#173 - An Eco-Friendly Blow Job

Not What You Think

First off, my apologies to all of you porn-surfers who accidentally clicked on this link from your Google results. An eco-post about dust removal is probably not what you were looking for. And if it is, well, my condolences to you.

What this post is actually about is maintaining my sewing equipment. Spring orders are starting to pour in at The Very Merry Seamstress and the serger and sewing machine both require weekly blow-outs to keep them from jamming up. If you're not much into sewing let me give you the technical low down on what happens.

Every time I sew a garment, little bits of fiber, similar to dryer lint, come off the fabric and get lodged in the myriad of tiny gears and other internal mechanisms of the machine. After five or six straight hours of sewing, the machines start to bear a striking resemblance to a Persian cat.


It would be im-freakin-possible to try to pull this fuzz off all the itty-bitty nooks and crannies with my fingers, so the only efficient way to remove it is by blowing it out.

And not by leaning in and giving a blow. First off, I smoked for 15 years so I can't exhale hard enough and I would pass out long before the machine was unclogged. Secondly, blowing straight at the machine often results in ME bearing a striking resemblance to a Persian cat (don't ask how I know).

So my "blow" of choice up until now has been this stuff:


Yup, bottled, compressed air. You've seen it. It's in craft stores, office supply stores, big box stores... pretty much anywhere you shop. It's used by seamstresses, crafters, PC techs, bored adolescents, etc. One bottle generally lasts me about two or three months. Then it gets tossed and I have to pay another $6 to buy more air in a new container. This isn't just bad for the environment, it's bad for my balance sheet.

Well I've been racking my brain for a month now, trying to come up with a viable alternative - hopefully utilzing something I already own. So yesterday I hit the garage - land of power tools, excercise equipment, camping gear and sports stuff - but no car (afterall, where would it fit?).

The first find was hubby's air compressor that he uses for his really cool tools, like nail guns and such. But that thing is so heavy and loud, I really wouldn't want to drag it upstairs once a week. So then I headed over to our camping gear and sport stuff and found two great alternatives - a manual pump for inflating our camping mattresses and a little hand pump that we have for blowing up soccer balls and what not. I tried them and they both work like a charm!

So, that's four points for checking my own house before hitting the store to buy something new. PLUS, six additional bonus points for tricking the porn crowd into learning a little something about environmentalism.


Savings:

Approximately six cans of compressed air per year. Over the course of a sewing lifetime, that could easily add up to hundreds of cans!


Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Devising a solution took a bit of noodle power and wading through the piles of garage crap was work-like, but implementing the change was easy peasy. Plus, the new blowers give the kids something to play with while I sew. You know, other than the pin cushion and scissors I usually give them.

#166 - Like A Well-Oiled Machine

Oiling My Machine (because sometimes the title really IS the subject matter)

I sew for a living. You knew that, though. I can tell because you're nodding in agreement, like, "oh yeah, I know, you've told me that before". You're such a good listener. That or you're groovin' to some DMB on your iPod and I just can't see the ear buds.

Isn't Blogger great? I love this cool, new feature with the built-in web cam where I can watch you. Although, you might want to put on some pants. And you've got some shmutz on your face. No. no. not there.... a little to the right....just under your... there! You got it.

Sadly, I could continue with that pretend dialogue for another hour or so and still be amusing myself. You, however, look like you're losing interest. So let's get on with the daily change.

I sew for a living, making renaissance garb for my sister's website, The Very Merry Seamstress (shameless commerce plug - go buy stuff now). Anyhow, I'm sewing up like a million freakin' chemises this week and with every stitch my machine is making this awful crunchity-poppity noise. Kind of like the way my knees sound when I climb the stairs at night. At first, I got excited about it because if the machine were to go into sudden stitch-arrest, I could get a newer, better machine and that would make me happy, because I like new things.

But that little fantasy was fleeting, as eco-reality slapped me across the face. Duh. Tossing ten pounds of #7 plastic into the trash and going out to buy a new hunk of #7 plastic isn't very green, even if it is tax-deductible. And so, I did what a good earth-cookie should do - I looked in my manual to see if I'm supposed to maintain the damn thing in an attempt to lengthen its life span.

Turns out, I am. Apparently, my little Janome enjoys a good lube as much as my blog buds do. And so, armed with my manual of poorly-sketched diagrams and badly translated Chinese instructions [here to be of the oil stitch drop three], I gave the machine a good, old fashioned oiling.

And you know, she's purring like a kitten now. I tried rubbing some on my knees, but it didn't help.