Rant: my sewing machine decided to eat a whole dress project right before a show

I was up at 3 AM last Tuesday finishing this flowy sundress for a little indie fashion show my friend runs out of a studio in Portland. The machine was humming fine, I was on the last seam, and then it just went BZZT and grabbed the fabric and pulled it all into the bobbin area. It made this awful crunching sound like it was chewing gravel. I spent an hour trying to untangle the mess and ended up having to cut the dress out in pieces. The bobbin case was jammed so bad I had to order a new one for $18 from a shop three towns over. Now I have to completely re-cut the pattern and start over, and the show is in 8 days. Has anyone else had a machine just wreck a piece that close to deadline? What do you do when you don't have time to redo everything?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige_bell818d ago

Did you try using a lighter fabric? I used to think being careful was enough but now I always test it first.

mason_murray88d ago

Oh man, I've been there. Not with a dress but with a custom jacket I was sewing for a friend's wedding - machine ate the whole sleeve right before the final fitting. What saved me was calling every local fabric shop to see who had rush order services or even just extra yardage of the same bolt. Also, that bobbin tension might have been off if you were sewing late and tired. I'd say set up a test station with scraps of your fabric and run a few seams before you cut the new dress, just to make sure the machine is happy again. Eight days is tight but doable if you chain stitch the main seams and save the detailed finishing for last.