The Sewing Room

lesleyp1978

I sat down to make some monkey bodies last night and my sewing machine started playing up with the tension. At first I just thought it was something I was doing wrong but it kept doing it. There were loops showing on the underside of the material and there was no tightness to it! I tried upping the number on my tension dial but it was still doing it!

I have only had the machine for 3 weeks so I rang the helpline and he said to take it back and swap it cause it sounds like a tension dial problem. There are no known problems that they are aware of.

Has anyone else got this machine (Brother X5) and had any problems? A friend of mine has this machine and its been great for her. I think I will just exchange for another and see how it goes.

Wrecked a lovely pair of socks too so I'm not best chuffed!!:mad:

hmo

I have a Brother, its the MS6NT and i love it and it works a dream.

did you try sewing on just some ordiary fabric to see it it worked on that, it may be it didnt like sewing the sock material.

Tension is normally factory set at about 4 , also i would take out the thread and the bobbin and re thread it, it may not be done corrcetly and that sometimes helps.

also if your needle is bent or damaged and you can not always tell by looking at it that can cause problems sewing.

rufusdog52

Another thing is to make sure you presser foot is raised before threading. I didn't know this until I bought my new machine and think that a lot of the tension troubles I had with my last one was because the thread was breaking while I was half way through a seam and I would just re thread it without raising the foot first.

I have taken a photo of the fabric stash I got from Ebay the other day.



This isn't all of it, there is another big pile on the bed and another bag full of small off cuts under the table. I paid £2 for the lot so very happy. i have already made a jacket out of one piece and have cut out a long frock coat and a pair of trousers out of another. I want to make clothes out of the rest of it too and then see what's left over.

Larger photo on my blog x

lesleyp1978

Thanks for all the hints and tips!! I tried re-threading and it didn't make any difference. I took it back and swapped it for the same one again and it seems to be ok now! Fingers crossed it was just a fault with that machine.

Wow, Rufus, that is a lot of fabric. Did you just do a search on ebay for fabric local to you?

x

rufusdog52

I cant remember what I searched for now lol. I know I didn't put in local.

Savvy_sewing

The other things that can cause the threads to loop that way, are the type of needle. You really should be usuing a ballpoint needle when sewing knitted fabrics. Such as the socks.
Also the thread in the top and the bottom of the machine should be of the same type. So same thickness etc. If you are using two different colours they need to be of the same density of thread. For the life of me, I cannot think of the types off the top of my head. I know that if I put a thicker denim orange thread in my machine and keep a blue ordinary thread in the bottom I can get a bunching and hooking. Also if the bobin is in the wrong way round, that can cause the same kind of looping.

I hand stitched a couple of handbags out of a pair of jeans while sitting here in Oxford. No machine so just played around.
Quite pleased with the results, but i must find something to line it with.

rufusdog52

Sounds good Mooloo, would love to see the bags xx

I took a pair of jean apart yesterday, they were ones that fit me really well but the denim had worn so thin in places that they had holes in. I wanted to use them to make some more trousers out of the fabrics I got the other day. I am pleased with the results, I just need to do the hems today.

I have made two jackets and two pairs of trousers now. One of the jackets I am a bit disappointed with, it is from a bought pattern. I am bigger at the bottom than the top and it was for a long jacket so I used one size for the top bit then flared it out to the next size for the bottom bit but it is a bit snug still at the bottom. The top fits lovely. I can wear it with the button undone though so won't go to waste but if I do another one (which I was planning to do) I will have to add even more to the bottom half.

I will take some photos later on and post

Keiss_21

Sounds like you have been busy mooloo and rufus, well done!

Had my first day at the sewing machine shop yesterday...and I sold a sewing machine, really chuffed! It was a great day, watched the £7000 machine sew a pre-programmed embroidery pattern, very disconcerting to walk away while it chuntered on! I also had a play on a £700 machine, that was fun...and to think I am being paid to do this!!

Went to an inspirational talk by this quilter last night...my head is buzzing now with lots of ideas...shame I don't have time to do anything atm!! I have scribbled down some notes, which I may follow up later. Think I might try and do some sketches while I'm away in Scotland...we'll see how it goes.

Right, need to get back to the paid IT work...nearly sorted out the pictures...had loads to trawl through, and fixing things with Photoshop is time consuming, but rewarding in the end.

Have a good day everyone, hoping to get some sewing done later.

Tamster150

Just wondering if any of you bloggers, particularily those with newish/smallish blogs would like me to pass an award on to you.

I have been kindly given a couple of awards from other bloggers. To accept the award, I must recommend other blogs. I know some of the regulars on here have already been given awards and not everyone likes to accept, so I thought that I would bend the rules slightly and ask here.

There are no prizes just maybe some new readers/followers

PoppyToms

Tamster150 wrote: »

Just wondering if any of you bloggers, particularily those with newish/smallish blogs would like me to pass an award on to you.

I have been kindly given a couple of awards from other bloggers. To accept the award, I must recommend other blogs. I know some of the regulars on here have already been given awards and not everyone likes to accept, so I thought that I would bend the rules slightly and ask here.

There are no prizes just maybe some new readers/followers

:jI would love that please.
My blog hasn't been running long and i only have a few followers, feel like i'm talking to myself on there heehee. What a very kind thought, thank you x