Originally Posted by KK
I have a problem - I have a White 1505. I know it's not a vintage, but wonder if you could help me. I have the corner of the quilt I am putting the binding on, and my needle is stuck half way down. I can not get it to go up or down so the quilt corner is stuck under the needle. How do I get the needle to move so I can get the quilt out??
I have loosened the needle, the foot, taken the bobbin out. But still have the problem. Do I have to cut off the corner of the quilt to get it out????? Thanks for any info you can give me. KK
It also squeals when I sew - is there a belt inside that needs to be replaced??
wow. I'd carefully (using goggles for eye protection) cut that needle in half with a pair of heafty wire cutters. Then work the cloth/needle parts out from under the machine area. Re assess how/if it's stuck in the quilt. Use a seam ripper to clip the sewing threads, use plyers to pull both needle halves out of where they are. If the quilt cloth has been sucked down into the machine needle plate, you'll have to take the needle plate off the machine I guess ... to get it out without tearing it. There should be a way. Sacrifice the needle.
As far as why the machine did this... the resident experts can tell you more.
Could be that your needle is dull, needed changing.
But it sounds as if the machine is struggling to sew the binding on, because it's too many layers of thicknesses... hence the freezing/heavy work sounding of the motor. I wouldn't want to try to do that again with that particular machine...it's over working the motor, could cause it to be damaged. Again... that's just my opinion. Usually, when you run across a patch of heavier than normal sewing, and the machine starts to over work itself... it's best to stop trying to sew normally. Instead, (and I apologise if this is a tip you are already familier with) instead, turn the wheel on the side of the machine over by hand, sewing the problem few stitches by 'hand crank' turning the wheel manually. Once the patch of heavy work has been carefully hand sewn, the commence with normal sewing.
Some of the newer, non metal machines use a bunch of plastic parts. They are cheaper machines, to be sure... but they also are not up to the task of sewing through 7 or more layers of clothing (double folded bias binding alone is 4 layers, the quilt top/back and batting is 3, plus any seam allowances/corners you run across add 2 more layers.) That is a lot to sew, for a basic machine such as that model White.