Tension Trouble Shooting

If you don't have balanced tension in your seam, it can create a whole host of issues, including skipped stitches, thread nests, thread breakage, or just those stubborn loops on one side of the fabric or the other. So if you're experiencing some of those issues, hopefully this checklist will help you clear those up. So, first of all, when you're changing fabric types, you'll most likely need to do a temporary tension adjustment. So if you're going from a thin, fine fabric to a thicker, heavier weight fabric, you'll most likely need to loosen up your tension to allow ample room for the thickness of that fabric to lay between your needle and your bobbin threads, and conversely, if you're going from a thicker fabric to a thinner fabric, you'll need to tighten up that tension to allow those threads to lay nice and flat against the fabric. So if you're having some tension issues, it can be helpful to thread the needle and the bobbin with a high contrast thread, both to each other and to the fabric that you're sewing on and testing on so that you can really see what's going on in there. So if needle tension dial adjustments aren't clearing up the issue, here are some more things you can check. Make sure your machine is threaded correctly. If you've been sewing for many years, you think it can't happen to you, but it can, just take all of the thread off and start again from the beginning, making sure that the needle thread is hitting all of the points that it needs to as it's threaded through your machine and make sure your bobbin is inserted correctly as well. Make sure your bobbin is filled correctly. If you're using an all-purpose or a 100% polyester thread, that thread has a little bit of give to it so if you wind it onto your bobbin on the machine using a really high speed, that can stretch the fabric, stretch the thread a little as it's going on the bobbin and that adds tension to the thread that can sometimes relax in your seam as you're sewing and it might create puckers in your seam, so wind at a medium, consistent speed. Make sure your machine is clean. Take off the throat plate and use your little duster to get all of the lint and dust and pieces of thread that may have gotten gunked up in there. And make sure your thread path, everywhere that your thread lays as it's getting threaded on the machine is free of dust and debris and lint. You can also take a piece of fabric, like a stable, woven fabric, fold it in half and open up those tension disks. So take your tension all the way down to zero so that the disks are all the way apart and take that fabric and just floss in between those disks. And that will get out any thread or dust or debris that has accumulated there and might be adding tension to your thread as you're sewing. So make sure everything is nice and clean. Make sure you're using the right needle for your thread. Some needle types have larger eyes than others. So if you're using a heavier weight or a thicker thread, like this brown thread is a topstitch thread, and you can see how much thicker it is than this turquoise, universal all-purpose thread. So if you're using something thicker, you need to use a needle that has a little bit of a larger eye, like this topstitch needle has an elongated eye and you can see how much larger that is than the all-purpose universal needle. So as that thicker thread is going through that eye, if you were trying to use this thick thread with a universal needle, it would put a lot of extra tension on that thread and you might get thread shredding, thread breakage, or a whole bunch of other tension issues. So you want to use a topstitch needle so that that thicker thread has ample room to go through that eye and not add tension to the thread. You also want to make sure your needle isn't dull. A dull needle is one of the main culprits of skipped stitches because that dull needle is trying to pierce through so many layers of fabric, that it'll miss the connection with the bobbin thread on the underside. So a dull needle is just gonna have a harder time going through your fabric and making that connection. If you ever hear a thunking noise as you're sewing, that's that dull needle trying to pierce through your layers of fabric and just having a hard time. And if you see flagging, so flagging is when your fabric kind of jumps on your machine bed as you're stitching, and that is another sign of a dull needle. So listen to your machine, pay attention to your fabric. If you see signs of a dull needle, just switch that needle out and that will clear up a lot of tension issues for you. It's a really easy way to fix tension issues, just change your needle. Even if you haven't been sewing on it very long, pay attention for those signs because some fabrics will dull your needle faster than others. So just pay attention for that. Also make sure you have the right bobbin for your machine. If you have a bobbin that is taller or shorter than the correct millimeter height for your machine, you can get all kinds of tension issues. So you can check your machine manual or check online to find the right millimeter height bobbin for your machine. If you have other bobbins floating around your sewing room, you might accidentally throw the wrong one on your machine and wonder why you're getting thread nests and your tension is just horrible. So that is another thing to check. When you are doing needle tension adjustments, adjust in half increments, don't go straight from four to five, go to four and a half and then test. If you get all the way to one end of the dial or another, all the way to zero or all the way to nine, you might have to dip down and do a bobbin tension adjustment so that that needle tension can sit more or less in the mid range. And even if your tension is balanced in your seam, if the tension on your bobbin and your needle thread is too tight, you may have puckers in your seam. And if the tensions on both are too loose, you may get a gap between your fabrics so you may also have to do a bobbin tension adjustment if that is the case. Some machine manuals don't give you instructions on how to do bobbin tension adjustments because they are such delicate adjustments and they may not really want you doing it. But if you can find your instructions in your manual or online for doing bobbin tension adjustments, you may want to do those over a bowl if you have a metal bobbin case that you're taking out to adjust the screw. You shouldn't ever untwist that screw far enough that it would fall out, but just in case, I would hate for you to lose that tiny little screw in your carpet because it's so small you would never find it again. You also might want to take a permanent marker and mark that screw position before you change it, mark the manufacturer's setting for that screw so that you can turn it back if you need to. And do those bobbin tension adjustments in very small, quarter-turn increments and then test. If these things are still not working out for you, you may have a damaged part. If you've ever dropped a metal bobbin case on the floor, it may have been just enough to throw the timing out of whack and a trip to the sewing machine doctor may be in order. But, hopefully, going through this checklist will help clear up any tension problems you may be having.