Help With Feed Dog Question
 

I am a novice quilter but have been using a Kenmore sewing machine 15516. It is an older machine. Today as I was piecing the feed dogs stopped pulling the fabric through . The lever that's supposed to raise or lower the feed dogs does nothing. I looked in every crevice I could find and nothing seems to have broken off. In your opinion should I take for repair or look for a replacement. Thank you

It depends. If you think you might be ready for an upgrade do that. But if you enjoy this machine and want to continue using it a trip to the sewing machine doctor might be in order. Good luck!

I'd do both. I'm also a newbie quilter and have been using a 35 year old Kenmore. I serviced it to get it running as best it could because it's a solid old workhorse and I want to be able to count on it as a backup. It's solid steel and will probably last forever :) But I'm also going to buy a newer sewing machine, because I want more features to make my quilting more enjoyable. I long for needle up/needle down, auto tie off and start and end, the ability to move my needle so my fabric clears the right feed dog when sewing the almighty scant 1/4" seam and I want better lighting dammit! I'm tired of having to try and squeeze a hobby lamp into the harp because I can't see what I'm doing. And more room! Some fancy stitches would be nice too. I swear I'm going to use all 190+ stitches on the new one - honest! ;)

I would take it in to get an estimate of what is wrong and how much it will cost. Always wise to have a good older reliable DSM as a backup. Sometimes when you dream of all the functions you can have, you end up only using a couple of the fancy stitches. I forget to set my needle down most of the time and find that using a piece of scrap fabric to end and start my stitches works better than any thread cutter. Just getting OLD and set in my ways.

Have you been oiling the machine regularly? Vintage machines need oil. It could be that you have missed an area that controls the feed dogs.

My brother started doing the same thing. I cleaned everything I could think of. Finally, I took off the needle plate and lo and behold, I had a build up of thread under my auto thread cutter and around the feed dogs. It took a bit of time to clean it all out but that was my problem. My feed dogs started working again and my machine seems like new again.

I agree, remove the needle plate and clean your feed dog area. If they're moving, but not coming up high enough, that's an easy fix for your sewing machine mechanic. Not something you want to attempt yourself -- you might just scramble your machine. But that model is worth fixing. It's a great little machine!