Quilting Grandma

Quilting even more so.

DOTTYMO

last week I looked at a friend's old singer which was not working. I began by putting all levers into correct positions. Began to sew missing stitches. Cleaned bobbin area and changed thread. Still sewing but skipping stitches. Each check was a slight improvement. Finally tried to take needle out, pliers required, kept pulling. Eventually another lady took it out stronger fingers than mine. New needle and it worked. Friend had lent the machine to someone who maintained he had not fiddled or taken the needle out. Finally he admitted he had. The needle we worked out was not in the needle shaft so we sewers knew it had been moved. Would have started with needle had I known this fact.
needles need to be new and in the shaft to work properly. Hope you keep sewing.

Annaquilts

Lint is what came to my mind also.

cathyre

I have a son who is a Technician who will tell you in heart beat not very needle that comes out of a new packet is perfect , he buys his in bulk of thousand and says he would get at least 10 in each batch that are no good ,I could of been just that needle.

citruscountyquilter

A needle put in backwards will also result in skipped stitches. The flat side of the shaft needs to be where the thread comes out. A friend bought a featherweight and couldn't get it to sew properly. I looked at it and she had the needle inserted so the thread went in front to back. Featherweights are right to left. I moved the needle and it sewed like a dream. I put my needle in backwards (with the flat part to the front) once and it skipped stitches. I've also had an experience where I didn't push the needle in far enough. I've learned to slow down and not be so rammy when I'm changing needles. Now if I could just learn that lesson for the rest of my life...

quiltin-nannie

LOL! Poor ghosts! I blame them for everything around here!

Lady Diana

Tension has nothing to do with the needle size requirement, but your thread size and density if your batting does. Best advice to any quilter....use a 90/14 topstitch needle. The topstitch has a larger eye and makes a slightly Iarger Sure, you need to check for lint and debris.....but skipped stitches means the top thread is not meeting up with the bobbin thread in time to lock. Change to a 90/14 topstitch needle and should not have any more problems. Happy quilting

maxnme01

It's those darned sewing Fairies. They sit on my shoulder often. Bad, bad, fairies.

sewbeadit

Go with it and quilt, you may never figure out why, however, not all needles in a pack are the same, they can be different.

Monroe

My usual cause for skipping stitches is a burr developing on the needle point. I have had problems with lint or thread bits binding in the bobbin case or tension discs. I once went through almost a new pack of needles trying to solve the skipping, only to find burrs in the eyes or points of them all!