I was taught that it is ok to sew over them... But I don't now....

Just like everything else - we learn new things

I find if I slow down my machine tends to find it's way over the pin without hitting it. I very rarely break a needle. Too lazy to stop and pull out every pin! Of course I avoid pinning at all whenever possible!

I try not to, but sometimes they just appear and I do hit them!!

I just bought a new Brother machine this year from a dealer. I go back to that dealer often to by thread because I get a discount on everything else in the store since I purchased a machine. Anyway while talking to the dealer a couple of weeks go she warned me harshly not to sew over the pins, alot of the new models can short out if you jam a pin in them. Now I've been sewing for years and its a habit to sew over them, thats how every sewing teacher I had taught. But with the fear of shorting out my machine, in the last few weeks I've been taking the pins out just as I get to them. Not a hard habit to break when you talk about hundreds of dollars to fix. Warranty doesn't cover it if they find a pin jammed in there somewhere. Sometimes I think all these bells and whistles arent worth the hassle.

I used to but don't much anymore. If I think I need to, to hold the fabric, I will stop and 'walk' the machine over it.

rarely use them & when i do i don't put them in the way of the foot...
there ARE ways of sewing over them w/o breaking anything-- seems like a no brainer...

I always try not to sew over pins, happens though
:!:

It is not a good idea but I do all the time - but I am very careful and go slowly when I do this. If you hit a pin just right, you can really mess up your machine. After working for Viking, I have seen some very unhappy machines that ran over too many pins.

If I have a block or a border that I need to "ease" into place and it would require many pins, I do what we used to do in clothing construction with sleeves. I run a tad longer stitch just inside the seam allowance and loosen the tension. I then pull one thread to tighten up the stitches (like you would gather but without the gathers - does this make sense??). Works great for easing one block to another when they are a bit off.

I try and avoid sewing over them.

I do remember sewing over pins, along with broken needles and bent pins and sometimes damage to the fabric, so I decided that that's ridiculous to keep replacing needles and pins and have been taking the pins out before the needle gets there for many years.