Please diagnose my machine
 

I was sewing along and my needle suddenly broke. I changed the needle and now it's skipping stitches. I put in a second needle, same thing. Skipping stitches. Also when I'm sewing the thread seems really loose and floppy. So loose that the thread is coming out of that little metal piece just above the needle.

Loose floppy thread
Skipping stitches

I cleaned under the bobbin real good.

Make sure you got all of the pieces of the broken needle. Can you look under the stitch plate for thread? Try rethreading the machine and bobbin area. Also double check your tension settings. You may have accidentally change something. Good luck.

Oh. One other thing -- if your bobbin has a spring in it and it came out, make sure you re-inserted it the correct way.

Whenever this happens to me, it usually means that I have the bobbin or bobbin case in the wrong way... don't know why, but sometimes I get the bobbin in the case backwards, and it creates all kinds of problems....

That just happened to me after cleaning out my bobbin case. I was so frustrated, nothing I did made a difference. So, I backtracked and removed the whole sole plate and bobbin casing, put it all back together again, rethreaded the top thread, made sure my needle was in all the way, put In the bobbin thread, and checked the tension, which was correct already. Still didn't work! So, back off came the sole plate and bobbin case, and back together again, and I realized I didn't have the bobbin casing in correctly. It is a little tricky to get lined up just so. Now, she purrs like a kitten! DH even asked if I got the bobbin case in correctly and I swore I did! Won't do that again!

I've had this issue when the arms in the bobbin area come off the pegs that hold in the bobbin case pieces...

I know your pain!! I just called the place (LQS...I have a Viking Topaz 30) that I got my machine on Friday with the same problem. I tried EVERYTHING!! Re-threading a million times, tearing the bobbin case apart, changing the needle etc. In talking to their tech the first thing (and always the first question) is what type of thread I had Clark & Coats....I had just finished a t-shirt quilt and it worked fine, I was sewing a pinwale cord. dress for my grandaughter and I had to "fight" with the machine. Finally got that done and had started on a cotton dust ruffle with the same problems. He had told me he could look at it but the first thing he was going to do was change the thread to Mettler. I had some so I changed the thread to the Mettler and it sewed like a charm again. He told me that C&C has a wax coating on it and sometimes causes the problem. The funny thing was that I sewed a few rows (with the Mettler) on a scrap and changed back to the C&C and it continues to sew like a charm. I have since made 3 sets of flannel jammies and finished my dust ruffle with the C&C and all is well. (at this point anyways)

So I guess try changing the thread brand and see if that helps??? Good luck.

Did you re-thread the machine? Loose floppy thread and skipping stitches on my machine means I missed the take up arm when I threaded my machine.

Other than that ... make sure you got all the pieces of the needle from the bobbin area.

If still not good, the broken needle may have messed up the timing which means a trip to the doctor.

I agree re-do every thing!

I was having that problem with my machine at a quilt class and the instructor noticed that I had missed one step in threading my machine. She changed it quickly and it worked perfectly.

This happens to me when I put the bobbin in the bobbin case unwinding the wrong way. The unwiding has to be threaded in the crooked S shape. This is for most machines that have a vertical bobbin and critical for the older Singer machines.

I don't know what kind of machine you are using, but mine will do that occasionally (janome 6600) and all I have to do is shut it off, and then turn it back on. Somehow it's electronic brain gets confused....am guessing it's been around me too long....LOL

That happened to me last night. Top thread got hung up and broke. I decided the needle also needed to be replaced and I put it in the wrong way. I got a mirror to see how it should go and I had it wrong. Caused skipping stitches. This was a vintage machine.

When this needle broke, skipped stitches, I changed the needle, cleaned everything, re-threaded, etc., etc. & it still skipped stitches, I finally tried a different size needle (was using 70/10 & changed to 90/14) & that fixed my problem.
Marilyn

Yournfirst needle would have been for very fine fabrics and sounds like you were sewing with heavier needing a stronger needle. Anyway, since I have been sewing jeans purses, I broke a couple of 90/14 needles, so got wise and bought some jeans 110/18 Singer brand( I have a Brother) and no problems since.I just have to remember to change needles when on a part of the bag that is NOT denim!

DogHouseMom...I like your saying "When you really want to slap someone, do it and say "mosquito!".

When this happened to me, I removed the broken piece of needle, then noticed the bobbin still had some issues. I took the bobbin out, and on the side of the bobbin case, there is a small screw. I tightened that screw just a little bit, and fixed the bobbin problem.

Well I have a Babylock Quest, and it has a thread carrier arm right above the spools of thread that folds down. If I forget to put that arm back up it will do what you are experiencing. So if you have one of those arms don't forget to put it back up.

Make sure the thread coming off the spool hasn't gotten itself wrapped around the spool pin under the spool.

These machines have so many "quirks" and are so sensitive to precision things. I think it is built in just to vex us. It is so easy to miss a step in threading and that messes everything up. Last night my machine was making a very small "popping" sound. I realized that I can't remember the last time I changed my needle (just lazy). The sound is gone. I think the point on the old needle was flat instead of pointy!
Sue

Check to see if you have a burr in the stitch plate, this happens sometimes when you break a needle, you can use an emery board to file it off.
Or a burr in the hook area...

And another thing to check--I had two needles suddenly SNAP right in the middle of sewing. When I figured it out I saw that I was using an old spool of thread which matched what I was sewing. As the thread was unwinding, it got caught in the little slice in the top of the spool where you used to catch a thread when hand sewing.

Always thread your machine with the presser foot up.

I had the same problem and just started all over. I changed the bobbin and needle and dusted for lint and rethreaded the machine. Something worked - I just don't know what it was.

Check your bobbin case to make sure there are no nicks on it that might be snagging the thread when stitching. Sometimes when you break a needle it damages the bobbin case. If there are nicks, take some very fine sandpaper and smooth out the nicks. If that doesn't fix the problem, you might need to take the machine to the shop and have the timing checked.