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People blame tension for a lot of sewing issues that really is not a tension issue. A lot
of times it's just not the right needle for the thickness of thread. The machine's not
threaded right. The bobbin's not spinning the right way in the bobbin case. That's not
threaded right through the tension down below. Make sure before you adjust anything with
the tension that you do make sure everything else is looking correct. Put a new needle
in. That type of thing.
When you find yourself sewing along, and you've checked everything along that line, and you
have something that looks like little tiny bumps on the back side, maybe the threads
pulling to the back side because you don't have the same weight of thread in your needle
as your bobbin. That's where we can start playing with our tension. If you ever get
this part, this is the problem where the thread is just not in the tension disk.
Just re-thread the machine at the top and that will fix this problem. If we need to,
we can adjust the tension a little bit tighter, a little bit less based on what you're working
with. A lot of times we'll set it for a zig zag stitch number 2. Make it as wide as we
can, and as long as we can. That's one way the service techs will test to make sure they're
getting the right result for your machine, and that it's all set up properly. They'll
often use 2 different weights of thread or excuse me, 2 different colors of thread so
they can see if they're getting that little tiny tick mark on the backside from the top,
and then that would be properly set with the machine.
1 thing that you do want to keep in mind if you are adjusting tension, we are only adjusting
the top. If it's pulled to the backside, that means we need to pull it to the topside. Use
a higher number. Don't just go a little bit like eek. Go ahead and go a number or a number
and a half worth of change so you can see is that really going to give me the right
result. If you don't remember which way to go, remember one's going to make it worse,
and one's going to make it better.
If you find yourself going up the numbers and realize it's just not working, go the
other direction. Go back to the red line that's kind of a nice standard place, and then you
can go ahead and turn it the opposite direction. If you're having threads getting pulled up
from the bobbin up to the top, we want to loosen the top. That means the top's too tight,
and it's pulling it up. Go to a lower number to get a better result as you sew.