machine skipping stitches
 

Help! I'm making potholders for Christmas gifts. They are very thick, several layers of fabric, plus the Insulbrite center. I'm ready to put the binding on.My machine sews along just fine and then skips stitches, making very long ones, before sewing correctly for a while. Very frustrating! I've tried using the walking foot, the 'J' foot on my Babyloc, all to no avail. I've rethreaded, cleaned the bobbin, etc. What more can I do? Any suggestions would be most welcomed.

I sometimes have the same problem and it's usually just after passing a thicker seam. Usually I'll keep going and then go back and re-stitich that part from the opposite direction. Once an area is stitched it's flattened out a little and the second time is easier. Hope that helps.

Did you clean out the feed dogs? Sometimes when quilting the batting gets in there and mucks everything up.

Try changing your needle. Sometimes a dull or slightly bent needle can cause that. If you're doing a really thick piece, you may have bent it in the first few stitches.... :)

I agree with the needle suggestion - 9 times out of ten it's the needle if stitches are being skipped. For tough sewing I use a Schmetz denim needle, 80/12.

I'm sure too it is your needle or you haven't put it in the machine far enough. Sew on regular cotton and see what happens. If works fine is the sharpness or size of the needle.

You've had some good replies. My suggestion would be to go to a larger needle. Sometimes when you're going through thicker quilts, the thread "pulls" too tight when it goes through the fabric and then doesn't make the loop underneath that the bobbin hook needs to catch to make the stitch. = dropped stitches. That, and go slowly. Sometimes we rev up the machine to get through the thick stuff, but it needs extra time to work right.
If you're still getting dropped stitches with a 80/12 needle, go up to a 90/14.