J Miller

I'm laughing, snickering, and guffawing .... because my Alden will make better top stitches than my wife's Bernina Record 930. LOL

She's making shopping bags from denim, using cut up jeans. She puts pockets on the outside then sews on some decorative top stitches around the edge.
So this morning she's complaining because the Bernina is having trouble with the thread. She's using Coats & Clark Dual Duty Plus Jeans Topstitch thread. I noticed that stuff is about twice as thick as the C&C Heavy thread and the top tension kinda wasn't good. The stitches are sitting on top of the material and the pattern isn't formed quite right.
We popped the top off the machine and took a look see inside, nothing amiss that we could see.

So being myself I grabbed one of the spools of thread she was using, put it on the Alden and without touching any of the tensions I started doing decorative stitches. Oh they came out sooooo purtyyyy . Whoo Hoo!

Well, I did do one thing different: I used a size 18 needle where as she had a 16 in the Bernina.
I'm pretty sure that had something to do with it as this top stitch thread is way thicker than normal.

We'll try a size 18 needle in the Bernina and see what happens. If it doesn't help, I think that machine just might be getting a bit finicky. Maybe time for a good cleaning and oiling. Hmmmm, where's my jug of Tri-Flow?????

Joe

jljack

Joe, I love your tales of your machines...this is confirmation that older is better!

Nanamoms

Joe, better watch out with all that laughing...those heavy duty thread spools might just be coming at your head!! LOL

bearisgray

I would be just as gleeful as you seem to be! HEE HEE HEE!

Neesie

LOL WTG, Joe!

Caroline S

I can see that you really LOVE your Alden. Be nice and do commiserate with your wife and her poor machine. It is called keeping the peace. But I know what you mean. I used my Elna 7300 to do some satin stitch on a small project and what a mess it was. I ended up ripping it out and redid it on my Morse 4100. It outdid the Elna hands down.

J Miller

My wife's Bernina is one of, if not the best sewing machine she's owned. It's a work horse and there is nothing cheap or tinny about it. I do not fault it for the stitch quality in this case due to the thickness of the top stitching thread.
But, that Alden is something else. It's all steel, I've yet to find any plastic inside and when it runs it's the most solid sounding ZZ machine I have. My 401A sounds like a thrashing machine in comparison.

I was just being ornery when I was teasing my wife. I'll wager that with the larger needle the Bernina does better.

Joe

shelrox

Have to admit I love the stitch on the Singer 328 I picked up recently for $15. vs my $2000 Elna. I still love the old steel machines.. cant beat them.

miriam

I'm with you on the Alden. Very nice stitches. I have one I just cleaned up. I do believe it is old but brand new - not been used much if at all. It is in a very nice cabinet too. I really like it.

J Miller

Miriam, you got an Alden? What model and did you get a manual?

Joe