Solving Your Sewing Machine Problems

Learn to diagnose and fix your own sewing machine problems to save yourself unnecessary trips to the dealer and unwelcome repair bills. Diagnosis is straight forward. You can see evidence of the problem. Remedies are simple and easy to do.

This is the list of the sewing machine problems that are covered.

Breaking Needles

• Properly insert a new needle. Your needle may have broken because it was defective.
• Make sure the needle you are using is appropriate for the thickness and density of the fabric you are sewing on. A dense, high thread count fabric like a batik or pima cotton calls for a Microtex Sharp needle.
• Don't pull your fabric as you sew. It is common for new free motion quilters to pull on the fabric when they are learning to quilt. This bends the needle and it breaks when it hits the throat plate.
• Check for a proper tension setting.
• Is your needle in the proper position. If you are using a single stitch throat plate the needle must be in the center position. Is it?
• Don't sew over pins. If you hit a pin, change the needle.
• Make sure that the foot, the throat plate and the needle are inserted correctly and tightened appropriately.

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Fabric Won't Feed Properly

• Make sure your feed dogs are in the “up’ position.
• Make sure your feed dogs are clean and free of lint and dirt.
• Check that you are using pressure foot pressure. Have you recently been machine quilting and removed the pressure?
• Is your presser foot installed correctly so that it is making contact with the fabric?
• Is your stitch length set higher than 0? Again, with free motion machine quilting you may have forgotten to reset your stitch length.

If none of these work, your timing may be off. It's time for a dealer visit.

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Skipped Stitches

• First change to a new needle.
• Make sure the needle is correctly installed and in good shape – no burrs, not bent, no nicks.
• Is there enough pressure on the presser foot? Have you recently reduced the pressure foot pressure because you were quilting and forgotten to increase it again?
• Check your needle tension. A too tight tension can cause skipped stitches.
• Make sure the machine is properly threaded. Is the thread in the take up lever?

If none of these fixes work, there is a good chance that your machine's timing is off. This can only be fixed by a trained repairman.

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Thread Nest forms on the bottom

• Re-thread your sewing machine making sure that the thread is in the tension guides, as well as in the take up lever.
• Raise your feed dogs if you are piecing and not quilting.
• Hold the both the bobbin and needle thread tails in your fingers as you begin a line of stitching. This will keep the tails from tangling on the underside.

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These are easy to do fixes for simple sewing machine problems that happen. Again, many of these sewing machine problems are caused by your needle. Keep plenty on hand.

If you are unsure or are uncomfortable with any of the remedies to any of these sewing machine problems, consult your dealer for assistance.

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