Wondering if anyone can advise?

My friend here in Ireland has a Pfaff varimatic 6085 that she’s had a while and uses for basic sewing, curtain, dressmaking etc. She carried it in her car to her sisters and it’s suddenly not working properly. The hand wheel is very stiff and it makes a straining noise.

She’s cleaned around the needle plate and bobbin area with a brush, hoovered it to see if there was any loose fluff and it’s stiff not working properly. 

Any suggestions please? 

I mentioned this in the Today thread but it will probably get lost in time, so I’m re-posting it here.

I bought 2 mini cones of Gütermann Overlocker thread to try in my fussy Juki sewing machine. There’s 2000mtrs on a cone and it worked out about £6 each with the exchange rate. I’d not seen this thread before, only normal Gütermann all purpose thread and moon thread so I thought I’d give it a try. Maeve (in the fabric store) sells mostly bridal and posh dress type fabrics and said a lot of her customers who make bridal wear use this thread as it’s finer than normal Gütermann thread.

When I got home I wound some thread on the bobbin and then sewed some trial seams.
OMG, what a revelation!!
My Juki sewed it beautifully, and I think I’ve solved my weird tension issues. I didn’t have to change the top tension at all. My Brother machine will sew with any old thread but I was always having to adjust the top tension on the Juki.

This is the thread. The plastic cone it’s on is peach coloured not white as that’s a different Overlocker thread.

Google Gütermann Tera 180 overlock thread

https://consumer.guetermann.com/en/product-finder/tera-180-2

I bought colour 722 as a nude type colour and the white.

Hope this might be of some help to others?

Hello lovely experts,

We had a new lady join our sewing group yesterday and she brought along this machine. It was her mum’s and it had been converted to electric from being a hand crank but she was never taught how to use it.

She was asking me about sewing a new zip onto a toddler play suit so I rummaged in the little box at the side and she had a zipper foot. Great, unfortunately, I’ve no idea how to thread the machine so can anyone point me to some instructions please? It works and sews but I’ve not threaded it yet.   [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

I popped into a charity shop next to the supermarket to browse through the books and a chap was on his way through the shop door with what looked liked an old sewing machine in its case.

I asked him what he’d got and he said he was throwing it out as they’d plugged it in and it wasn’t working. No idea what came over me but I said, I might like to buy that. He lifted the lid and it looked clean and tidy.  Manager (who I know well) said I could have it for €5 to include the 2 books I was holding. I asked the manager to drop it off for me on his way home (he passes my house) as I didn’t have the car with me.

I’m home now and wondering what on earth I’ve bought??
I won’t know until he drops it off later but I remember it was beige coloured, has a black motor with a rubber belt attached to the hand wheel. It had a lever sticking out on the front that went up and down?
When it arrives, I’ll take a photograph and post it to this thread and see if any of you lovely experts can advise me if it’s worth trying to get it fixed.   

I saw this on a Facebook post and it made me giggle. 

Would they get away with saying this nowadays? 

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https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Really-Useful-Drawer-Tower-Rainbow/dp/B00AZL79UI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BCP9AZKCVK5&keywords=really+useful+boxes&psr=PDAY&qid=1563261688&s=prime-day&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&sprefix=Really%2Caps%2C1061&sr=1-1


Just bought these stacking colourful storage boxes on Prime. Thought they’d be good for storing fat quarters and offcuts  in according to the fabric colour. At the moment, I tend to store them in a couple of shoe sized boxes but I have to rummage through them to find the colour I want.

Recommendations please?

My lovely sister is visiting me from the U.K. next month and I’ve asked if she’d bring a few sewing magazines with her.
What titles are generally sold in the U.K. that’s you’d recommend?

I’m interested in sewing both clothes and accessories but not ventured into patchwork and quilting yet. I picked up a copy of love Sewing this month whilst visiting Cork city but haven’t seen anything else.

Someone posted about the Burda magazine previously but I’m not sure if it’s more of a book or what?

Can you use the large cones of polyester thread on an ordinary sewing machine?
If so, how does it work?
I don’t know the correct terms to google. 

I have a basic Singer overlocker that’s great and I bought a few cones of thread for it and recently purchased a 250m reel of Gütermann thread and wondered about the difference in price v difference in quality and how to choose the right type of thread for your project?

I’d probably stick with the branded polyester or cotton thread for dressmaking but I’m mostly playing at sewing and making bags, bunting and cushion covers etc. at the moment so don’t want to waste money on expensive thread if I don’t need to.