Originally Posted by
Irishrose2
It depends on the machine. My 1973 Elna is very insistent that the threads be held. My 1956 Singer 301 doesn't care.
It never even occurred to me to try not holding on any of my machines. But that classroom Elna hated me anyway. I cleaned a lifetime's worth thread jams out of it and was convinced that I had a sewing machine curse.*
*Because I do have a dot matrix printer curse. I can make one jam just by being near it. This was far more relevant in 1990.