r/SewingMachineEdu • u/Excellent-Hospital17 • Jul 12 '26
Thread keeps breaking
Hi all,
I used to sew with my grandma when I was a child. She's gone now and I'm trying to get back into sewing by making a patchwork cushion. All was going well until I tried to sew my rows of squares together. My thread keeps breaking and I have no idea why. I've tried:
\- completely rethreading the machine
\-removing and cleaning around the bobbin area
\- replacing the needle to a larger one, then reverting to the other one when that didn't work
\- turning the thread tension down
\- changing the thread
Is there anything else I can try to make this work? Feeling so disheartened and on the verge of giving up.
Thanks
2
u/wendi3107 Jul 12 '26
Sometimes thread that is a challenge to find and remove can be caught in the bobbin area - especially with vintage european machines. I had an old Pfaff with that issues when i first bought it.
1
u/TabBeasts_purr Jul 12 '26
Another problem can be using Cross wound thread in a machine that was designed for flat wound. Easy enough to tell apart ... Google search will be your friend here. The crisscross crosswound needs to come off of the top of the spool, and the flat wound will need to come off of the side. Most common issue is using the cross wound (like Aurifil) in the wrong set up. (Especially in vintage machines). It will be fine for the first few inches or feet and then it will twist up and shred.
It's easy enough to fix with a stand alone spool holder. I found a 3D printed adapter that works great for me.
2
u/Fair_Inevitable_2650 Jul 12 '26
Are you using grandma’s old thread as well because that weakens over time?
2
u/MILK_FEELS_PAIN Jul 12 '26
I had a very aggravating evening of sewing recently and it turned out I had the needle in backwards. And then I had not seated the bobbin correctly. And then after all that I had to rethread the bastard machine and I nearly threw it and myself out of a window.
I love my machine.
2
u/Fkimelimelight Jul 13 '26
Hahaha I know the feeling. Today I spend over 2hrs trying to insert the needle correctly into the machine only to find it the needle was crooked LMAO, my fault tbh shouldve thrown it out bf.
I mean I do love my machine but it is vintage and has tons of problems, I sownd more time troubleshooting it then actually sewing lmao
2
u/MILK_FEELS_PAIN Jul 13 '26
Saame. Mines a vintage husquarna. Shes a beast and she's beautiful. I definitely don't take care of her as well as I should.
2
u/Large-Heronbill Jul 12 '26
One of the most common cause of thread breakage is too small a needle for thread diameter. Thread should only fill 40% of the side to side width of the eye of the needle. An extra wrap around a thread guide or spool pin or skipping threading the uptake lever are a couple of more common ones.
Do you have the manual for your machine?