Spent 3 hours trying to sew a straight line on a thrifted bedsheet, turns out my machine was threaded wrong the whole time

I was so frustrated my stitches kept looping that I actually started pulling my hair out, then my roommate walks over and points out the thread was sitting outside the tension disk, has anyone else had a "fix" that took embarrassingly long to figure out?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler_burns661mo ago

The "thread was sitting outside the tension disk" line hit way too close to home. I spent an entire afternoon once trying to fix a sewing machine that kept making nests of thread underneath the fabric. Took it apart, cleaned it, re-threaded it three times, and finally gave up. Next day my mom looks at it for two seconds and just flips a little metal lever I didn't even know existed. That was the presser foot tension release thing. So my question is - did you actually take the machine apart or did you just keep sewing and hoping it would fix itself? Because I definitely did the latter for way too long.

finley_wells661mo ago

Not quite right about the presser foot tension release though... that little lever just lifts the presser foot up a bit so you can slide thicker fabrics under it. The actual tension discs are usually controlled by that numbered dial on the front of the machine. I found that out the hard way after watching like ten YouTube videos when my mom's Singer started acting up. But yeah I definitely did the whole "hope it fixes itself" thing for way too long before I actually cracked open the casing and found a wad of lint and a bent needle plate. Sewing machines are just ornery little beasts that don't like being ignored.