Last Sunday, a friend stopped by our house, along with his teenage daughter. Ava has a sewing class in school this semester. Unfortunately, she is not doing well and needed some advice. The foot control is broken on my favorite sewing machine (Husqvarna Viking #1) and I am currently operating a 1940’s (I think it’s a 1948) Featherweight. I had Ava try the Featherweight,Fro but it’s such a sweet little machine, I couldn’t get it to sew a bad stitch. And believe me, I tried.
From her description, I believe she is having tension problems. I told her to try a few things–almost no tension to super tight tension. I also showed her a method for checking the bobbin tension. I got the news today that she was able to sew a straight stitch that looked good on top and bottom. Yeah! progress.
This got me to thinking, everyone could use a little tension help. Superior Threads has a great education section on their website regarding different tension issues. Here is a video from Bob at Superior Threads talking about tension.