You Might Be Trying To Fix The Wrong Thing

Tonight I was sewing a bunch of my glorious self described “shitty robes”
(you know, good enough for photos but not good enough to sell)
I was on the last hem of the last robe
And I was ready to pat myself on the back for a job well done
when I realized it hadn’t been sewing anything for the last 10 minutes.
I saw a little line of perfectly punctured needle marks where the thread should have been.
After I released a curse word from my mouth,
I pulled the fabric out from the machine to see what had happened.
I noticed that the thread had bunched up underneath the fabric
so that told me it was the bobbin that was the issue.

“An easy fix”

I pulled out the bobbin and inspected it,
expecting to find the culprit.
But aside from some fuzz from the machine
it looked okay.

I pulled a bunch of thread off the bobbin
to give it a “fresh start”
put it back in the machine
and then looked for my thread.
It had been cut and was on top of the machine,
waiting for me to re-thread it.

“Naturally, the bobbin probably pulled it too tight and it snapped.”

I concluded.
I stuck my tongue between my teeth and squinted as I tried to get the thread through the needle
(I remember seeing my Granny do that when she sewed when I was little - she said that helps the thread go in better - who am I to argue?)
I lined up the bobbin and the thread and it was good to go.
Smooth sailing.

10 minutes later, I was happy to be done.

I pulled my fabric out and held it up to inspect my great work.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?”

Again, new perfectly punctured perforations adorned my garment
but no thread.
I turned it over and up at the beginning there was a tangle of threads again.

I was ready to give up.

To give in.

(Starting a sewing project at 10pm is probably not the smartest move, anyway)

Then I took a deep breath

Okay. Let’s think.
Let’s get back to basics.

We know the bobbin isn’t the problem, but rather it is the RESULT of a problem.
So what controls the bobbin?

Then I remembered.
In the past when my thread had tangled,
it was the result of loosened thread tension.
It was the fact that I neglected to re-tighten the thread tension after every project.

In less than 30 seconds I tightened the thread tension.

I put my sunshine yellow satin back under the needle,
took a deep breath
and that needle and thread put my glorious garment together.

Sometimes our frustration isn’t with the thing that is right in front of us.
Sometimes it means taking a deep breath,
Getting back to basics,
Looking at the larger context,
and most importantly,
Understanding what part we play in our own undoing.