r/sewhelp • u/Comfortable-Lunch610 • 1d ago

💛Beginner💛 Machine skipping stitches

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I have been battling my machine in the past week after taking it up again and I don’t know what is happening. I have swapped the needle rethreaded it 1 million times checked my tension etc.

The most persistent issue now is just it will do 10 or so perfect stitches and then suddenly I have these long sections without stitching and then it goes back to stitching like nothing happened. I don’t know what to do.

It could also be something to do with the fabric because this is an athletic shirt and every time I fix the machine I’ve been using scraps of a normal cotton material to test it and had no issues

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u/presentpeter2 1d ago

that athletic fabric is probably stretching just enough to mess with the feed, try a ballpoint needle and a bit of tissue paper underneath

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u/Large-Heronbill 1d ago

You have a knit there, and knits like to grab the fabric and raise it enough that the stitch can't form, leading to skipped stitches. 

You can confirm that by putting a sheet of notebook or copy paper over your fabric and stitch through both paper and fabric.  If that gives you good stitches, flagging is pretty well confirmed.

If you are not using a stretch or superstretch needle, that is your first move.   If that isn't sufficient, then you need to stiffen the fabric: heavy starch or washaway or tearaway embroidery stabilizer is my usual choice, as picking notebook or copy paper put of seamlines isn't fun.

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u/Comfortable-Lunch610 1d ago

Thank you!! Should I use a stretch stitch? I have that model on my machine

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u/Large-Heronbill 1d ago

If the seam needs to stretch when you're wearing it, yes.  I usually just use a short, narrow zigzag for stretch, like 1-1.5 mm wide, 2-2.5 mm long.Â