I hate loathe dusting. I love clean, dust-free things and spaces, but I do not like all the work it takes to get to that point. Sure, there’s the satisfaction of having completed it, but it takes so little time before your hard work is undone, it hardly seems worth the effort. But, when it comes to my sewing machine, regular cleaning is definitely worth the effort!

Let me preface this with the fact that I’m self-taught. I learned how to use my sewing machine when hand-sewing bean bags for a classroom party several years ago seemed too time-consuming. I had bought a generic brand sewing machine on a whim a couple of years prior because it was clearanced down enough that it seemed worth the risk to try to learn, even if I was terrible at it.

Using the machine’s manual and after a couple of internet searches to decode the language, I got my machine set up and running. And let me tell you, those bean bags did come together quite quickly, but they weren’t very pretty! (Or square, for that matter.) Let’s just say the first lesson I learned was that straight pins are, in fact, necessary for most projects.

Anyway, I say all of this because maybe cleaning the machine is something that is taught when you buy a fancy machine from an actual sewing center (and not next to nearly-expired canned cat food from the clearance aisle of some major discount big box store), or maybe it’s all covered in a basic learn-how-to-sew class (which I never have brought myself to take), but it was something that I never considered as I first began sewing. I mean, sure, I read in the manual to regularly oil your machine and how to properly do so, but I never realized just how nasty those insides can get – especially when you’re using particularly fuzzy materials (like fleece, minky, terrycloth, etc.).

Now that I’ve mastered some of the basic sewing skills (by my own standards), I’ve upgraded my machine. My newer machine has a drop-in bobbin (love this in comparison to my old machine’s vertical bobbin), and consequently, better access to all of the inner-workings, especially under the needle plate. And that simply means I can see when things are starting to get gunked up with lint and fuzz. What I’ve also noticed is that taking the time to clean out the fuzz really does seem to make a difference in my machine’s quality/control.

Which brings us to the actual work… And my secret tool to get it all done.

You know those little junky make-up kits you can buy for next to nothing around Halloween (especially when they go on clearance after the holiday)? They come with little makeup “brushes” that are tiny, cheap versions of a child’s watercolor paintbrush. They are horrible at applying that greasy makeup they come with, but they are the bee’s knees at cleaning out my sewing machine.

The reason they are so well-suited for such a task is due to their size and material. The brushes are small enough to maneuver in the machine’s nooks and crannies, and work around the stationary parts of the machine. The brush section is just the right size for fitting into the small screw seats and the slots between the feed dogs without bending or breaking off the barely-glued-in-there brush pieces. And the brush itself is some sort of nylon or plastic that attracts lint. I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but my guess is static is what makes the brush a little dust magnet – the perfect tool for getting the lint out of those tiny spaces while preventing it from falling back into the machine!

I don’t know the official time-frame for how often you should clean your machine, but I generally do mine after completing particularly-fluffy projects, or when I start to notice lint building up around the feed dogs or the bobbin case. What I can tell you is that after cleaning out a particularly gunked-up machine, the feed dogs work more efficiently, and I at least feel better that I’m (hopefully) prolonging the life of my machine.