In honor of all the Corona virus news, and all of the cleaning and sanitizing that goes with that, how about cleaning your sewing machine too!

I may have not cleaned my sewing machine EVER, until I was a fully formed. I periodically pulled it out of the closet and just expected it to work. (Oh it should be fine! I haven’t used it in 10 years, but I really think it’ll be fine).

I barely dusted it off, did NOT change the needle. May have even used the spool of thread that was on there- dust and all.

The first thing I tried to make was an Amy Butler Weekender bag. One of the hardest bags I’ve ever tried to make.

Needless to say, my machine gave up pretty quickly. Just seized up.

Now, would it have given up as quickly if it had been cleaned, oiled, and taken better care of? Who knows. Moral of the story is don’t do as I did. A few minutes of taking care of your machine goes a very long way.

As my machine purchases got more expensive, I got more diligent about cleaning them regularly. And I realized that it does not take a ton of sewing for a lot of dust and fuzz to accumulate in it. Cleaning it can take 5-10 minutes and is completely worth it.

In this week’s Q(uilting) and A video, I take you through the steps of cleaning my machine. Try it this weekend. Get up close and personal with your machine and see if you can tell a difference in its performance!

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel or on IGTV to get my weekly Q(uilting) & A videos. I release a new video every week! Read about this series.