glad you figured it out, saved yourself some cash, now go shopping.

I just did that same stupid thing about having the flat of the needle the wrong way. Thank God for the instruction book, huh!!!??? Now I'm having the same problem as someone else....my decorative stitches are standing still and making quite a mess of thread nests. I think mine might be the plate too, but I only got one and it says nothing about a different plate. So, let me join this dumb*** club!!
Oh...as I was cleaning my maching last night, I saw this hole under the bobbin plate that I put a drop of oil in every couple quilts. It was filled with "lint" so I dug and dug and dug to get it out when all at once the whole "wick" came out!!! Guess it's supposed to stay there, so put it back in. LOL!!

Ok here's my duh moment. I had just received my new Janome 6500 a few years ago and was so excited. Had it all threaded and ready to go to a class that weekend. During the class, I ran out of bobbin thread so my friend let me have one of hers so I wouldn't have to stop and wind a bobbin. Well my machine would not work right after that! Tried rethreading, thread kept breaking. Even called my dealer and he walked me through everything he could think of over the phone. I finally just had to sit there while the class continued. The frustration factor was off the scale. I took the machine to the dealer (a 200 mile one way trip) and it turned out to be the bobbin. My friend was using a Brother and apparently Janomes and Brothers do not like to swap bobbins! Talk about feeling stupid!

LOL I have a similar situation. I have been threading my machine wrong for a year. I just found this out the other day when I "swore" up and down that the kids had messed my tension up something crazy. I rethreaded, changed the tension, nothing changed, so I finally rethreaded and looked at the manual. the whole nine yards.
Put the presser foot down you will have tension, rethread the machine according to the manual and it will be right. Im my defense I threaded according to the quick start poster for a year and it is different than the manual. still worked either way though.

Some of the biggest problems have the simplist solutions !! At least you found it yourself. I would be proud :thumbup:

I just been reading and laughing. I told DH that you all always make me feel soooo much better! When I was shopping for my new Bernina..I brought it home to try out and it wouldn't sew for me at all...just a huge mess. I took it back to the store and found that I had put the bobbin in the case backwards...:roll:...I was sooo embarrassed that I had to buy the machine :lol:

Happens to the best of us!!! So consider yourself a BEST!!! I cant see to put my needle in,(need new trifocals),but it wont go in except one way so I can do it by feel.

My sewing machine repair man says that is one of the first things he looks for so join the club, alot of others do it too!

I learned years ago that all Singer Bobbins are not alike either. I bought what I thought was a generic pack of bobbins to use in my machine. Snarls, rats nests, you name it, but not a single stitch. Then I looked more carefully at the bobbins and the few millimeters difference in thickness, along with one being flat and the other rounded, makes all the difference. So when I went searching for Bobbins for my Bernina, I was VERY careful.

Cheers, K

Me too. My brother which was bought last January jammed up on me several weeks ago. I took it apart and worked and worked cleaning the bobbin case, changing needles, rethreading etc. Nothing worked.
Someone here on the board asked if I had unplugged it--well, no. I did just that, but no luck . I put it under my sewing table, pulled out my old white and kept going. I pulled it out last week to take to the repair shop and thought I'd try it one more time. Turned it on and voila,
It worked and I've been using it ever since.

Roxanne