The Sewing Machine Ref

I have a resident rotating with me this month who's trying to sew her daughter some dresses. She told me she took a class years ago because her mother made her, and she recently bought a Singer for $80 at Target. It seemed to be broken, though, because it would only sew a few stitches before jamming and breaking the thread. She actually hand-sewed a simple dress for her daughter when the machine broke. I told her to bring the machine to clinic and let me have a look before she took it to a shop (not that I'm a mechanical genius, but she didn't know what the feed-dogs were and said the top thread wouldn't pick up the bottom thread, so I figured we had a user-error).

So she set it up today and I saw she had the tension maxed out. She was also using the minimum stitch length. I fixed the settings and asked her to do a little stitching on the coverlet she's making. She put the bulk of the material behind the machine and fed it under the needle towards the front. (I didn't notice this because I was signing something, lest you think me negligent). When I did turn around I saw her sewing while pulling the fabric towards her with all her might! No wonder the machine was jamming! Can you imagine? (For non-sewers, the fabric feeds through from front to back.)

I immediately exclaimed "What are you doing to your poor machine?" (I didn't yell this, I've never yelled in my office.) I shooed her away from the poor Singer and told it I would never let her fight with it like that again. I let it know what a good and brave machine it had been, but that it's troubles were over. After some consoling and coaxing, the poor baby sewed a fine straight seam for me, then sobbed with relief. The resident looked on with amazement that the fabric literally walked itself through the machine while I gently guided it, not having to pull and tug. I let her sit down again and asked her to demonstrate the proper sewing technique. She actually finished sewing the thing before the first patient walked in the door, and was beaming with pride.

[Disclaimer: No patients were harmed or left waiting during this clinic.]

I did ask her permission to post her picture and to use it (like Katie's EKG pockets) in a future lecture, and she acquiesced after being threatened with a failing grade for the rotation....uh, I mean she was psyched about the other residents finding out that she sews! (I also told her that her mother should get her money back for those sewing lessons!)