My Mother's Day cushion project, and why you should read manuals.

It may seem a little late, but now Mother's Day is over here in the UK I can share this cushion I made for my Mum! 

It has 3 overlapping red hearts on the back, and a blue heart with 'mum' stitched on the front.
She loved it! 

I decided to have a go at this with my Singer

as I've hardly had the chance to try her out since I've had her, poor thing! I couldn't really get her working properly last time, so I decided I was going to sit there until I did. I was sure it was something to do with tensions....she wasn't picking up stitches properly, or if she did they were too loose on top or underneath, sometimes both ha ha!
After a couple of hours of trying, I was about ready to throw in the towel when I decided to try my old friend Google..I found diagrams of how to take the tension wheels apart, how to remove the bobbin holder etc, and was starting to get a little overwhelmed when I came across a little post about the needle. About checking the needle was in the right way round.
It turns out mine wasn't. It should have been in SIDEWAYS!
Boy, did I feel silly...I'm glad Mr. B was the only one here and he doesn't know a thing about sewing ha ha ha!
So I put in a new needle the right way round, and voila! She sews like a dream! I'm so happy! I'd never heard of a sewing machine where the needle went in sideways - it just shows how much of a newbie I still am to this sewing game lol. 

So, if you ever get a machine that won't sew....check the needle, before you start taking it apart to find the problem - it might save you hours! 

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

xxx