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DISCLAIMER! REMEMBER: always follow the manufacturer safety instructions for your machine. Be safe, be sensible, and if you can’t be either of those things, skip this list and take the machine directly to a licensed dealer.

Steal my guide to troubleshooting skipped stitches

Nothing can stop you in your sewing tracks like your sewing machine suddenly starting to skip stitches. But don’t worry, I’ve put together a list of the topmost likely causes for it – and how to fix them.

Troubleshooting skipped stitches is a process of elimination. So, get yourself a good piece of scrap that’s big enough to try a run or two of sample stitching after you have tried each of the following.

Start Simple.

The first thing you are going to do is rethread your machine – top and bottom. A very simple misstep like missing a loop or thread stay (or not making sure to properly ‘floss’ your tension wheel with your thread to make sure it is held in there) can cause huge problems with your stitches. It’s the easiest, cheapest and least time-consuming thing you can do. So, it’s a great place to start.

Needle Issues.

Check your needle is situated correctly. Where the flat part at the top (shank) of your needle needs to be depends on where, on your machine, your bobbin is located. Check your machine instructions for your particular model but, as a rule of thumb, the flat part of the shank will face away from wherever the bobbin is. If your bobbin is top loading, chances are it will face the back of the machine.

Also, make sure the needle is pushed as high up as it can go before tightening the lock screw.

Are you using the correct needle for the job? Do your machine (and yourself) a favour and use the correct size and type of needle. A universal needle will only get you so far, and when you start using specialist fabrics or thicker layers of fabrics, you will need to start considering changing to a needle made particularly for the project you want to work on.

If a needle is blunted, bent, been nicked, etc. it can cause a whole lot of trouble for your machine, and your project, that isn’t limited to skipped stitches. Bear in mind that you might not be easily able to see or feel damage to a needle, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It’s also possible a needle can also be faulty right out of the packet. Changing out a needle is a simple fix that could save you a lot of time and money.

Thread.

Does your thread…

a. …suit the fabric you are using?

b. …suit your machine – e.g. is it a speciality thread that your machine wasn’t designed to sew with?

c. …suit the needle you are using – e.g. is the eye of the needle too narrow or too wide for the thread?

If you answered no to any of these questions, you know you have to change something so needle and thread work nicely together, right? If there is no issue with the thread, but you have changed the thread type since your last project, consider adjusting the tension.

Presser Feet.

Are you using the appropriate foot for the job? Using the correct foot for your fabric/technique will help ensure a great finish on your project. But did you know, if you are using a walking foot (also known as an even feed foot) you should also do a little maintenance on it every now and then?

It has a few moving parts, the joints of which should be kept clean and free of dust, oil and lint build up. Give it a little wipe with a lint free cloth. Add a teeny (and I do mean teeny) bit of machine oil to the moving joints by first putting it on a piece of the lint free cloth and wiping them with the cloth. Don’t be tempted to drop the oil straight from the bottle because you will flood the walking foot and ruin your projects with ‘snail trails’ of oil!

If none of this has worked, you are going to need to give your machine a nice clean whilst paying particular attention to any places which rogue fibres of fabric, or strands of thread, could have gotten wedged and be causing interference with the bobbin thread take up or any other moving parts.

Mechanics.

If all of this still hasn’t worked, your skipped stitch problem might have a mechanical cause. That is to say, the problem might be with the ‘timing’ being off. What ‘timing’ refers to is the synchronisation of the needle going down to the hook race where the hook grabs the needle thread, takes it around the bobbin and makes a stitch. If the needle and hook aren’t in exactly the right place in relation to each other at exactly the right ‘time’, they won’t complete a stitch – resulting in what we see as ‘skipped stitches’.

It is at this point in the troubleshooting list that you should consider taking your machine to your dealer so they can check and adjust your timing as necessary. If you are interested to how your dealer will address the timing on your machine, you can find videos on YouTube which show how they will do this. However, I can’t impress on you strongly enough that messing around with your machine like this can be dangerous to yourself, will almost definitely void any warranty or guarantee you have on your machine, and might well end up costing you even more money at the dealers when they have to put right any extra problems you might cause.

Previous Project.

Now, I must admit I don’t often get skipped stitches but my Janome HD9 suddenly started skipping after a very successful period of Christmas gift bag making. Everything had been fine but when I came to start a new project, I tried out my topstitching on a mockup of some vinyl straps, and it started skipping. I worked my way through this checklist and got to the point that it must be mechanical. Although I would never attempt to fix the timing on my machine (it’s under warranty and I don’t want to mess with it), I did have a look at the timing and it looked perfect. So what on earth could it have been….?

It was double sided tape. I had been using it in my Christmas sewing – not loads, but I remembered swapping out a needle that had been covered in adhesive at one point. So I used a small amount of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud/Q-tip to wipe around my bobbin area, needle plate and feed dogs. (I used a small amount and used the dry end of the cotton bud to wipe off the alcohol. I recommend using a tiny amount, not leaving it on any surfaces without wiping it off straight away, and never submerge parts of your machine or accessories in it).

I gave the machine a bit of oil in the places it needed oiling (check your instruction manual), and do you know, it worked! Not a single skipped stitch since! So, now I add this to my routine clean up of the inside of my machine – to be done after each project!

Elsewhere in the Scandinotions world…

You probably know by now that I have been struggling with losing my voice over the last few weeks. It didn’t stop me going live in the group almost every day in December though! Now I’m working on getting it back to normal and I’ll keep you up to date on that. Thanks so much for your concern and well wishes.

It hasn’t stopped me from being around in the group and I always love it when you say hello, post something you have been working on or have a question about. I also love to see what you plan to make or are dreaming about making! Find us using the green link at the bottom of this email.

Chat soon, my lovely

Zoey 😀

Click the green link to join our fun and supportive FB group Scandinotions Creative Sewing. It will always be FREE to join 😀

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