Sometimes you just have to stop sewing and do some major cleaning up!

This includes the machine.

I knew it had been a while since cleaning out my Janome 1600, but when I took the throat plate off, it was awful! Kind of amazing it still worked!

So I got busy. I got out as much as I could with my little brush that comes with the machine. I used tweezers if needed and then a cloth. I oiled the places that are supposed to be oiled and put the throat plate back on.

I wiped the whole machine on the outside, trying to baby it a bit. It hasn’t given me any problems and I want it to stay that way!

Here are some pictures. You can pat yourself on the back if you’ve never let yours get to the state that I let mine go.

While I was at it, I went ahead and filled up some bobbins. This is one of the things I do when I’m kind of tired, but it’s not really time to quit sewing! I go ahead and fill bobbins. I would hate to stop while I’m in the middle of piecing a top to stop and wind if I can do it at a different time. I try to do this any time I’m getting low (under 10 wound bobbins I consider “low”).

This particular machine goes 1600 stitches per minute, so I do go through thread relatively quickly. Plus these bobbins aren’t as big as the ones my other Janomes use.

Cleaning out under the throat plate is actually something I do periodically. If I remember, I do it more often than this - this instance was particularly bad - and I’m not sure why I had not cleaned it a bit sooner than this. I guess I just wasn’t thinking!

But it made for some good pictures!

One time my friend here in Poland called me to her Pfaff Hobby that wasn’t feeding correctly. I asked her if she had cleaned out under the presser foot. She hadn’t. She didn’t remember that she was supposed to - ever! When I opened it up to show her that the built up lint was stopping the feed dogs from moving, she was surprised and a tad bit embarrassed at the easy fix.

She assured me it would never happen again.

And I don’t think it ever did! (I was teaching her to do patchwork.)

Let me encourage you to do better than I did - clean your machine! Don’t be afraid of it!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you over in the store! She’s working hard to keep you in fabric at affordable prices!