Tools, Equipment and Sewing Machine Care
What this domain tests
The Tools, Equipment and Sewing Machine Care domain checks whether you can identify, use, and maintain tailoring tools and a domestic lockstitch machine. Questions cover measuring and marking tools, cutting tools, pressing equipment, machine parts, threading, tension, and fault-finding.
Core rules
- Keep tools in separate groups: measuring (tape, metre scale), marking (tailor's chalk, tracing wheel), cutting (fabric shears, seam ripper), and pressing (iron, pressing cloth).
- Use fabric shears only on fabric. Paper, pins, and wire dull the blades.
- Fit the correct needle size for the fabric; insert it fully, with the flat side in the direction specified for the machine.
- Thread with the presser foot raised so the tension discs are open. Wind the bobbin evenly.
- Clean lint from the bobbin case and feed dogs after each use. Oil only the points named in the manual, with one or two drops of machine oil.
- Turn the handwheel toward you, needle rising, when freeing fabric. Unplug before cleaning or changing the needle.
Worked example
A machine forms loops under the fabric and skips stitches. Reasoning: loops on the underside point to the top thread, so check the upper threading path first. Raise the presser foot, rethread from spool to needle, and confirm the thread sits between the tension discs. Test on scrap. If skipping persists, replace a blunt or bent needle and match its size to the cloth. If loops appear on top, inspect the bobbin thread path and bobbin case tension instead.
Traps
Threading with the foot down; using cooking oil or over-oiling; turning the wheel backwards; forcing thick fabric under a fine needle; and cleaning the machine while it is plugged in.