craftgrrl | ETA: solved, thanks. :) (Reply)

My needle fell into the machine last night when I was sewing. This is my first sewing machine (A Singer Inspiration, 4210) and I have no idea if this is serious and will kill my machine or how to remove said needle.

I tried removing the needle plate and using a magnet in hopes of somehow getting the needle out, but there's a lot of metal in sewing machines, so it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

Please help me, and thanks in advance. I'm sorry I'm so stupid! :(

ETA: I ended up taking it to a vacuum/sewing machine repair shop, as suggested, and they checked it out to make sure the needle hadn't gotten caught in anything. It evidently fell through straight to the bottom, where it isn't causing any problems (my machine has a belt, so apparently this is okay?).

The repair guy said that, in the future, should I have any serious problems with my machine, we can always get the needle out, but that it would be way more of a hassle to take the casing off my machine (which looks like one big hunk of plastic to me) than to just leave it there.