Thursday 10 April 2014

Unsolved Mystery

My latest make was a bit of a challenge. I was working with a knit fabric that was not playing well with the sewing machine. After trying different stitches, lengths and needles I gave up thinking that it was time to take the machine in for servicing.  


I was able to finish my dress on my back-up machine which sewed the fabric without any of the issues that the other machine had encountered. But today I thought to take a look at the machine that was giving me some trouble. Would you believe that it is working perfectly fine. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that it is sewing beautifully, I just wonder what was up last week.  

It is an unsolved mystery as to what was going wrong. Last week I was sewing an interlock knit fabric and today I'm sewing 100% cotton.  

Any ideas?  I still have some interlock knit in my fabric stash. Any suggestions on the best way to handle this fabric?  


5 comments:

  1. Were you using a needle especially for knits? Sometimes I forget to change needles.

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    Replies
    1. My first thought is also needle - I had a dreadful time trying to sew some swimwear lycra with my little travel sized bernette and had tried stretch and ballpoint needles - turned out I needed a heavier stretch needle - I had tried heavy ballpoint needles and a light stretch needle (75) thinking that I didn't want big fat holes being made in my lycra - turned out I needed a 90 stretch needle to really take the thread through the lycra - it then sewed without a problem - this was after a couple of hours of terrible frustration where it wasn't even forming a single stitch at times!

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    2. I did change needles, trying a ball-point and micro-fibre needles but I didn't check the numbers on these. I'm going to have to check that more closely when I try sewing the other simular fabric that I have in my stash.

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  2. I also vote for the needle. But ironically I have found that my newish (but not top-of-the-range) machine doesn't like ballpoint or stretch needles for knits. It sews them better with a regular universal needle and a zigzag. I tried all kinds of variants of stretch stitches and needles before I went back to basics and used what used to always work on my ancient Singer. Different machines have different ways.

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  3. Unfortunately, the machine might not like that fabric. It is strange, but some fabrics don't get along with some machines. That is one reason I have a back up. My Viking has issues with one particular knit from Joann's. It will skip stitches when I use a double needle. I tried a handful of different needles and it just keeps happening and only with that fabric. I was ready to take the machine in for service, but it worked on a super thin silky fabric right afterwards, It has happened several time, it is just that fabric.

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