Wintry.

Today has felt very wintry; grey, cold and often wet. I settled in to an afternoon of sewing but sadly things did not go to plan.

After more checking, pinning and tacking I was ready to begin sewing. I brought down the sewing machine, did a test piece because the tension can be a problem with this machine and away I went. Working slowly, sometimes having to push the  whole cover through to the other side of the machine I carefully began stitching the darts. Got one side done, began the other and then ……. the machine which is operated by a foot pedal began to sew by itself. Luckily I had just finished a seam and was easing the fabric away from the foot but it was a bit of a shock. The only way to stop the machine was to switch it off. Having safely removed the chair cover I tried again with some scrap material but the machine zoomed off on its own again. 

I couldn't get the tiny screws undone with a glasses screwdriver but Peter gave me a more substantial screwdriver which did the trick. I had hoped to see some obvious like loose wires but the problem appears to be with the white unit which did feel hot. Looking on eBay a new replacement would be £40 and a second hand one £25 which is still a lot. A request on FB has yielded the name of a sewing machine repair place. I did wonder if I could just wire in a replacement pedal to the old machine plug. Peter's not sure as he reckons there's a transformer invovled.

So that was the end of my sewing for the moment unless I opt for hand sewing.