PP Puckering Has Me In A Pickle
 

I love PP and have been doing it for quite some time. All of a sudden I am getting a pucker on the back side of my seam. I am using a 90/14 needle, 50 wt thread, setting for 18 stitches per inch with bobbin tension set at 4. This combination has been my normal PP setting and has always worked just fine. I have cleaned all the parts, switched to a brand new needle, played with the bobbin tension and nothing works. If I do a practice stitch on two pieces of material the seam is straight and true, no puckering. I'm at a loss what I'm missing and why this started happening. Am working on a queen size quilt for an August wedding so I've got to figure this out. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I also tried the same settings on my other machine and it does the same thing. The paper I'm using is foundation piecing paper. I'm completely baffled. Thanks for considering my predicament and all ideas will happily be tried.

When you cleaned all your parts, did you make sure to clean your feed dogs? I'm wondering if the feed dogs are full of lint and therefore not moving the fabric along.

I'd try using just a plain piece of computer paper. If it doesn't pucker, then I'd say it was the foundation paper and switch it if possible.

Good luck

This happened to me last week! I finally figured out that the thread wasn't in the "next to the last" thread guide--it had gotten wedged between the guide and the machine which caused more tension on top. Recheck your threading.

That was one thing I found on my search for a solution, there was a real build up of lint in the feed dogs and I cleaned that out very well. Thanks for pointing that out though.

I will re-thread it again. I've tried this, but I'm willing to try it again as many problems have been resolved with re-threading. Thanks for the hint.

Haven't tried this, but I will go back downstairs and try that. I did think about the paper, but it is foundation paper from That Patchwork Place and so I thought how could it be the paper. Guess there can be a bad batch of paper just like everything else. I'll try changing the paper and see how that works. Many thanks for the hint.

Betty, when you get the pucker is it both pieces of fabric or just the bottom one? Are they similar fabrics?

if the puckering is on the bottom of your paper piecing it would have something to do with the top tension- not the bobbin- perhaps when you were cleaning/servicing you tightened the top tension a little? or perhaps the thread is not correctly in between the tension disks- (try/practice/trouble shoot with fabric and paper instead of just fabric- did you change the paper you had been using? a heavier paper could effect the tension setting- try loosening the top tension just a little at a time & see if that helps-

Thank you all so very much. I tried it on a piece of computer paper and the stitch is just as smooth and even as can be. The puckering was on the bottom piece of fabric so I will try playing with the tension on top before I pitch all the special foundation paper I purchased. Otherwise I will have to reprint all of my foundation pieces and I spent the extra money to be sure I had the proper paper to do the job correctly.