As we trend toward the fancy machines, we are getting wider stitches and wider holes in our throat plates. My 14000 has a 9mm stitch width and the throat plate is the worst I have for starting small items. I use a piece of scrap paper that I leave by my machine when I am doing tiny sewing on the big machine. My Juki which is straight stitch only seldom has a problem, but the little pieces of paper are an easy clean solution if it does.