Sewing Space Series: Machine Cleaning
The Sewing Space blog series is going to walk through how I organize my sewing space, keep it clean, and more! Stay tuned for a tutorial on how we built my cutting table soon.
Whether you work in a sewing room or pull your sewing machine out to use at a dining room table, odds are you’re familiar with the constant linty, dusty mess that sewing can generate. I can’t stand how thready and dirty my sewing studio gets, and I’m really bad at cleaning out my machine often enough!
Or, at least I used to be. Since streamlining my cleaning routine with a few simple tools, my sewing machine cleanup has become much more regular and much less frustrating. It all comes down to a couple of inexpensive tools that have made my life much easier! I usually also keep a pair of sharp tweezers on hand just in case there’s a tiny spot I can’t reach well (like in between the feed dogs).
LastObject Products
Ok, so a while ago my husband mentioned LastObject products to me, specifically talking about the LastTissues. I was only half listening (and honestly I still don’t know what he said about them or why he brought them up, whoops)… but then I heard about their swabs, and my interest was piqued! I use cotton swabs for everything, but I’ve been working on reducing all of our single-use or disposable household products. While LastObject makes personal care products, I had a hunch that they would be super useful to me in other functions as well. When I got the swabs, I realized they would not only be great for using as normal cotton swabs, but also for sewing machine cleaning! And anytime I can find something that replaces a single-use object and is not only reusable but actually truly multi-use, I’m a happy camper. I use these little guys for basically everything.
They have this super grippy texture that just seems to grab onto the lint, and they can reach in all the places I can never get to. Note: I used to also use pipecleaners for this stage of cleaning, but they only lasted through a couple uses and got so grimy, so I found myself going through a lot of them.
Once I had the swabs in my sewing studio, I though what the heck! I’ll try the tissues and facial pads to. I really hate how dusty the area around my machine gets, so every couple of days I grab one of the tissues and sweep it around. They grab the dust better than the normal cotton scraps I used to use (which always left their own lint behind somehow), and then I just toss them into this little laundry bag I have on a hook under my desk that came with them. I’ll be honest - I’m kind of a sucker for cute packaging, so these make me pretty happy in that regard. Plus everything is either made of silicon or plant based plastics.
Word of warning: The face pads are great for wiping down your desk and machine with a quick spray of water. They are also great at scrubbing basting spray off of your pedal! But… they will not recover from that sticky disaster. Do not do what I did.
If you use this link and the code AMBER, you can also get 10% off of Last Object products.
Car Vacuum
My second secret weapon is… a tiny vacuum! I really hate lugging out the big vacuum to suck the lint out of my machine, and this one is so tiny and easy to use (and cute!). I don’t really use the brush attachment for vacuuming because I don’t feel like it suctions enough with it on, but I use the brush to clean up some other areas. There are lots of other options out there too - look up car vacuums, and see which one seems like the best option for you! If you don’t mind using your big vacuum, there’s a really neat little set of attachments that can help you get into all of the little crevices.
Let’s checkout these suckers in action. My machine is embarrassingly dirty… yikes.
This is just gross, right? And it’s only what you can see. Let’s stick a little swab in there and see what we find…
CHECK. THAT. OUT. Yuck, but so satisfying! The little grippy heads on these things are serious magic. I usually use the vacuum in one hand and the swabs in the other to suck everything up as I pull it out.
Then I use the LastSwab Beauty to clean out the harder to reach places. Its little pointy tip is excellent for getting into all of those nooks and crannies (and, yes, for fixing eyeliner).
Once you’ve gotten all of that gunk cleaned out, these swabs rinse right off with a little bit of warm water.
And here we are, less than five minutes later - so much better!
Note: this post contains an affiliate link, which means that I can make a small commission on some products if you purchase them. That said, I turn down most offers from companies because I will never recommend something I don’t actually use myself!