That was the advice from every sewing machine repair person,
sales person to quilting enthusiasts. I’m here to tell you, pay them no mind.
I was finishing the blocks for a quilt top, with just two to finish, when suddenly I noticed my sewing
machine acting up. I am not even sure what exactly I did when I noticed a
difference, but it seems that suddenly something was terribly wrong with the
tension on my Janome DC2014 sewing machine, a workhorse that has never caused
me any problems. I started adjusting my tension and there was no difference
until I turned the dial down to “1”. The stitches looked adequate, but barely.
They were uneven and there were some skipped. I started trying to
diagnose the problem. I reasoned that it could be a worn out needle, since I
had been sewing madly for the last couple days. I was finishing the last of 64
9-patch blocks which would complete the “Afternoon Delight” quilt top, a Sue
Garman pattern that was the 2020 Block of the Month project from The Quilt Show.
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| 9-patch block |
After changing the needle, there was no difference. I took
out the bobbin case and cleaned out all the lint. I added a drop of oil onto
the bottom of the bobbin case. I re-wound a bobbin and popped it into the
bobbin case making sure it was caught in the tension spring; re-threaded the
machine, again, taking care that the thread wound around through the tension
spring and take-up arm, as it should be. I turned the sewing machine off and on
again, (that usually works with my computer). I even looked at my sewing
machine manual. Nothing worked.
Finally, I put in a new bobbin, one with a different thread and
different color than the 50 wt. white Aurifil I was using in the top. I set the
stitch tension back to the middle. It worked. The stitches were a tad uneven,
but at least the bobbin thread wasn’t just lying on top of the fabric. The
stitch was actually formed and was fairly acceptable on both top and bottom. I
reasoned that my problem could be a new set of bobbins I had just purchased.
So, I took the purple thread off the latest bobbin; there
was only a little there. I rewound my ‘suspect’ bobbin onto the new (previously
used) one and began to sew. There were about 3 stitches that were good and then
again, the thread just lay on top of the fabric without catching to form a
stitch. Again, I set the tension to #1 to get a stitch to work.
I checked out You Tube videos, Googled my problem, and did
as much sleuthing as I could.
I decided that the one thing I would try, that I hadn’t, was
to change the tension on my bobbin case.
I didn’t bother with
a quarter turn, I did a half turn, set the top tension back to between 4 and 5,
and started to sew. Voila, the stitch was perfect. In fact, it looked like it
did the day I bought my machine. I happily finished up my last two quilt
blocks.
I was surprised this fix was such an easy one. And, I’m grateful
to be able to sew again without having to worry about being without my machine
for weeks.
Now, for those setting triangles and borders…What a great
quilt this is going to be. I just can’t wait to finish the top and begin quilting
it.
