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We're going to do a quick little tension test. Now this is more along the line of did you
actually get your machine threaded correctly? With the presser foot up, I want you to go
ahead and get ahold of the thread from the needle. When you pull it, it should pull out
fairly easily. When you lower down the presser foot, it should become tight. You should almost
be able to see that needle bending with you as you pull that thread. That means you have
threaded the machine correctly. Now what it is, it's right up here. Let me go ahead and
zoom out here just a little bit. As you came across from the back guide and across this
top part, right in here is where the tension is. That's why the dial's right here because
as you adjust it, you have plates that are going to close firmer onto the thread or loser.
Well, here's the thing. When the presser foot is up, the plate's open. When you thread the
machine, which you should always do that with the foot up, and if you hold the thread at
the top spool and then thread with your left hand, you're always guaranteed to sink your
thread far enough down inside the tension disk. For any reason that your thread doesn't
go all the way down and you lower the foot down and those plates close and the thread
just kind of rides over the edge of it like a waterfall, that's when you get those big
hairy loops on the backside of your machine or on the backside of your fabric. People
always say, "Oh, gosh my tension must off be off down in my bobbin." Really all it is,
is that their thread is not in the top tension.
So, this is how we test it. Usually when people are calling on the phone, I can easily have
them hold onto their thread, lift their foot up. It's loose. Now they lower it, and when
they say that it's still lose, well, now we know we just need to rethread the top part
of our machine. This is a great little test. I often like to do that. I like to feel that
little thread be nice and tight in the needle, and then I know I'm ready to go.