Gabrielle's Mimi

I grew up hearing the same thing! Funny!
Now I teach the women in my classes not to be afraid of it. Great advice from ckcowl.
For those who want to try adjusting the bobbin tension (which is not often needed, just when using specialty threads on my machine) place the bobbin case and your hands inside a large plastic bag. If you don't, the tiny screw that can fall out will be lost forever in your rug! Prevent this by adjusting it where the screw cannot get lost.

Sometimes, depending on the machine you have, you can increase the bobbin tension by putting your thread through the "eye" or around the "pigtail" that is part of the bobbin case.
That way you may not need to adjust the bobbin tension.

BTW, my machine hates monofilament, so I have to turn my top tension all the way down to 0 to get correct tension with monofilament. Don't be afraid of it!