The same thing happened to my brother. After bringing it in to the repair shop 4 or 5 times, each time claiming it was fixed, I brought it into another repair shop. There was some plastic piece that was tearing the thread. It had to be filed down. I believe it was in the area above the needle. This occurred right before Christmas last year so my DH said to go buy another machine. Which I did! Bought an Elna and love it! Good luck with your machine.