how do you sew fleece?

[ms.shell]

excuse me for being an idiot, but i am making a mess.
i bought a remnant of some football patterned fleece to make a pillow for dh and hats for him and both our ds's. but i dont know how to sew fleece, and it is slipping too quickly under the foot and making a big mess with the thread. i bought some ball point needles, will that help? or what else do i need to know about sewing on fleece? please and thank you!

[orangefoot]

If it is making a mess with the thread underneath the fabric, you need to tighten your tension a bit. Tightening the tension stops too much thread going down to the underside and not locking properly with the bobbin thread.

Cut off a bit of fabric to mess about with so that you don't get all mad at messing up what you are sewing.

Once you have the tension sorted, go very slowly with a long-ish and very slightly zig-zag stitch and see how that looks.

I sew fleece with an ordinary needle with no trouble but a ballpoint can't hurt.

[KristyDi]

Also check with some scraps of other fabric you've sewn in the past to make sure it's the fleece that's the problem. If it is I've seen people suggest laying a strip of tissue paper over (and under) the slippery fabric to help it feed correctly. Then you tear the tissue away after you're done stitching. I haven't personally tried this though.

Also if you've recently gotten new bobbins, I had similar issues when I bought generic bobbins that almost, but not quite, fit my machine.

Good luck!