My Stitches...

No, I didn't get stitches. ;-)

I've been fussing with my leather sewing machine for a while now. A few different people even told me that the machine I have, an Adler 767, wouldn't sew what I wanted to sew. I contacted Adler, and emailed back and forth with the tech guy, and he told me the same thing...that it wasn't the model that would sew heavy leather. Well, this didn't make me happy in the least...here I was stuck with an expensive machine I couldn't do anything with!

So, for the past few days I've really been working with my machine. I'd sew a little, turn a random knob, sew a little more, and cuss. Ok, so I didn't do that last part. Maybe I felt like it...

This is what I was getting...

As you can see, the top thread is just laying on top (the right side of the leather, the top one in the picture,) instead of being pulled down into the middle of the leather like it should be. The bobbin thread was pulled all the way to the top. The bottom actually looked ok! From that I gathered that my bobbin wasn't pulling enough, but I didn't know what changed that.

On top of that problem, it kept skipping stitches. Even when the bobbin pulled the stitches down like it was supposed to (and that was rare) it would skip stitches. You can see that on this keychain I made... (don't pay any attention to the fact that the stitching doesn't start and stop in the same place an that the V isn't perfect...we're working on that!)

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I studied the little paperwork I had that came with the machine. It doesn't help that it's originally written in German...you have to make sense of stuff like "turn knob 2 anti-clockwise."

Anti-clockwise???

After studying, I found that I had to take some stuff apart on my machine, find itty bitty "screw 11" and tighten it. Last night, I did just that, only it took me forever to tighten it, because it was so tiny we didn't have any screwdriver small enough, so I was using the tip of a knife! And that didn't work too well either... Anyway, I adjusted it. And sewed a little. And adjusted it. And sewed a little, so on and so forth.

And then it happened. I ended up with this.



I didn't really have a plan for what this would be...I was just cutting leather and sewing it together...

But it sews a pretty nice line now...

I do have to make other adjustments...like in the above picture, the sewing foot pressure (or whatver that's called) is obviously too strong, so it's marking the leather. I do know which knob that is though, and it's a knob instead of a minute screw!

So then I finished the collar I started the other day. It's a mess, because half of it looks really bad, and then some of it's ok. Oh, well...I'm not selling it or anything...it was just practice, after all.

See...the top was done the other day and the bottom last night...

Looks fairly decent for a practice piece, I guess. Regal has so much hair, it's not like you can actually see his collar anyway! I still need a couple more tools if I want to make stuff like this. I'd have to at least have an oval punch for the buckle and either a round or english point punch for the end. As it is now, I just cut it, and I'm spoiled by the way the punch looks now!

I don't know if you can tell in these pictures, but this is what the english point punch does for the ends. I'm not sure if I'd want this or a round one for a collar. This collar is 1.5 inches, so maybe round would look better on the bigger stuff, while english points would be nicer for smaller...I dunno...

As it stands now, I should be able to get smaller needles and thread and sew any heavier material that my home fabric machine won't do, with my Adler. I think that by tightening everything so much as I have done, the machine is working it's hardest to sew what I need to sew...since it's not even supposed to sew this weight leather, this is the far end of it's capabilities. I think it will do much better sewing lighter stuff, whether that's denim or leather or whatever. I'm thinking leather bags or something...my wheels are spinning wildy!

That'll be it for now! Time to get busy!