origamigoldfish

Hi all, I have a question. Now that I have progressed in my sewing skills past basic four and nine patch blocks, I am having a real problem with inconsistent seam allowances. I measure and cut accurately, and my basic piecing passes a seam allowance test. I use a quarter inch foot made for my machine, and square up and size my units before piecing blocks...but my seam allowances are still too small. All of my blocks are oversized. I have three projects in various levels of stalled because despite all of the care in the world, nothing is lining up correctly. I think the issue is with my machine, but I don't have another machine to use to see if it's really my machine and not me.


My machine has a wide mouth stitch plate and absolutely loves sucking down the edges of triangles and even squares when I try to piece. There is no small-hole stitch plate made for my machine, I'm stuck with the big one. I've tried two different quarter inch feet, an applique foot, a zig-zag foot, even a walking foot. I've tried chain piecing with leaders and enders. I've tried paper interfacing, and narrowing the opening on the stitch plate with index cards. Nothing has helped. Once the machine sucks the edge of the fabric under the stitch plate, not only is the fabric frayed and damaged, but the seam is also skewed. Sometimes the action moves the fabric more than an eighth of an inch to the left under the needle. I cannot tell you how many times I have repeatedly pulled the same unit out of the machine, picked out the first ten stitches, and tried again only to get the same results.


My other big issue is that I can't seem to lower my pressure foot pressure. In addition to sucking the fabric down under the stitch plate, this machine likes to roll seams while I'm sewing, even if I've pinned them in place. I have to stop and sew with the hand wheel, a stitch at a time, at every point in a seam where more than two layers of fabric come together if I want the seams to stay straight. If there's a triangle involved, I actually have to raise the pressure foot and sew across the seam to keep the points straight because the pressure foot doesn't give the fabric enough space to move freely under the foot, it will just keep stretching the fabric until there's no more give before it will sew across it.


I'm so frustrated I could cry. I have a bonnie hunter mystery quilt where the blocks are sometimes more than half an inch bigger than they are supposed to be, and even when I do take the blocks apart and resew them so they finish correctly (sometimes this takes 4 or 5 tries per block), when it comes to joining them together my machine still distorts all the points and seams. I have a star block made of HSTs that are 3/4 of an inch bigger than the background pieces. The patterns are correct, and I have measured and squared down to correct sizes as I make sub units for these blocks, but the longer the seam and the more layers it has in it, the bigger my ending units are.


I've tried making adjustments according to the manual, but this is a modern singer. most of the manual's instructions are the machine will do it automatically, don't mess with it!


Is this just a skill I haven't mastered yet? is it time to take my machine to a shop? or should I just go back to hand piecing?

Synnove

I absolutely would take the machine in to a shop and tell them the problems you're having with it. It sounds like you have done a lot of things right, but to no avail. In the meantime, one little trick I use to keep the machine from sucking fabric down the hole is to tuck a very small piece of paper -- something thin like phone book paper -- under the beginning of the seam before you start to stitch it. The paper only has to be about an inch or inch and a half long, but it helps get the seam started well. Then just tear off the paper once the seam is completed. You will need a shorter stitch length if you use this technique. That will perforate the paper more densely and will help it come off easily when you go to remove it. Please keep us posted on what you decide to do. We care, and don't want you to be frustrated but, rather, enjoying your quilting! It shouldn't be necessary to go back to hand piecing.

mmunchkins

What kind of machine is it?

OurWorkbench

I agree with Synnove in that That seem to be a problem of not being able to adjust the pressure on many of the modern machines. Which model of Singer is it?

Are the seams nested? I do not know if it would help but perhaps when you come to a seam possibly use a seam jumper of some sort. While you won't have the same thickness as jeans, I wonder if just a slight lift to the rear of the foot when you come to a seam would help. See https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...s-t317950.html and Hand crank for 401a

One thing that I have heard mentioned when having problems getting the stitches and not puckering or stretching the fabric is to starch before stitching.

Another thought is have you measured your seam after using the 1/4" foot.

I hope you can get it worked out.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Barb in Louisiana

You've done a lot of things to test. Since you say your seam allowances are too small, that means your fabric has to go over to the right more or your needle to the left. Having a wide opening means the needle should be movable. I have used pads of post it notes to make a guard to slide my fabric in the correct place. Have you taken an index car and used your 1/4 foot to see it you have an actual 1/4" seam? Sometimes you don't. Another thing. When you were sewing the 4 and 9 patches, were they the correct size after sewing? The seam allowance doesn't matter as much as the finished size of your piece.

I use leaders and enders to keep my machine from eating my HST's. They can be any size squares you choose and even rectangles, like bricks, etc. and you end up with another quilt when you are done. I just use an extra small piece of fabric, maybe 1" x 3" and start sewing on the 1" width part and sew onto my fabric. This keeps my machine from eating ends. Others have actually taken a piece of index card and cut a smaller hole in it and overlaid over the larger needle hole and taped it on the machine. You have to cut out for the feed dogs too. I haven't tried this. The leaders and enders worked for me.

Before you take your sewing machine in, you may want to find out how much it is going to cost. The Brother sewing machine repair I have found locally charges $150 to look at the machine and do a normal cleaning and oiling and some resetting of tensions, etc. Parts and extra time are charged appropriately. It's almost cheaper to buy a new cheap machine.

Please post the sewing machine model and maybe a picture sewing your issues.

Onebyone

It would help if you posted the make and brand of your machine.

berrynice

As another poster mentioned. With your 1/4" foot, you would still need to have your needle placement in the right place. My singer that I use only for mending, has three needle placements. To the right, the left, and center. You need to measure your seam using all three needle placements with your 1/4" foot and see where your needle placement needs to be to get the 1/4" seam.
It sounds like, with your seams being too narrow, that you probably have your needle placement set on either the right or left setting (depending on how you feed your fabric through)

cjsews

A few thing I do to help these issues. Mark a 1/4 inch line on my fabric and see where the fabric lies under the pressure foot when the needle is inserted on this line. Adjust the needle position if possible, or know where to line up fabric under the foot. When you start sewing, hold the thread ends. This will usually help with the machine eating your fabric. When I come to those thick joint seams I use a stiletto or seam ripper if it is handy. Hold it under the front of the pressure foot until it gets over the hump

SuzSLO

So sorry to hear about the troubles you are having with your machine. It’s terrible when what you do for fun is giving you headaches.

For the seam allowance, I would suggest adding a line of painter’s tape that is several inches long on the bed of your machine to mark 1/4”. Then, as you sew, you keep the edge of the fabric against the tape. It may take some trial and error to place the line so that it gives you the exact size. I find this helps me a lot with sewing an accurate seam allowance.

For the issue with fabric getting pulled into the feed dogs, I second holding both threads taunt until you have stitched about 3 stitches. I have to do this on my machine. It is a pain (especially when FMQ), but it works.

Also, I found my machine, that has an auto needle down function, works better when I let the machine do its thing and keep my hand off the hand wheel. When I move the needle by turning the hand wheel, my machine doesn’t seem to know exactly where it is and I am more likely to have a rat’s nest.

Finally, I know you tried leaders/enders, you might try using a true scrap as leader/ender and start smack in the middle (like with an inch of fabric on all sides of the needle).

sewingpup

well, I think I finally have figured out how to get the best stitch for quilting out of my 9mm stitch width Bernina 590. I switched from the quarter inch foot to my basic 1 foot, moved the needle position 4 clicks to the right and replaced my 9mm stitch plate with a 5 mm stitch plate. It is tolerable. The machines that have that 9mm stitch width for all those wonderful decorative stitches simply are not the best for piecing in my opinion. My little Bernina 215 with the 5mm stitch width is much easier to use when piecing. It simply works. Even better for piecing was my Viking Megaquilter which only does straight stitch. That one was easy peasy for piecing and a great straight stitch. This is why folks love those older vintage machines for piecing. Most of them simply just straight stitch and do it very well. Now, I am really excited to use my 590 to do some actual quilting, applique work, and embroidery. So my thoughts are that most folks actually need to have more than one machine! I mean what carpenter only as one saw, what painter only uses one brush. We need the right tools for our job!