Originally Posted by
ckcowl
is the needle hitting the foot or the sewing machine plate? there are a couple different types of plates- one with a small round hole- one with a wider/oblong hole- used for decorative stitching- do you have the correct plate on the machine?
also, are your feed dogs down? sometimes if they are up/engaged- the act of pulling/pushing the fabric fighting against the feed dogs function can cause the needle to be pulled out of placement.
I realize (generic) feet are less expensive---but truly not compared to the cost of repairs needed after the damage they cause to the machine.
From what I can see, the needle hit the foot causing the needle to bend forward--then hit the needle plate in front of the hole. The machine only came with the oblong hole needle plate.
Feed dogs are down.
Originally Posted by
Tartan
The needle doesn't sound like it hit the plastic darning foot or it would have broken. If the needle is hitting the needle plate you may be putting too much pull/push on your fabric sandwich. Check to make sure the foot is attached properly and hasn't worked loose from FMQ. Hopefully the bent/broken needle hasn't messed up the timing on your machine.
I'm not really vigorous about my pulling/pushing, but, I wondered if the movement was pulling the needle and causing it to bend and hit the foot and then the plate.
I checked the foot--it had not worked loose.
I'm going to go check and see if the machine will sew regular stitches to make sure the timing is not off.
Thanks for the replies so far!