Chain piecing - thread keeps breaking - why?
 

I haven't done much chain piecing but I'm doing it for my current quilt. I find that when I reach the spot between the fabric squares where my needle is not puncturing fabric, my thread breaks. Not every time, but enough that it's annoying. Am I doing something wrong? I changed my thread but that didn't help.

Thanks!

I don't leave a lot of space between one piece and the next. Have not had any thread breakage so can't really help you out! Are you pulling on your pieces to move them?

Thanks! I don't think I'm pulling on the pieces but I'll be more aware of that. Maybe I am.....

You might try pushing your next piece in directly after the one just leaving the presser foot. Don't leave more than one thread without fabric under the needle. Hope that makes sense. Obviously your machine doesn't like to sew without fabric. :) good luck Gina

Thanks Gina. I wondered if it was a quirk of my machine. So if I push one piece of fabric right after the other one, will it be hard for me to cut them apart?

It can be a quirk of your machine. i don't know why, but some have said their machines hate chain piecing. Good luck.

What size needle is in your machine? You may need a bigger size and/or a different type of needle. If you provide the type of thread you are using and the needle size, someone can tell you if they are appropriate or what might work better for you.

Also, sounds to me as if your upper tension may be a little too tight. Have you tried lowering the tension?

Thanks native texan and prism99. I'm using a size 12 needle. This particular piecing is the 3rd stage of this quilt and now that you've jogged my memory, there was some chain stitching previously that worked ok. Maybe I need to change my needle? Would that cause the thread to break? It's easy enough to try, so I'll do that. The tension is ok, both types of thread are no-name brands but they've both worked fine in the rest of the quilt.

Yep, could be a bad needle. Or a burr on the needle plate or even a burr on the hook. You can polish the burrs of with a very fine sandpaper -- about 400 -500 gritt.

I hope you'll get it figured out and be happily chain-piecing away, very soon.

Kenmore ... definitely change the needle, yes, an old needle can cause the thread to break. There could be a burr on the eye.

When I chain piece I always finish with the needle down. As soon as one piece is finished, I lift the presser foot slightly (enough to slide the fabric under, but not enough to disengage the tensioner), and slide the next piece until it touches the needle making sure to also slide it far enough to the right to get the correct seam allowance. I usually have just enough space between pieces to snip the threads.

Thanks Annette. I changed my needle and things improved. Still some breakage but not much. But why does the thread only break when I'm in between fabric? Plus, the last break before I finished this stage in my quilt produced a whopper. Look at the photo I took. How on earth does that happen? My thread looks like a cat's cradle from childhood.

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Thanks Doghousemom. I like your technique. In addition to the new needle I was much slower and more careful especially when transitioning between pieces. I think it helped. I'll also try your technique.

Tension could still be an issue. Is there any lint underneath the feed dogs or in the bobbin area? That can change the tension balance. May only become a problem when there is no fabric moderating interaction between the two threads.

Hmm....interesting theory. This machine gets very linty. Every time I change the bobbin I do a complete disassemble and cleaning. I'll check the area. I changed the bobbin earlier today but I wouldn't be surprised if there is lint there already. It's odd - this machine gets so much lintier than my other one, a Kenmore 117.740, which is basically the same machine except the bobbin area is configured a little differently.

My thread was doing that extra threads bit, when my bobbin case wasn't put in properly. My bobbin is a top load, but the case wasn't snapped into place all the way, therefore the bobbin itself wasn't rolling properly and the top thread was catching on part of the bobbin case mechanism. It created quite a mess.

I don't know if that would cause a problem in the side load bobbins.

Edited to add: The bobbin case was only off about 1/100ths of an inch. I had a hard time figuring out the problem.

I never could sew without fabric under the presser foot. My sister in law used it and she did it and worked just fine. She continued stitching at the end of a piece until the chain was long enough to cut and start sewing again without unthreading the needle. I thought if she can do that on my machine I can too so I started sewing a few stitches between pieces and it works for me too. Usually I only do three or four stitches before I start again.
Kenmore, if you use a better thread you won't get so much lint build up. Just a thought.

I'm going to be different and suggest that you do pull the sewn piece - to the back, not the side. But not too hard, you don't want to hit the needle plate, Just keep the threads firm. I run the machine for several inches this way, otherwise without any fabric and no tension behind, the needle going down tends to pull the threads back under the plate. If you begin sewing 1/4' into the fabric without holding the threads tight, do you notice the ends have knotted on the reverse side?

Just a suggestion, it works for me, and I find those couple of extra stitches helps prevent the cut ends from unravelling.

Thanks Gay and the 2 Barbs for ideas and suggestions. I'll try them today. With respect to the lint, I have read about the no-name threads being linty but what's odd is I piece on my Kenmore 117.841 (my avatar) and FMQ with my 117.740 which is essentially the same machine but the bobbin arrangement is a bit different. Using the same exact thread, I can always clean out lint at each bobbin change with the 841 but I can FMQ an entire lap quilt on the 740 and have no lint at all in the bobbin area when I'm done. It's a mystery to me. I also used to have a 1970's Kenmore which never got lint in the bobbin area. It must have something to do with the specific design of the area in the 841. No worries - I love that machine and I'm happy to keep cleaning it!

Then maybe it is the needle size or type of needle. Looking at the picture posted the thread mess looks as if the needle is not inserted properly, make sure you have the flat side of the need in the right position.

I'll check again. What's odd is that I'd successfully chain pieced at least 5 - 12" squares before that happened. Usually the thread would just break off at the top, it was actually shredded looking. But this time, what a mess!! I have this type of thing happen very very occasionally and it always mystifies me. Because things are going along fine and then - bam!!

Could I sew successfully with the needle inserted wrong for a while? I love my machine and I've looked at diagrams and videos of how it works, but it's still a bit of a mystery to me when things like this happen.

I would check the bobbin area for a piece of thread caught somewhere.

Just tried this. The beginning stitches look like regular old stitches, nothing special. Looking at the fabric, I have a nice long thread at the front and another in the back, they meet in a nice stitch and it continues in the same way.

Thanks homespun. I've just cleaned the bobbin area with extra attention. I also changed my needle once again (I don't buy expensive ones so I don't mind discarding them). I have to press 30 pieces before I can try again with my quilt but I did a small chained sample and it worked ok. I think I've incorporated most of your bits of advice. Obviously, new needle and super clean bobbin/feed dog area. When stitching I am going very slowly and carefully between the 2 squares and I'm also keeping the squares much closer together so there is less time with no fabric under the needle. So far so good.... The proof will be after my pressing. I'll report back. Thanks for all your help!!

Well, something worked wonders! I've just finished chain piecing 30 pieces with zero thread breakage. I wish I knew exactly which remedy was the one that worked but I'm glad I'm up and running again. Thanks to all who helped!!

It could be something as simple as . . . old thread!

Thanks!! Honestly the number of possible reasons for the breakage frustrate me. I'd like to know the exact reason things happen with my machine and often I don't figure it out, the problem just goes away and I never know what fixed it. In this case I admit that I was not using a high quality thread, but it was a new spool, not old stuff. After I realized changing the thread didn't solve the problem I went back to my original thread and still had the problem. But something else fixed it because now the thread isn't breaking anymore and I'm still using my original thread. Ugh.

I chain piece on an old Singer from the 1920's. Just before I slide the next fabric under the presser foot, I lift the foot and slide the previous piece about 1/4", lower the foot onto the next piece, and away I go. It gives room for the scissors and less chance of the seam opening at beginning and end. I have had that crazy "cat's in the cradle" thing happen when my needle needs changing.

I don't leave but a couple of stitches between pieces when I chain stitch. I never have thread breakage. I have found some thread spools have thin pieces of thread on them or other flaws, get past those and will sew much better. Never use to have that problem with any thread, finding those areas more and more. Never affects thread in the bobbin.
When changing bobbins I always try to jiggle the bobbin to make sure it is in there correctly. My machines have side mount bobbins and a small space.

Wonderful news!

Not sure why the thread is breaking but you should butt them up against each other, you will use a lot less thread, and less tails, and no extra trimming.

I butt one block up against another when I chain and I don't even lift the presser foot. Just feed 'em through one right after the other. I usually end up with about 1 stitch between each block. Don't have trouble cutting them apart.

Chain Piecing
 

I have a Bernina and the same thing happens to me. 8 times in service and all they can tell me is to sew slower. I now use my 50 year old Pfapp for chain piecing and my thread never brakes between pieces even with 6 stitches.
I hate the Bernina Love the Pfaff

Perhaps if you butt the squares up next to one another, it should minimize the thread breakage, although that's nothing that has happened to me when I've been chain piecing. Hang in there, it should get better.

Thank you for mentioning that. I did end up needing to change my needle shortly after because it was skipping stitches. I'll remember that if I ever get the "cats cradle" thing again. :thumbup:

Thanks for the new replies quilting folks! It seems that some machines are a bit more finicky about chain piecing and in my case if I go slowly and carefully, butting the pieces closely together, it's ok. It was very interesting to find that I'm not the only one to have issues with this.

I have 2 Janome machines. One chain pieces like a dream. The chain piece between blocks doesn't seem to matter, Neither does the speed I sew. My other machine does not chain piece very well. I have to put the pieces really close together and can't sew as fast. Not sure why.

I sew quite a few stitches in between my pieces, just to be sure I have room to cut them apart and the stitches can't come apart, never had a problem unless I'm trying to put a pointed piece under the needle. This doesn't happen though with my Vintage Singer 201. No thread breakage either.

You need to stop with your needle up to avoid the cat's cradle and a lot of thread break and thread nests. BUT the needle can be up and the take up lever still not all the way up - in that case the thread could be still around the hook - so check that to be sure the hook has gone all the way around to complete the stitch. Check to be sure the thread in the needle isn't pulling too hard on the needle - in other works check the tension.

I would think if you butt them up against each other you seams would unravel with only one stitch at the end.

How are you doing it?