My friend and I was trying to add some applique to a project one time and the zig zag stitch would not work. It skipped stitches all the time and was horrible. We were still using our regular piecing needles. We didn't have that much fabric, but it was tightly woven batik of about 4 to 8 layers according to where we where in the block. Others suggested going to a larger size sharp needle. We ended up having to use a Jeans needle. That solved our problem.