What on earth?!?!

[ren29]

Greetings!

The past couple of days here in my corner of the world have been glorious and my M-I-L was here for a few days so I haven't been doing any sewing. To get back into the swing of things, I'm putting together a tooth fairy pillow for my 6 year-old DS, who has his first significantly wiggly tooth. It will probably be a good while before we need to use the pillow but he's so excited that I couldn't help myself from doing the pillow now.

Aannnywaaay . . . . I was sewing along happily when there was a "clunk clunk" from my machine, the needle thread broke and there was a massive ball of thread on the under side of my project. After MUCH trial and error, making sure things were clean and threaded properly, I discovered that it wasn't a problem with the bobbin per say. For some reason the upper thread is wrapping itself around the mechanism that holds the bobbin and causing trouble.

Since my descriptive powers are so wonderful I've included a picture of what's happening. My machine is just a basic Janome 1008 Limited Edition that is only about 10 years old and was serviced/cleaned just after Christmas.

photo.JPG

Yes, that's the upper thread looped around the bobbin - I watched it happen. Any ideas?? Does this need the help of professional sort?

[Auntpiggylpn]

Re: What on earth?!?!

Make sure you have your needle threaded correctly. By that I mean make sure the thread is entering the eye of the needle on the correct side. Also check that your bobbin is in correctly and that your bobbin case is seated right.

[Pandabear]

Re: What on earth?!?!

My Kenmore used to do this. Mine was either the bobbin was out in backwards or I didn't have to correct bobbin in. I had to use plastic, but I was using metal bobbins.

Just suggestions since every machine is different.

[Shirley]

Re: What on earth?!?!

I've never seen that happen before. When I have any problems I always unthread and then thread my machine and remove the bobbin and check it before reinserting the bobbin. Good luck, I know it is so frustrating.

[ren29]

Re: What on earth?!?!

It is certainly frustrating . . . and odd. Everything is exactly as it was the last time I used the machine just a few days ago. The bobbin is one of the plastic ones that came with the machine and I have taken it out several times and switched it around to make sure that wasn't the problem. When my husband came home from the Pacers/Celtics game, I showed him and he was perplexed as well. Somehow the thread is hooking around the part that "travels" (for lack of proper term) around the bobbin case/bobbin hooks the thread and wraps it around like that.

Ugh! Guess I'd better try to find a repair shop close to me (my regular guy is in our hometown two hours away) and see what they say.

It really stinks when you want to work on a project and can't AARRGGHH.

[Genny]

Re: What on earth?!?!

Greetings!

The past couple of days here in my corner of the world have been glorious and my M-I-L was here for a few days so I haven't been doing any sewing. To get back into the swing of things, I'm putting together a tooth fairy pillow for my 6 year-old DS, who has his first significantly wiggly tooth. It will probably be a good while before we need to use the pillow but he's so excited that I couldn't help myself from doing the pillow now.

Aannnywaaay . . . . I was sewing along happily when there was a "clunk clunk" from my machine, the needle thread broke and there was a massive ball of thread on the under side of my project. After MUCH trial and error, making sure things were clean and threaded properly, I discovered that it wasn't a problem with the bobbin per say. For some reason the upper thread is wrapping itself around the mechanism that holds the bobbin and causing trouble.

Since my descriptive powers are so wonderful I've included a picture of what's happening. My machine is just a basic Janome 1008 Limited Edition that is only about 10 years old and was serviced/cleaned just after Christmas.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]70472[/ATTACH]

Yes, that's the upper thread looped around the bobbin - I watched it happen. Any ideas?? Does this need the help of professional sort?

We had these kinds of bobbin cases at work, make sure when you put your bobbin in that it snaps into place. Hope this helps.

[cathym]

Re: What on earth?!?!

Is your local quilt shop owner a resource for you? Ours has been sewing so long she's seen everything and can help.

[Pat.W]

Re: What on earth?!?!

[QUOTE=ren29;487431]Greetings!


Only my humble opinion I’m not an expert but I have an old machine that does this frequently (it hates me!) so this is what I do, it may possibly help. After making sure needle is at the highest position and the thread is slotted into the bobbin case correctly, put the thread to the left behind the latch before snapping in, then with needle still at highest position hold top thread and turn wheel towards you so that needle moves down and up again to the highest position, (if not the bobbin thread doesn’t go completely round then tries to go round again) then loop will come up pull through and both threads are on top. I then hold them both firmly whilst sewing first few stitches, I find that if I don’t the upper thread is so loose that it doesn’t catch lower thread and after a couple of more stitches you get your problem. If that fails try a washer in the bobbin, another thing to check is if any small bits of thread has got into the race/shuttle that you haven’t noticed you may need to take it apart. Hope my ‘descriptive powers’ aren’t too bad and that you get it sorted with no big repair bill.