my sewing machine is hosed....

[mihrimah]

The tension is so screwy that now it won't sew at all. I have no idea. I know its from sewing all these diapers- they're a lot more than it can handle! It's only a basic singer from walmart! At least I got them finished! That's my good news for the day, but I'll post about that later.

My q is: can it be fixed? or is it worth it? It's less than 5 years old, but like I said I got it from walmart. sheesh- I still have a lot to do, and we just got our taxes done and it's a nice amount, but I was going to get a new computer to replace this dinosaur (think first version imac), but I can't afford both a computer and a new machine!

man- just what I need right now- no night time dipes for dd!

[Attila the Honey]

I think it most likely can be fixed, and it'd be worth it to take it in for a tune up and a check. This happens to mine periodically (well, twice in the 10 years I've had it), and it's usually because some screw (I forget what the guy calls it) gets loose or falls out.

Yearly maintenance on sewing machines is a good thing, and usually only costs $30 bucks or so, but I never manage to bring it in unless there is a problem.

[beepsmnms]

My first sewing machine stopped sewing after I sewed diapers up. I had knocked it out of time (needlebar that is) from sewing the thick layers. It went thru all the motions of sewing but wouldn't actually catch the bobbin thread to make a stitch. Is that what yours is doing, if so I can tell you how to fix it very easily!

[amberthesugarcat]

I have the same problem right now, but my Kenmore $200-250 machine stopped working. I had the tension problems a few months ago and I took it apart, things started exploding out, and my husband tried to put it back together with one extra spring that we could not find a place for! Surprisingly it worked for a while, but it then broke last weekend... I want to sew! It costs $75 to look at it and then additional for repairs. I have decided to wait for a month or so and buy a new one. It is over 10 years old.

[boscopup]

Have you opened it up and made sure there isn't a ton of fuzz in there? I know my machine got stopped up (nice pile of bobbin thread) when the feed dogs were jam packed with fuzz from sewing diapers. Now I know to clean the machine periodically, including taking the metal plate off to get to the feed dogs and such.

[mihrimah]

Originally Posted by beepsmnms

My first sewing machine stopped sewing after I sewed diapers up. I had knocked it out of time (needlebar that is) from sewing the thick layers. It went thru all the motions of sewing but wouldn't actually catch the bobbin thread to make a stitch. Is that what yours is doing, if so I can tell you how to fix it very easily!

Yes- this is exactly what it's doing! Oh, man- if you can tell me how to fix it- I'll be so in your debt!!

[beepsmnms]

Originally Posted by mihrimah

Yes- this is exactly what it's doing! Oh, man- if you can tell me how to fix it- I'll be so in your debt!!

Ok, here is how my machine worked. You find the screw that adjusts the needle bar and unscrew it so you can move the needle bar up and down without using the hand wheel. Their should be a notch or scratch or something to that effect to show you where the needle bar should be positioned, youll be moving it either up or down.. sounds like it needs to be moved down but i could be wrong. Try to line it up with the line/scratch/notch if you see it, if not, just move it down a bit at a time and re screw it and try it out. I didn't have to move mine very much and it worked fine after i did it. IF you re screw it and it still dont sew, try it a couple more times if it wont go down any further then try moving it up. I hope this makes sense. Feel free to im me on yahoo if you need more help. I'm not sure what kind of machine you have. My name on yahoo is beepsmnms.
HTH

[mihrimah]

Ok, so I messed around with the needle bar and now it's sewing again, but it doesn't seem to be able to get the tension just right. The bobbin thread comes up or the top thread goes down. I was reading online about resetting the tension. Is that possible or does that just mean changing the tension until the thread works right. Maybe resetting would work?

[beepsmnms]

MMMM well resetting the tension is probably a good idea although i ahve NO clue how to do that. Also, have you been using different thread? YOu might also try winding a new bobbin, sometimes they dont wind just right and everything goes wonky.

[mihrimah]

Its a possibility that changing thread did this in the first place. I switched to this quilting thread that's really thick and that's when it really starting futzing around, now I'm back to the regular stuff.

Does anyone know how to reset the tension?

[StrawHatBrat]

Also, clean out your bobbin case really well. Lint from thread and fabric gets trapped in there and wreaks havoc.