jillaine

Hoping someone here will recognize what happened and perhaps be able to help me or point me in the right direction.

I was stitching along just fine. I was doing paper-piecing and stitching through freezer paper as well as fabric. 100% cotton thread. Stitch length slightly more per inch than usual. The needle broke. Not unusual; it happens from time to time. I put a new needle in. Subsequent stitching resulted in the top thread was not catching the bottom thread at all. I changed the thread; re-inserted the same new needle. Improvement. But the upper thread would periodically skip pulling up the lower thread, resulting in something akin to Morse code: dot dot dot dash dot dot dot dot dash etc. -- the "dash" being the missed/skipped stitch.

Any ideas what's causing this? And better yet: how I can get it back to normal?

Thanks!

-- Jillaine

Tartan

Did you open a new pack of needles? Check to make sure the needle length is right for your machine. Put white thread and a different colour in the bobbin and do a zig zag stitch. The zig zag will tell you which thread is acting up. Clean and check both tensions. If you've done all that perhaps the timing has been set off and it may need a trip to the machine doctor. Maybe someone else will have other suggestions.

jillaine

Tartan, you rock! That was the problem. I didn't know there were different lengths. I had to dig deep in my various haystacks to find the right needle, but I found one that works. Who knew? YOU did! Thank you. Stitching along merrily now!