Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Let there be (bendable bright) light!

One of the Christmas presents from my husband was a bendable bright light for my sewing machine. I had seen ads for this small auxiliary light on a gooseneck which attaches to your sewing machine, and someone had blogged about how nice it was (I apologize, but I can't remember who it was).

I hadn't gotten around to installing the light because I was working on the Double Wedding Ring gift quilt. Today, I was altering a pair of black pants and fussing about the difficulty of seeing the thread I was picking out. I ended up at my desk with my Verilux adjusted down within 6 inches of the fabric so I could wield my stitch picker with any accuracy. After the pants were taken apart, I started fitting and pinning them and went to the machine to sew the waistband back on.

Boy, if I thought picking the threads out on the black fabric was hard, sewing the seams back in was even harder. I felt blind as a bat, even with the pendant light over the table switched up to 300 watts. Then, I remembered the stick-on light. Would this ever be a challenge for it!

It's a little LED bright white light which comes with a small round adhesive holder that snaps on the base, and adhesive clips for the cord. I positioned the light base at the back of the sewing machine next to the presser foot lever, and stretched the cord along the back, using the clips to keep it out of the way. The cord ran down the other side of the machine, and plugged into the extension cord I use for the sewing machine. I switched it on.

Wow! is all I can say. The dark stitching jumped out at me. I could see everything perfectly. The light didn't glare off the machine parts, or shine in your eyes. The little gooseneck allowed you to focus the small light head exactly where you needed it, on the point where the needle entered the fabric. As an added bonus, you could redirect it to illuminate the eye of the needle when threading the machine.

The literature with the light showed it attached to the left outside face of the machine head, but since that is not a flat surface on the Juki I had to go with the back, which works just fine.

How did I ever sew dark fabric without this?

3 comments:

Kay said...

Thanks for posting this. I had wondered if these lights are good. I'm a little skeptical of some gadgets having been burned a few times, and this light is expensive. Good to know it really works. Would you send me the brand name, just in case there is more than one out there? Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

I too would like to know the brand name of this light. I desperately need one. So glad you posted about this. Thanks so much.

The Calico Quilter said...

Della, it's actually called the Bendable Bright Light. If you search on that phrase you will find it. You can buy through the maker's site or through Amazon.com.