How-To Care For Your Smocking Pleater!

Is your pleater hard to operate? Are you breaking a lot of needles? There are a few things that you can do to keep it running better, as well as plain old common sense.

Regardless of what brand of pleater your are using you must care for it in order for it to work properly. In order for you to have your projects turn out the way you want them to, you can do a few simple things to make sure that you are working with your machine in tip top shape.

First of all, keep your pleater in clean, dry place so that you don’t have to worry about moisture. If your pleater is kept in an area of your home where it can become moist, it will rust. Your best bet is to keep your pleater in an area where there is lots of air circulation thus allowing any dampness to evaporate off. If you keep your pleater in your closet or in a drawer that has very little air circulation, you can expect a small amount of rust to begin to form. Now this isn’t something that happens often, but if you are aware that it can happen, you will be able to avoid it.

Also, you must keep your pleater free from lint and grime. You will need to keep your pleater free of loose threads As with other machines, your pleater will need to be oiled occassionally. Although they are not sensitive to dust, they are sensitive to grime that floats in the air. This grime will coat the gears and eventually leave dark streaks on your fabric when being used.

Although pleaters do not need to be cleaned on a regular basis, if you start to break needles or you notice that there a small dark spots on your fabric, it is definately time to clean your machine. If you notice threads wrapped around the gears, there are probably threads in other places on your machine. If you spill leomonade on your pleater, it is definately time to wash your pleater, LOL.

You must keep your pleater free of threads. If you notice threads caught in the needle slot, they may push the needle out of line. Threads that wrap around the gears can also push the gear out of alignment causing needles to break.

Be sure to change your needles at the first sign of trouble. If you are breaking needles, they may need to be changed completely. Changing only 1 or 2 needles may not solve the problem. It is amazing how hard it is to see if your needle is slightly bent and the only way to solve your needle problem is to replace them all with clean and properly shaped new ones. If you accidently leave in a bent needle that you thought was fine, you will throw off the pleater and can cause the rest of the new needles that you have just replaced to bend or break. Trust me, it isn’t worth changing only the 1 or 2 that you think may be the culprits causing all your problems. Your best maintenance is to replace them all and know for certain that they will be in top working order.

If you are finding that your fabric is sticking to the needles or they don’t want to pass through your fabric easily, then your needles may need a little help and lubrication. A little trick to lubricating your needles is something that I learned from my grandmother. Don’t try to use the old stand by - oil. That will only leave stains on your fabrics and really isn’t going to help your needles anyway. The best way to get your needles to work better is to pass a piece of wax paper through the pleating process a few times after every each and every use. This will leave a small amount of residue from the wax on the paper on the pleater needles thus allowing them to pass through the fabric much easier. If you continue this practice after every use, you will find that you will have little or no resistance from your needles. You will also find that your needles will break less often.

If you keep these hints in mind and look after your pleater after every use, you will have your pleater for a very long time and probably without any problems either. If you continually use the wax paper after every use &/or before every use, you will also find that you won’t hae to change the needles as often either. If you are having any problems with your pleater and these suggestions don’t help, definately feel free to contact me and I will do what I can to address your particular problem.

As I cannot give you any guarantees that these hints will prevent all your problems with your pleater, I can, however, tell you that these steps will definately help prevent some problems if you follow them regularly. It becomes a matter of preventative maintenance. If you care for your pleater as you would your sewing machines and other items you own, your pleater will give you many years of enjoyment.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful and you can put to use even a little of what I have suggested here. If you are looking for more information with regards to your pleater, feel free to contact me at any time. I will do my best to help you solve your problem and answer your questions.

If you are looking for more information on how to operate your pleater, there is a great book available. Not only does this book explain about the pleater itself, it includes directions on how to use it to make some specific smocking projects. It will walk you through a number of processes. There are also a few smocking patterns and directions included.

I hope that this will help you to improve the quality and enjoyment of your pleater and all your projects. If you still have questions, feel free to send them to me. In the meantime, Happy Smocking!