Issues with Gutermans thread

[The Old Boot]

If it's from the fabric getting sucked up in the throat plate how can I fix that?

First, check which throat plate you have - mine came with two - one is meant for straight stitching only and has a hole that is barely bigger than the needle. This one will allow for the least chance of the material being sucked into the machine.

The second style of throat plate has a wider hole that is necessary for zig-zag and twin needle stitching.

Personally I keep the wider holed throat plate on at all times since I tend to forget to change it when I switch to zig-zag position for bar tacking things... ruined many a needle that way...sigh. All three pressure feet are sitting beside the machine!

Pressure feet also come in two styles - one strictly for straight stitching and one that CAN be used for straight stitch but also for zig-zag.

The combination of the both the throat plate AND the wider foot might cause the lighter weight fabrics such as noseeum and ripstop to get sucked in, particularly if your foot pressure isn't tight enough.

I just checked mine and two pieces of ripstop could not be pulled manually by me when held in place by the pressure foot. I did not yank on it or try to arm-wrestle it, just tried to firmly pull the fabric.

As with anything, always work with scraps of fabric to test any tension adjustments before working with something you want to keep.

Once your tension is set and your pressure is adjusted, there should be little to no further adjustments needed no matter the thread, fabric or number of layers.


I have a Singer 401A and haven't touched the adjustments in years. I sew everything from noseeum to straps, and denim jeans to taslan hiking pants, silk for pillowcases and liners and fleece.

It's not like a car engine that one always wants to tinker with to get just a little more power from...

[gmcttr]

...I do tend to use less foot pressure so I can go slow...

Presser foot pressure is not used to control feed speed. It is set to hold the fabric firmly against the feed dogs so the fabric will feed evenly and not slip causing uneven stitch lengths. Use the speed controller to go fast or slow.

...even when I maintained more foot pressure the stitches would still vary in length sometimes...

Are you pulling on the fabric with enough force to hold it back (causing short stitches) or pulling too hard from behind the presser foot (causing long stitches)? Again, use only the speed controller to regulate speed.

...........Just to be sure...when we talk about the presser foot, we are talking about the piece the fabric goes under and not your foot pressing on the speed controller.

[SwinginIt]

...........Just to be sure...when we talk about the presser foot, we are talking about the piece the fabric goes under and not your foot pressing on the speed controller.

Hahaha! When I read the first post mentioning the presser foot pressure I missed the word presser. I thought he/she just said foot pressure. Ok I get it now

[SwinginIt]

[QUOTE=Rain Man;1028100]WOW... just learned about "cross wound" v. "stacked" thread. Never knew about such feature. I think this will solve a problem I occasionally have with my old Singer.

But to the OP's problem. I purchased online a CD of the owner's manual for our old, inherited Kenmore. Sure learned a ton just reading the manual. Of course much is specific to our model.

HOWEVER, most of it is pertinent to sewing in general and not limited to our model of Kenmore. I'll see if I can attach it as a pdf. Especially helpful (to me) is the section on thread tension and how to easily determine if it's correct, and the footer pressure setting. [The whole manual was too large per HF limitations, so I uploaded the two sections on tension and pressure.]

Hope it helps other non-professional sewers like me.[/QUOTE

Those links were helpful. That explained it much better than the instructions that came with my machine.

[sploiz]

well i have defiantly learned something from this thread. i never knew about the straight vs cross wound spools. that would explain why the thread would get so twisted while using a cross wound spool vertically like a straight wound spool. i was just rethreading the machine each time it happened while wondering why this was happening. i probably need to redo some of my bobbins that i wound improperly because of this.

[Rain Man]

Those links were helpful. That explained it much better than the instructions that came with my machine.

Glad to hear! And, glad to be of help!

I tried to post the entire owner's manual, but it was slightly too big for HF. Anyone know how I can split up a pdf into smaller parts?

Rain Man

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