Flexible stitch: stitch length and other adjustments

It is summer again and I am sewing a lot of fine jersey. If you look through my blog, you'll notice that I am rather obsessed with flexible seams - seams that stretch with the jersey instead of ripping under strain. I found that different machines, different mechanism types have varied success at this task,…

Pfaff 230 not stitching patterns

Help! She's doing straight stitch and zig-zag like a good girl but is not doing any patterns! 😥 This is the Pfaff pattern disk showing you all the patterns that your Pfaff 230 Automatic can sew fully automatically. You pick a stitch of interest, set up the knobs as shown, set knob E to the…

Pfaff 230 Automatic

This is one of the great classics from 1955: Pfaff 230 Automatic, not to be confused with Pfaff 230 that didn't have any fancy stitches. This machine has signature Pfaff forward-facing vertical rotary hook with internal belt transmission. Zig-zag is done with a swing needle mechanism and all the fancy stuff is in the arm.…

Uneven stitching on Singer 66K – mystery solved

Here is the problem: uneven tension on my 1906 Singer 66K. Why? It goes up and down every 30 stitches or so. Weird. Annoying. Bah! 😤 But never fear - the mystery is finally solved, see updated original post. 😃

Tension adjustment for the unafraid

A lot of people are intimidated by the necessity to adjust thread tension on their sewing machine. Yet, as every sewing machine manual tells you, both bobbin and upper tension need to be checked and adjusted for every project, sometimes several times during the project, because these settings depend on many factors, such as the…

The lowest bobbin tension

Low tension on the bobbin thread is required in many situtations, in particular for zig-zag, buttonholes and embroidery, or also for straight stitch to make a flexible stitch that stretches with fabric (think knits and jersey!). Each machine has its own limit to how low the bobbin thread tension can go before the stitches get…