the instruction manual emphasizes that this

> is not a toy and children should not be allowed to play with it.
>
> Pushing a button to start and then pushing it again to stop might

> conceivably be adequate for a large industrial machine that never sews

> seams shorter than ten feet, but it's an absolute non-starter for
> garment stitching. But the machine also comes with a "foot control"
> in which pushing the button will start the machine and ceasing to push
> the button will stop it.
>
> The hand wheel is tiny and hard to turn.

Saturday, 19 March 2022

Today I found time to use the Easy Home Mini Sewing Machine to sew
three lines of gathering stitches where I want to ease the neck of my
new bra onto the binding. The top tension is too loose, which
perfectly suits gathering threads -- I usually use a double-wound
bobbin to achieve that effect. The top tension can be tightened,
according to the manual. I didn't open it today, except to verify
that it tells what sort of batteries to use in it before putting the
batteries that came with it into the battery stash. All the AA boxes
seem to be already full, but I didn't spend much time checking, just
laid the shrink-wrapped package of six on top of the pile.

When I started sewing, DH, in the next room engrossed in trying to
make my new computer work, exclaimed "That's a noisy little thing!"

The noise is distracting. It's not only loud, it sounds *cheap*, as
though the machine were about to fall apart.

When I turn the handwheel, it feels as though the machine were in
desperate need of oil. I must look up whether it's possible to oil
the machine.

I think I could get used to the glitchy feel of the machine being
either full on or stopped.

Turned the light off first thing, since I was sitting under a
chandelier, but I think it shares the fault of all built-in sewing
machine lights: the light shines straight down, leaving no shadows to
reveal details.

Evening:

Big plus: the machine *has* a manual. Perhaps that is because it is
a recurring "find"; most gadgets go obsolete in less time than it
takes to write a halfway decent manual.

I just now read or skimmed over all forty-two pages, and there isn't a
word about oil. It does mention cleaning the needle plate and bobbin
compartment with a fine brush. Says don't use nylon bristles. I
rather suspect that that rules out the Necchi cleaning brush, but it's
too big to fit into the mini machine. I do have some old horsehair
stencil brushes that I have been using for fine cleaning for decades.
(I wonder whether I've photographed them for entry on whisk brooms in
the Tools chapter of _Rough Sewing_? I can't do any serious
maintenance on the Web site until my new computer begins to function,
so there is no point in looking.)