newbee3

I was told when I got my machine that it did not matter as long as the foot is up and the tension is released

SueSew

I bet that is how I got thread mysteriously stuck in the innards of the machine between the spool and the place it comes out to go into the needle. Doing FMQ, thread broke, disappeared. I was mad! I pulled (yanked?) it out from the spool end and I will bet that some stuck thread-needle-end was stuck in there and broke off instead of coming right out the top.

Now I will try to do it right. Thanks!

That cost a bit to find it and get it fixed.

SueSew

How do you release the tension? Move the knob on the front of the machine all the way to loosest setting?

gale

By raising the presser foot.

Divokittysmom

I have been told that pulling the thread out backwards and not through the needle can possibly damage the tension discs or throw them out of whack for lack of a better term. This was from my sewing machine dealer.

CAS49OR

I was taught to pull down through the needle too -- at my first sewing class a couple of years ago. Also, at the dealer when playing with their machines or taking a seminar.

It's just as easy to pull that way so I do.

I guess if I was worried about wasting that little bit of thread I wouldn't sew at all since I spend more time ripping out thread from making mistakes than I do sewing some days!

I just learned on QB the other day the presser foot should be up when threading too. I hope I remember that right. It does make sense if leaving the pressure foot up releases the tension disks while threading it would not affect/harm them when un-threading in either direction.

Regardless, I'll keep doing it the way I learned. Then it won't matter as much if I forget to put my presser foot up.

Rose_P

I tend to agree with this. I never heard it until recently, so used my first brand new White machine for 20 years, never once pulling the thread out from the bottom. When I inherited my mom's Elna in 1986, I sold the White in a garage sale (Regret doing that!), and it was bought by a man who owned a tailor shop. He was delighted to get it because it was clean, well oiled, well maintained and ran like new. I don't know if you can generalize from that, but I've had the Elna since then and continued to pull the thread out "backwards", with the tension disengaged, as always, and I'd defy anyone to find any problem with this machine, which is now 45 years old. I also have a Bernina that is more than 40 years old - same story. Just because I keep hearing this, I've started pulling the thread out through the bottom on my new Singer, but I have to say it goes against the grain to do something that isn't borne out by all this experience.

Nevertheless, on this new machine and other new ones I've seen, there's no way to even see the tension mechanism in ordinary use, so I tend to be a little less confident that there's nothing possibly getting stuck in there, and pulling the thread out the new way is not that burdensome. I guess I can afford to waste a few inches of thread each time, on the off chance that this might be a good thing. Thanks for starting this discussion!

Editing to add that when it sews in reverse the thread is still going the same direction, and so is the wheel. You can easily test this. Turning the wheel the wrong way is definitely a no-no.

ccthomas

Oh No! I have never done this correctly. It makes so much sense. I wonder what else I am doing incorrect. Thanks for giving me this important tip!

EasyPeezy

Or like Emeril Lagasse would say...don't touch that dial. :-)

Yooper32

Good grief! To think that I had to live 81 yrs. to learn this information. I am pretty sure that I have never done this procedure for any of the machines I have sewed on for many a year, but I guess that they are all "smart" machines, or they all loved me and didn't want to embarrass me for being so ignorant. lol