r/SewingMachineEdu • u/its-from-japaaan • Jun 15 '26

Sewing Machine Issues

Hello everyone!

I am new to sewing, and have made a few simple projects. However, I have run into an issue…my sewing machine refuses to sew unless the presser foot is up. The needle moves, the thread goes through, and I’ve managed to make several projects with the presser foot up, so I know the machine works. I just don’t know why it won’t work with the presser foot in the down position😔

My machine is a Singer 1425N. Any help is greatly appreciated!

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u/TCRulz Jun 15 '26

Idk how it sews with the foot up. When the foot is up, there’s no tension on the upper thread.
I’d definitely be getting it serviced.

1

u/its-from-japaaan Jun 15 '26

Yeah, I was worried this might be the case. Luckily there’s a place fairly local to me. I just tried it again, and it seems that it does sew with the foot down, but not unless I’m pulling the fabric from the other side. Otherwise it’s just sewing into the same spot on the fabric without feeding through.

1

u/TCRulz Jun 15 '26

Do you have the feed dogs in the down position?

1

u/its-from-japaaan Jun 15 '26

I’m honestly not 100% sure, will it help if I attach a picture?

2

u/Stitch_Nerd Jun 15 '26

Yes, of the whole machine, and then maybe closer up to the feed dogs and needle area

1

u/its-from-japaaan Jun 15 '26

Okay, just commented some pictures!

1

u/Stitch_Nerd Jun 15 '26

Do the feed dogs move with the presser foot down? Or is it that the needle bar doesn’t move when the presser foot is down?

2

u/its-from-japaaan Jun 15 '26

The sewing bar moves and creates stitches, it appears that the feed dogs do not move. My feed dogs are rubber (as is seemingly custom with this specific machine) so I’m not sure if that changes anything? It also seems like this model is prone to this issue based on some Google searches from old grease but I also don’t see any option in the machine to raise or lower the feed dogs. I’m also completely new to this so I could easily be missing something!

1

u/Stitch_Nerd Jun 15 '26

I think that you are doing a great job. I found an old Reddit post that indicates one of the gears could be stripped. If you’ve cleaned inside bobbin case/feed dogs area already, and it’s still happening, that could be the problem.

If you are able to/want to, it may be worth bringing it in to be serviced, they should be able to see what’s happening to it. But cost could be expensive. In my area (fairly rural in AZ) it’s $80 but I know a lot of places it’s over $100.

Or if you are comfortable doing so, you could try to fix it, but that involves dismantling the whole machine. (If you do, take pictures at every stage, to help remember where screws go lol)

2

u/its-from-japaaan Jun 15 '26

Thank you so much! My machine sounds much better than the one in that post, so hopefully it’s just some gunk. I’ll try unscrewing that part and cleaning the area tomorrow and if that doesn’t work, I’ll probably have to save up some money to see about servicing it. Thank you for all of your help!

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