Did my sewing machine have to mess up!!

I've been making placemats for a friend for a Christmas gift. If I do say so myself, the piecing is pretty good for a beginner but for some reason my sewing machine will not let me stitch in the ditch!!!! It did when I made the table runner!!
I'm afraid I've made a mess of two of them trying. I'm so discouraged. :(

exactly what happened? tension problems, staying in the ditch problems? maybe we can figure it out.

They never pick a good time to mess up!! It's always when we are in the middle of something. That's why I have 2 of them. When was the last time you cleaned and oiled your machine. Sometimes it can be as simple as that.

How frustrating. Won't it stitch? Give us more info.

I don't know what happened really. The stitches on the back are soooooooooooo small that I can't even rip them out. It's puckering too. I've played with my tensions so much that I think it's all messed up.
HOWEVER, when I take a piece of one of the top fabrics and make a sandwhich, it sews great.

I don't have a quilting machine, all I have is my Brother sewing machine but like I said, it did the runner just fine. Why not the place mats?????????? Same batting too. So much work and a lot of money invested. I could have bought her a set cheaper!

my first guess is that for some reason the feed dogs are not moving the bottom fabric thru...that assumes of course that the top stitches look fairly normal...did you by any chance drop the feed dogs and forget to raise them again? what is the difference between the bottom fabric and the top fabric - any difference at all? are you using a walking foot to do this stitching?

Cindy, try this and see if it helps.

Reset your machine; totally turn it off and then turn it on and set the stiches all over again.

check the tension

use a NEW needle

check the thread to make sure it isn't catching on something at the top of the machine. maybe the thread thingy to keep a spool on is not allowing the spool to rotate.

rethread your machine. maybe the thread wrapped around the part that goes up and down

Rewind a new bobbin. If it loaded uneveningly it will not work right.

is your feeddog up?

is there something wrong with your stitch in the ditch foot? sometimes they get stuck and won't stitch right. mine needs to be messed with a little then its ok.

Somewhere along the line it will go back to working again. If your machine hasn't been serviced in a year or so, it may be time to get that done too. Alignment is a must. But check all of the above before running out for service.
Maybe now is a good time for a quick swig before going back to your machine. And it wouldn't hurt to tell your girl how much you love and need her right now. And that she's a wonderful friend to you. bla bla bla. Go heavy on that. LOL

I hope you get back on track real soon. Let us know what makes it all better.

[quote=ktbb]my first guess is that for some reason the feed dogs are not moving the bottom fabric thru...that assumes of course that the top stitches look fairly normal...did you by any chance drop the feed dogs and forget to raise them again? what is the difference between the bottom fabric and the top fabric - any difference at all? are you using a walking foot to do this stitching?

Yes, the top stitches look fine. My feet dogs don't raise and lower, I only have a reg. machine. There is no difference between the top and bottom fabric, both are cotton........good quality fabric from a quilt shop.
No, I don't own a walking foot. I didn't have one when I made my runner either, that's why I thought I could do the placemats. I'm only doing stitch in the ditch.

Try rethreading machine. Check the bobbin, may have some lint or a small piece thread caught. Also, try using longer stitch. Hope you get things working.

Turning the machine off and on won't do anything, it's just a reggular sewing machine, not computerized. Feed dogs don't lower or raise either.
I bought new cotton thread, I don't have a "stitch in the ditch foot", have never heard of it.
Only thing I can do is try to rip out the first two and maybe try hand quilting.......never done it before and my hand sewing is not very good.
Maybe I should just give it up and go buy her something else. I sooooo wanted her to have these as the fabric has pink grapes and her kitchen has a border with them on it.

NOOOOO!!!! don't give up. take a break for the night. and tomorrow morning have a cup of coco and a chocolate bar. then do the dishes and then pull out the machine and clean it. then do a test run. You might be surprised that the feed dogs do drop. I have a cheep singer and a janome and the feed dogs on both drop. just check and they may be up but caught on something and not moving. try running the machine with out fabric and see if they move. hope this helps.

Are you using cotton fabric or that oil cloth?

Do you have any scraps? Make a few tests with fabric and batting same
thickness as your project...if there are four layers, use same.
Try adjusting your tension little by little in one direction. If it gets worse,
go the other way. Again, gradually.

Also, start with a new needle. This might help.

I'm sorry but maybe try again from the start.... Let us know what happened when you figure it out.

I really like doing hand stitch in the ditch for these smaller projects, if you use the right color thread it is pretty much invisible,( if you want it to be and not part of the design.)

excuse the weird PM...too early for me! hope your machine decides to work better this morning. I'm still thinking thru the problem...with the bottom not moving thru and the top moving thru (with batting) it sounds like a feed dog problem...the thickness of the batting making the difference. It's possible something happened between the runner and this placemat but I'm not the one to determine what. This discrepancy would also cause the puckering.

I normally suggest that a person not touch their bobbin tension, but in this case, did you try adjusting it? Not sure why it would suddenly tighten up on you tho...so again, I'm cautious about changing it.

I occasionally get a similar problem when at the beginning of a seam one of my thread tails gets caught up in the seam or in the bobbin case...did that happen by any chance? I try to hold them when I start a seam but sometimes get too busy to remember and that's when it happens.

I had the same thing happen with my machine a few weeks ago just out of the blue. Made me crazy!!! As it turned out...I tried all the things mentioned above EXCEPT I didn't take the bobbin case out.........WELLLLLLLLL when I finally did that there was a piece of FUZZ hidden... After I cleaned the bobbin area out really good.....PRESTO! Back to stitch'en properly. Just keep playing...... IT WILL go back to normal..... Quilters are tested every day. :) :) :)

Good luck!

Hope this isn't a repeat, but as I learned the hard way, you REALLY need a walking foot, it feeds the layers through equally, this material or batting may be enough different that it really matters.
Rita

I think my machine may be ok now. I took it in to a LQS and the clerk was nice enough to check things out. We believe it may have been a tension problem. Time will tell.