This thing is as bad as a printer!

October 4, 2023 11:48 AM

I bought a sewing machine. Help save it's life because I swear I'm going to smash this thing into a wall. All was going well until I got nylon thread to try my hand at piecing some quilt stuff. It's CONSTANTLY unthreads. Like after ever single successful "sew something" instance, i have to rethread it. And sometimes I confirm that it's threaded before sewing and then somehow once I hit the pedal it unthreads. Sometimes it stays threaded and all the thread goes down into the bobbin basement Sometimes it wraps itself around the stick that holds the spool.

I'm going crazy. I have to make a million one inch little sews and after almost every one I'm rethreading or untnagling or both. I've tried making sure i have lots of extra thread before I cut (i.e not cutting near the needle hole, but leaving lots sticking out). I"m wasting so much thread. Why is it doing this? I've tried changing the tension but it hasn't helped.

I have the same thread in the bobbin.

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (30 answers total)

It would probably help if you linked to both the thread and the machine in question, but -- why are you using nylon thread? Generally you'd use regular polyester thread for piecing.
posted by trig at 11:59 AM on October 4, 2023 [8 favorites]

I've never tried nylon thread.

Most machines work best with cotton covered polyester thread. I don't quilt but I don't see any special reason why you would need nylon thread if you are sewing together stuff for a quilt vs stuff for a garment. Can you switch to cotton covered polyester?
posted by yohko at 12:00 PM on October 4, 2023

Dumb question: did you recently wind thread into the bobbin? Sometimes that has happened to me when I loaded the bobbin and then forgot to click the spool spindle back into place for sewing; or I forgot to push the circle “gear” thing on the right hand side (hand wheel? sorry don’t know name) back into place.

I’m on a janome.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:00 PM on October 4, 2023

What happens if you sew sloooowly? If I push the pedal like I’m accelerating on the highway, things’ll turn chaotic very quickly.
posted by mochapickle at 12:04 PM on October 4, 2023

Best answer: Are you using nylon thread because it's clear? Try using a mid-tone gray or tan to blend in with most fabrics, if that's the case. Nylon is very slippery and difficult to work with. Agree with the recommendations to use a polyester or cotton-covered polyester. I love Gutterman's Sew-All thread.
posted by XtineHutch at 12:14 PM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: I thought Nylon thread was good for piecing because it's invisible. I'm piecing together a bunch of different colours and can't just do one colour at a time, so I thought the nylon wouldn't show up. Can I switch thread mid-project? Won't the thread look ugly if it's not the same colour as the stuff?

This is the sewing machine. The thread...is nylon and very thin. I don't have a link. Sewing fast or slow is the same.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:15 PM on October 4, 2023

Another thing you can do about the million one inch little sews is chain them together. At the end of the seam when you would be removing the fabric from the machine, put your million+1 little sew there instead. Don't overlap and don't do stitches in between, just put it right next to the previous one and you can cut them apart later.

Try this on some scrap fabric first.
posted by yohko at 12:16 PM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Are you using nylon thread because it's clear? Try using a mid-tone gray or tan to blend in with most fabrics, if that's the case. Nylon is very slippery and difficult to work with. Agree with the recommendations to use a polyester or cotton-covered polyester. I love Gutterman's Sew-All thread.

Some of the fabric is bright white. Will that still work?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2023

Best answer: So when I was actively quilting, about 10-15 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that you used all-cotton* thread for piecing, and sometimes clear nylon thread for quilting. The thread that you use for piecing isn't usually visible in the finished quilt, so it doesn't matter what color you use; I usually used a cream or off-white. On preview, yes, cream or off-white, or bright white, will not show on bright white fabric to any significant degree.

The thread that you use for quilting can (sometimes) be visible in the finished product, and if you're doing an all-over quilting pattern (like random swirls or straight lines across large swaths of fabric) and you don't want the thread to distract from the piecing, then you would use nylon thread so that the quilting pattern is more subtle. To be frank, the few times I tried using nylon thread it was a huge PITA and it definitely affected decisions that I made around quilting patterns. I would think that using it for piecing would be even more of a PITA because you're constantly starting and stopping seams.

To that point, if you are sewing a lot of one-inch seams to piece together tiny bits of fabric, I would gently encourage you to look into strip piecing strategies. This can be much, much, much more efficient than piecing individually-cut pieces, and done carefully, it can also be much more accurate as well.

*All-cotton, instead of cotton-poly blend, because for the longevity of the finished quilt, you want the thread and the fabric to be the same fiber, so that they wear out at the same pace.
posted by spamloaf at 12:24 PM on October 4, 2023 [12 favorites]

For quilting, as long as the thread isn't dark behind white then you won't see the stitches in the piecing. They're all in the fold between the pieces.
posted by brilliantine at 12:25 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Before you sew the first stitch, do you have the 'tails' of your needle thread and your bobbin thread pulled back and out of the way? Make these like 3-5" long and pull them far to the back left of the machine. You can lightly hold onto them as you start sewing. The thread can't come out of the needle if it's pulled back properly (unless it's breaking).
posted by hydra77 at 12:27 PM on October 4, 2023 [14 favorites]

Best answer: Also the thread take up lever has to be all the way up, otherwise it just pulls the thread out of the needle.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:39 PM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

Sometimes it wraps itself around the stick that holds the spool

I think the overall solution has been covered (i.e. don't use nylon thread ;-). But one thing I noticed from your machine link is that it looks like the spool pin (the stick that holds the spool) is a vertical one and not horizontal, right? The question then is whether your nylon thread is cross-wound or horizontal/stack wound. Sometimes when you use cross-wound spools on vertical pins, or horizontal spools on horizontal pins, you can get tension problems or thread going in places where it shouldn't - and lots of wrapping itself around the spool pin - because those two types of spools are designed to unspool in different ways. If your nylon thread is cross-wound, you can try taking it off the spool pin and just standing it up in a cup or even just by itself on your table behind the machine and let it unspool itself from there (see the link for some suggestions). Regular thread is much more forgiving than nylon so usually you can get away with mismatched spool and pin, but sometimes even regular thread will want the right setup.

This may or may not be what's going on with your machine, or it may be part of it but not the whole story. If you really want to debug, I'd start by sewing very slowly, maybe even manually with the hand wheel, and then accelerating bit by bit, watching the thread path all the while to see where the problems actually arise.

(But make your life easier, don't use nylon ;-)
posted by trig at 12:43 PM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Before you sew the first stitch, do you have the 'tails' of your needle thread and your bobbin thread pulled back and out of the way? Make these like 3-5" long and pull them far to the back left of the machine.

Yes, the bobbin thread has a little path you sit it in just after putting the bobbin and then subsequet times I pull both threads back behind with the needle thread going through the middle of the foot toes towards the back.

But ok, go back to the other thread. But can I do that mid-project or will it look different and bad with two different kinds of thread?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:04 PM on October 4, 2023

But ok, go back to the other thread. But can I do that mid-project or will it look different and bad with two different kinds of thread?

I'm thinking the main potential issue would be slight differences in thread tension between the blocks? You can test this out though--you have the blocks/strips/parts of blocks you made with the nylon thread. Make a few blocks or strips or what not with the other thread, and press them. Make sure they're the same size and lay down in roughly the same way, and note whether or not you can see the thread (and if you can see it, whether it annoys you enough).
posted by damayanti at 1:18 PM on October 4, 2023

I am not really an expert sewer but I solved a threading sort of problem with my machine by realizing that different kinds of threads need different sized needles. Seems so obvious but I just didn't know. You may be more expert than I and already know this...
posted by molasses at 1:24 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Setting the tension correctly is wizard-level sorcery, Watch videos, don't use nasty nylon thread, and sew a lot of tests on old sheets and tshirts. Use higher quality thread. Read the manual again, make sure it's threaded perfectly. A small blood sacrifice with the needle may placate some of the sewing gremlins, or so I think when I get stuck.
posted by theora55 at 1:44 PM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Yes, the bobbin thread has a little path you sit it in just after putting the bobbin and then subsequet times I pull both threads back behind with the needle thread going through the middle of the foot toes towards the back.

Apologies for the super basic question, but are you making sure to draw up the bobbin thread each time after removing the bobbin?

(Double-check your manual — in the past this was required for all sewing machines, but these days some newer machines will do it automatically.)
posted by mekily at 1:54 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You say you're pulling the thread to the back before starting sewing. But are you holding onto it for the first few stitches? (Both the end from the bobbin and the end from the needle?)

I have a (different) entry-level Brother machine, and while I've never used nylon thread, I sometimes get a mess if I let the thread get sucked back into the machine. If I'm actually holding it for the first few stitches, this isn't an option. Once it starts a seam, the tails are no longer being pulled on by the machine so you can let go.
posted by Metasyntactic at 1:56 PM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Just in case this helps troubleshoot—sometimes I have had issues like this that resulted from:
- not lowering the presser foot
- the thread winding itself around the spool holder
- putting the needle in backwards
- needing a new needle (sharp and appropriate size/type for the fabric)
- machine dusty or not oiled
- accidentally missing one of the loops when threading
posted by music for skeletons at 2:15 PM on October 4, 2023

then subsequet times I pull both threads back behind with the needle thread going through the middle of the foot toes towards the back.

I think your machine doesn't require you to draw up the bobbin thread the first time you sew with it - it does it automatically if I'm not mistaken, but you'll want to double check - but regardless you always want to pull the top thread through the foot toes and back, like you described. Even/especially the first time after threading.

And as noted above, when threading the top thread, make sure the presser foot is up and that the take-up lever is at the very top position.

By the way, make sure you're not missing the final thread guide on the needle holder itself. On a similar Brother model I used once that guide was unusually hard to get the thread through, and the thread sometimes popped out if I wasn't very careful to make sure it was properly in all the way.
posted by trig at 2:28 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nylon thread is horrible for piecing. Use cotton or a good quality cotton/poly. As long as it's tonally similar you will not see it. Clear or smoky nylon is okay for doing actual quilting once you've completed the quilt top and sandwiched the top, batting, and back BUT you still want to use a good quality cotton or cotton/poly in the bobbin.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 2:39 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I can’t say why your machine is unthreading, it could be that you need a different tension for nylon thread which is probably springy, but the standard is to use 100% cotton thread for quilting. Nylon will tear through your fabric. You can use all purpose but it will do the same, eventually. Being clear isn’t very much benefit.
posted by vunder at 4:40 PM on October 4, 2023

Your problem sounds typical for nylon thread. Please see if your machine is borked or not by changing out the thread to a regular spool and bobbin of sewing thread and see if it still works. If it does the problem is not the machine. Also make sure that you always use a decent brand and quality of thread, as the cheaper brands are not evenly wound which means they can only be used for hand sewing.

Whenever there is a recurring problem with the bobbin or the tension, and you can't figure out why it is going wrong, suspecting the thread is at fault is a good first assumption.

I'm going to presume you followed the manufacturers recommendations for needle size and weight and didn't just grab a likely looking sewing machine needle from your collection.

You should also get right down there and clean the bobbin area if you see anything suspicious - a few small piece of thread or lint can make the machine unusable. Clean with a small stiff paint brush, tweezers and and air duster.

If you must keep sewing with nylon thread you will probably want to invest in an industrial machine.
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:53 PM on October 4, 2023

Let me introduce you to leaders and enders. Your thread isn't going to unthread if it's attached to another piece of cloth. If you chain piece and use leaders and enders then you're rarely beginning a stitch with the thread tails hanging out. You're sewing from one piece of cloth to another, forever.

You might also want to sit down with your manual and quadruple check that you're threading everything correctly. I'm a new sewer, had a new machine, was happily going along for months without trouble, and suddenly my thread started breaking. I tried everything the internet suggested, nothing worked, and I was getting tense every time I sewed in anticipation of the snap of the thread breaking. I was despondent that my new hobby suddenly sucked. I finally went back to the beginning, got out my manual, and realized that I'd missed a threading step when I first got my machine.
posted by Mavri at 5:40 PM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

You like … just started with this machine right? Is this your first time sewing? In looking at YouTube, even experienced quilters find nylon or monofilament fussy and annoying. I haven’t worked with it. YouTube may have tips if you’re set on using it.

But overall, I would try a different thread to make sure you’re mastering the threading and tension overall. Re-read the manual and start a fresh set of threads and bobbins and possibly a fresh needle. Adjust the tension settings as needed. Go slowly. Hold the threads as you make your first stitches if your threads are slipping. Make sure it’s all functioning on tests before trying on your actual pieces.
posted by Crystalinne at 6:00 PM on October 4, 2023

Oh, just in case you didn't know, one of the benefits of nylon thread is that it stretches. It's less likely to break than other thread and is really great for sewing things that have to survive stress and movement.

But when you want your bobbin thread to be the matching length as your spool thread, you can see how unintended stretching can have unfortunate consequences. Nylon thread will actually stretch around 25% given enough time and tension - but it's not an elastic and it won't contract back again. It's not a material I would enjoy working with, for all its many benefits.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:05 PM on October 4, 2023

If you are still sewing pieces together, the thread you are using should be on the inside and not show, so it shouldn't matter if you switch covers.. And really, with the trouble you are having I can't imagine you enjoying the project at all if you stick it out with the original thread.

When it comes time to quilt and are using thread that will be laid in patterns over the top surface of the quilt, then you might consider going back to the nylon.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:10 PM on October 4, 2023

Piecing a bunch of colors together means you want to use a medium grey colored thread. Cotton is good or polyester. If you switch to another material and still have frustrations, it might be time for an in person class.
posted by soelo at 8:07 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Check your machine's tension settings, as I've noticed on my own ancient machine that adjusting those may help fix your sewing issue.
posted by Lynsey at 8:58 AM on October 5, 2023