Newbie Needs Help...

[jad187]

Hello! I apologize ahead of time if something like this has been posted before, but everyone here seems really nice and helpful from what I've glanced at, so I figured you guys wouldn't mind. I would just ask my grandmother, but she has advanced Alzheimer's, and she is unable to sew anymore.

I bought myself a Singer 2663 recently, and I am currently trying to remember what little my grandmother taught me about sewing when I was twelve (I'm twenty four now). So, I have successfully wound the bobbin, put the bobbin in the bobbin case, threaded the machine, pulled the bobbin thread from under the plate so I have two threads visible. Then, I pull at least six inches of thread to the back, line up my fabric against my guide, lower the foot, and try to sew. However, it's at this point that everything falls apart.

Whenever I try to straight stitch (this is the only stitch I've tried to so far), the fabric won't move. I googled for an answer, and most answers said to check the feed dogs. My feed dogs definitely work. I have double checked my bobbin to make sure it is threaded correctly and feeding in the right direction. I have tried re-threading the upper thread and adjusting the tension and length. I tried using a bigger needle and a smaller needle (I started out with a universal needle). No matter what I do, the fabric just won't feed through. And then I wind up with a large puncture hole where the needle has been trying to sew. Sometimes, there is nesting underneath the hole, and sometimes the thread has fallen apart.

Also, in one of the other threads on this forum, a girl mentioned that her thread was dirty in some spots. My thread does that too, and I've rechecked my manual and haven't seen any typos in directions.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated because I'm literally at my wit's end. Thanks so much!

[KathyD]

Are you making sure to put the pressure foot down on the fabric before beginning to sew? If you forget to do that, the feed dogs will move, but the fabric won't and you will get a birds nest of thread underneath the fabric. Sometimes the simplest things can cause havoc! Congratulations on picking up the sewing again! Please feel free to ask any questions. Usually you'll get enough responses to figure things out.

Kathy

[KathyD]

Silly me - I see that you've already said that you put the foot down.

The next thing to check is to see if your bobbin is in correctly. It does make a difference how the bobbin is in place. I'm not familiar with the Singer machines, but if your bobbin is in backwards, you'll also have all kinds of troubles.

Hope that you can figure this out quickly without too much frustration.

Kathy

[nonie]

First, congratulations on getting back to sewing. Now, on to your machine--It's a new machine so you have the manual and that's a good thing. Check your bobbin and see that it is in correctly as Kathy suggested. Make sure the thread is wound properly. Ok, that done, the problem is pressure, your feed dogs will work, in other words go back and forth even if they have been lowered, so check your manual for how to lower the feed dogs, snap them back and forth, lower and raise them as per instruction's, that done and you know they are up, the fabric is still not moving, then it's the top pressure that needs to be adjusted. Again, go to your manual and see how this is done, sometimes when sewing on heavy fabric, it helps to lessen the top pressure of the foot. You might have something that say's pressure 1-2-3 three being no pressure at all. If your top pressure foot is lowered when you start, I am thinking there is not enough pressure and it needs to be increased.

[shediditagen]

My dil had this same problem with a new Viking ! Seems the thread had slipped out of the part that goes up and down when you thread it.

Her old machine had a hole for the thread to go through, the new Viking just had a slot and some how it just slipped out.

Gosh I hope that is the problem, so agrivating when it won't sew.

Betty

[laineybug]

Have your feed dogs been lowered? They may look like they are working, but they are actually below the surface of the throat plate. I have a machine that allows the feed dogs to be lowered for free motion stitching.

If I try sewing on fabric that is too thick my fabric won't feed.
Solution... try a hump jumper (or just a piece of cardboard folded into a small rectangle). Follow directions that come with the hump jumper, or place the cardboard under the pressure foot, behind the needle.

Lainey