I have not been able to sew for a week, thread keeps breaking, skipped stitches, tension not right. I have cleaned the bobbin casing, put in a new needle three times, rethreaded the machine a million times, messed with both upper and lower tension, gave up sending it for repair. Went to sewing room last night to make sure everything was put back on the machine cause I was bringing it somewhere to have it looked at, so I said to myself, self lets just take a look one more time at the manual and see if we can't figure this out and low and behold there is the problem right in front of me. The flat part of the needle faces the rear of the machine. Leave it to me to figure out how to put a sqare peg into a round hole. How was I even getting the needle in? Anyway, my machine is working just fine now and I will go and wipe the mud off my face.

Been there done that. When I purchased my first Featherweight, I kept threading from the left to right. DUH, If all else fails read instructions. It is threaded from right to left, No more problems. LOL

I once sent my machine to the shop to be repaired...the nice man called and explained that I hadn't threaded the bobbin into the case properly. Just that one thing and the machine was breaking thread and sewing tangled knots on the back of fabric!!! Didn't have the instruction book to check since it was a really old machine. I'm sure though that we weren't the first or last ones to do this. We live and learn and will make some other mistake next time. LOL

Don't feel bad, I had a walking foot that came with my machine and when I used it I couldn't figure out why people liked it so much. I wasn't putting the little arm up around the screw that holds the needle in. I felt so dumb. I have to hope even the brightest (of which I certainly don't qualify) of quilters have done crazy things too.

I bet we won't make the same mistake twice!!!

I'm in the the dumbass club! a few months ago my brand new janome suddenly started making thread nests in the bobbin and making a horrible noise, it wouldn't even pick up the bobbin to bring it to the top, the last thing i had done was use the htread cutter, i love that thing!i took the bobbin area apart as far as i dared to see if i could see what went wrong, for 3 days i cussed and cried waiting for monday so i could take it back to the dealer. patrice said "did you rethread it?" i was very adament that the problem was the thread cutter! i wouldn't even try rethreading. finally on monday afternoon i called to be sure the guy was in, 75 miles away, he said "did you rethread it?" i rolled my eyes and said IT'S THE THREAD CUTTER! he said well let's just try it. so i did, guess what :oops: the thread had come out of the takeup lever. you know patrice enjoyed it!!

I will not make the same mistake and everytime I change the needle I will be chuckling and saying flat to the rear dumb dumb.

ROL!!! Yip --- been there, done that!

Add me to the list! I was having all kinds of birds nests on the back of my embroidery. Took it to the dealer had it cleaned, same problems. Went back, first thing she looked at was my bobbin thread. Instead of using the best thin poly thread, I had somehow slipped in a bobbin from my Janome sewing machine with some crappy linty thread. That's all she had to do! Senior moment! I don't know how I did it, but I keep my embroidery supplies totally separate now from my sewing supplies!

I had a Pfaff several years back. The foot lifter would not stay up. Took it to the repair shop waited 13 weeks for them to get the part in. Picked it up went back home ,30 miles, plugged it in and heard a whirring noise. I put it into the car and I was steaming. waiting all that time and now have a new noise. Took it back and was ranting and raving at the salesclerk. She plugged it in and she unengaged the bobbin winder and said."Is that hte noise you heard?" I was so embarrassed that I could have screamed...

when i got my new Janome 6600 and i was trying to do a serpentine stitch-it would sew a stitch or two and then sew in place. I had tried this stitch when i got it b/c it was one of the reasons i wanted this machine. well it turns out i had the wrong throat plate on the machine. i had forgotten that there was two plates. DUH!!! I even took it back to the dealer and she set it up and looked at it and told me i had the wrong plate. i was so embarrassed.

lol--that is sooooooooooooo me!

I'm afraid you'd lose that bet. :oops:

I threaded my Pfaff wrong the other day. I've been using if for a year so how did I forget how to do it. Just a senior moment I guess. At least the machine got a good cleaning out of it.

Same issue with my embroidery machine. I was ready to send it in and be charged $124.00 to fix the tension. I found a tiny piece of lint stuck in the bobbin case.

I had to take mine in for 'repair' to discover my screwup. (Here I would insert the little, red-faced, smiley face, if I knew how.)

my pfaff would only sew a few stitches--did the full bit needle change de fluff etc then noticed i had the single pattern button on --yep we have all been there

At least when this happens we have to take time to clean them. Guess that is there way of saying "Hey I need cleaned up and out!!!"

It took me quite a lot of snarled and broken thread to figure out that to correctly mount the bobbin in my "new to me" Bernina, I needed to open the little latch. Not sure how I got it to work correctly the first two or three times I changed the bobbin.

I later had a moment of heart failure when it would not advance the fabric at all - checked that I didn't have it set to wind bobbins, moved the feed dogs up and down, dismantled and re-cleaned... then remembered that I had set the stitch length to 0 in order to end a seam. DUH. Runs great now!

Cheers, K

We shouldn't feel so bad that we have to take them to the dealers for our flubups...without us they wouldn't have jobs!!!! LOL

glad you figured it out, saved yourself some cash, now go shopping.

I just did that same stupid thing about having the flat of the needle the wrong way. Thank God for the instruction book, huh!!!??? Now I'm having the same problem as someone else....my decorative stitches are standing still and making quite a mess of thread nests. I think mine might be the plate too, but I only got one and it says nothing about a different plate. So, let me join this dumb*** club!!
Oh...as I was cleaning my maching last night, I saw this hole under the bobbin plate that I put a drop of oil in every couple quilts. It was filled with "lint" so I dug and dug and dug to get it out when all at once the whole "wick" came out!!! Guess it's supposed to stay there, so put it back in. LOL!!

Ok here's my duh moment. I had just received my new Janome 6500 a few years ago and was so excited. Had it all threaded and ready to go to a class that weekend. During the class, I ran out of bobbin thread so my friend let me have one of hers so I wouldn't have to stop and wind a bobbin. Well my machine would not work right after that! Tried rethreading, thread kept breaking. Even called my dealer and he walked me through everything he could think of over the phone. I finally just had to sit there while the class continued. The frustration factor was off the scale. I took the machine to the dealer (a 200 mile one way trip) and it turned out to be the bobbin. My friend was using a Brother and apparently Janomes and Brothers do not like to swap bobbins! Talk about feeling stupid!

LOL I have a similar situation. I have been threading my machine wrong for a year. I just found this out the other day when I "swore" up and down that the kids had messed my tension up something crazy. I rethreaded, changed the tension, nothing changed, so I finally rethreaded and looked at the manual. the whole nine yards.
Put the presser foot down you will have tension, rethread the machine according to the manual and it will be right. Im my defense I threaded according to the quick start poster for a year and it is different than the manual. still worked either way though.

Some of the biggest problems have the simplist solutions !! At least you found it yourself. I would be proud :thumbup:

I just been reading and laughing. I told DH that you all always make me feel soooo much better! When I was shopping for my new Bernina..I brought it home to try out and it wouldn't sew for me at all...just a huge mess. I took it back to the store and found that I had put the bobbin in the case backwards...:roll:...I was sooo embarrassed that I had to buy the machine :lol:

Happens to the best of us!!! So consider yourself a BEST!!! I cant see to put my needle in,(need new trifocals),but it wont go in except one way so I can do it by feel.

My sewing machine repair man says that is one of the first things he looks for so join the club, alot of others do it too!

I learned years ago that all Singer Bobbins are not alike either. I bought what I thought was a generic pack of bobbins to use in my machine. Snarls, rats nests, you name it, but not a single stitch. Then I looked more carefully at the bobbins and the few millimeters difference in thickness, along with one being flat and the other rounded, makes all the difference. So when I went searching for Bobbins for my Bernina, I was VERY careful.

Cheers, K

Me too. My brother which was bought last January jammed up on me several weeks ago. I took it apart and worked and worked cleaning the bobbin case, changing needles, rethreading etc. Nothing worked.
Someone here on the board asked if I had unplugged it--well, no. I did just that, but no luck . I put it under my sewing table, pulled out my old white and kept going. I pulled it out last week to take to the repair shop and thought I'd try it one more time. Turned it on and voila,
It worked and I've been using it ever since.

Roxanne

been there and done that over again and again I just went 20mi to buy 1/4 foot and stich in ditch foot (DML viking) she had both I just didn't know what i was looking for

Don't you just hate it when that happens. Makes you feel like a total dork. I have done that too. My quilting machine doesn't like cotton thread on top with polyester on bottom. Will mess up everytime. Bet you can't guess how I found that out?

Don't feel bad, I have done all of it ahahahahah..but this is how we learn right? Another tip, if your thread keeps breaking,chances are the thread is rotten lol....

Been there done that! I find that when ever something doesn't sound right or do right, I clean & oil, change the needle and rethread.

Ive done the SAME thing, lol!

When I got my new machine I took a class to learn how to use it. The first thing they told us was if you ever have a problem with the machine rethread the machine, top and bobbin. 90% of the time it will correct the problem. Sure enough, every time my machine acts up I rethread and it fixes it. I pull out the thread and totally rethread it.

Oh I hear you because I did the same thing. Now, when I switch from the Featherweight to the Janome I have to recite, left to right or vice versa.

lol been there done that

Oh, my word, that is exactly what I was doing! lol When I first got my machine and tried the walking foot, I couldn't figure out why it was making this "clacking" noise. Even asked about it when I went in for my lessons. Asked if anyone else's did that. Of course, no one's did. I was going to take it in when I finally realized what I was not doing. I was [u]so glad[u] I had not done that!

Your machine sounds like mine. I think I'll go and recheck it.