Sewing Help Q&A

[dlee56]

Starting this thread to have a place where sewing questions can be asked and hopefully answered. Sewing heavy duty outdoor gear is a bit of a niche topic on the web and I’m finding it’s not always easy to find help with specific issues I’m having. There’s lots of resources for quilting and sewing baby blankets but not much for sewing cordura packs and silpoly tarps.

 

[dlee56]

To kick things off, I’ve been trying to use some size 69/Tex 70 bonded nylon thread to sew 2-4 layers of 1000D cordura but I’m struggling to get a clean stitch on my home machine. I’m using a size 18-20 universal needle and the bottom thread almost never pulls through and ends up very messy despite how much I tension the top thread.
Any suggestions?

 

[4090Sharps]

To kick things off, I’ve been trying to use some size 69/Tex 70 bonded nylon thread to sew 2-4 layers of 1000D cordura but I’m struggling to get a clean stitch on my home machine. I’m using a size 18-20 universal needle and the bottom thread almost never pulls through and ends up very messy despite how much I tension the top thread.
Any suggestions?

I would expect a 19 or 20 needle to pull through without issue. A couple items come to mind, having verified again that the needle and thread size is correct:

• Will other threads and fabrics sew properly? If so, what combinations?
• Is your tension on the bottom thread too tight? And can it be sufficiently loosened on that machine (which home machine) to balance tension out.
• Is the timing between the hook and needle correct? A slightly out of time hook can manifest as a tension issue.
• Is the foot pushing up enough from the fabric to disengage the top tension? This can be a very real problem on domestic machines with surprisingly short stacks of fabric.
• Is your foot pressure high enough to hold the material down without flagging (pulling up with the needle)? This can manifest as a thread tension issue.

 

[TaperPin]

To kick things off, I’ve been trying to use some size 69/Tex 70 bonded nylon thread to sew 2-4 layers of 1000D cordura but I’m struggling to get a clean stitch on my home machine. I’m using a size 18-20 universal needle and the bottom thread almost never pulls through and ends up very messy despite how much I tension the top thread.
Any suggestions?

Residential machines are lacking top tension that you really need to pull the knot to the middle of the fabric. Depending on your model there might be replacement springs for just this kind of thing, or you may have to figure out how to retrofit a heavier spring from a different machine. Even with a heavier spring solving that issue, depending on how the machine is built other issues might spring up from higher thread tension that are harder or impossible to fix.

By far the easiest solution if you like to tinker is picking up an inexpensive well used commercial machine, but there’s a learning curve to getting into one of those.

 

[dlee56]

I would expect a 19 or 20 needle to pull through without issue. A couple items come to mind, having verified again that the needle and thread size is correct:

• Will other threads and fabrics sew properly? If so, what combinations?

Yes, I can get a regular Mara 70 and 50, and a Tex 70 soft Kevlar to sew nicely with a size 16 needle on most fabrics. I could make do with that but the bonded nylon I have is USA made and I’m throng to build a couple USA sourced projects.

• Is your tension on the bottom thread too tight? And can it be sufficiently loosened on that machine (which home machine) to balance tension out.

I’ve tried to loosen it incrementally to the point where it’s too loose and causes a hairball in there and that has only made things worse.

• Is the timing between the hook and needle correct? A slightly out of time hook can manifest as a tension issue.

That is something I should check. Like I said above other threads work well so not sure if that debunks this but I am sewing on a machine I restored from the 50’s so that’s a good check.

• Is the foot pushing up enough from the fabric to disengage the top tension? This can be a very real problem on domestic machines with surprisingly short stacks of fabric.

Possibly not, I will check this tonight after work. That is another good idea

• Is your foot pressure high enough to hold the material down without flagging (pulling up with the needle)? This can manifest as a thread tension issue.

I don’t recall the foot popping up but I will check this tonight after work too. Another good idea.

Thanks so much for the input and suggestions!

 

[dlee56]

Residential machines are lacking top tension that you really need to pull the knot to the middle of the fabric. Depending on your model there might be replacement springs for just this kind of thing, or you may have to figure out how to retrofit a heavier spring from a different machine. Even with a heavier spring solving that issue, depending on how the machine is built other issues might spring up from higher thread tension that are harder or impossible to fix.

By far the easiest solution if you like to tinker is picking up an inexpensive well used commercial machine, but there’s a learning curve to getting into one of those.

That makes sense. I could retrofit a stronger spring on my machine so maybe I’ll keep an eye on that. Industrial is definitely the next step for me. Right now I’m sewing on a Necchi BU Mira I restored. It’s a brute but lacks the low end power I would like. I am in the process of adding a speed reduction pulley to get some more power at a slower speed.

 

[dlee56]

Someone I spoke with today also suggested I switch to a size 16 needle so that the smaller eye of the needle acts in parallel with the thread tensioner to help pull the thread to the middle of the fabric. This sounded contradictory to me but it kind of makes sense. And it’s using the actual machine power to pull the knot instead of just the tensioner

 

[4090Sharps]

Residential machines are lacking top tension that you really need to pull the knot to the middle of the fabric. Depending on your model there might be replacement springs for just this kind of thing, or you may have to figure out how to retrofit a heavier spring from a different machine. Even with a heavier spring solving that issue, depending on how the machine is built other issues might spring up from higher thread tension that are harder or impossible to fix.

By far the easiest solution if you like to tinker is picking up an inexpensive well used commercial machine, but there’s a learning curve to getting into one of those.

Good point. @dlee56 I have a bunch of machine parts and can drop some springs in the mail for you to test if you think that's the issue.

 

[dlee56]

Good point. @dlee56 I have a bunch of machine parts and can drop some springs in the mail for you to test if you think that's the issue.

That would be awesome thank you! I will try some of these other checks and if that doesn’t clean things up will shoot you a message.

 

[TaperPin]

Someone I spoke with today also suggested I switch to a size 16 needle so that the smaller eye of the needle acts in parallel with the thread tensioner to help pull the thread to the middle of the fabric. This sounded contradictory to me but it kind of makes sense. And it’s using the actual machine power to pull the knot instead of just the tensioner

The downside to that is the needle is making a smaller hole the thread knot has to be pulled up through.

That’s a cool machine. I like that speed reducer pulley setup. Is that on your machine now or is it something you’re going to duplicate?

 

[dlee56]

The downside to that is the needle is making a smaller hole the thread knot has to be pulled up through.

That’s a cool machine. I like that speed reducer pulley setup. Is that on your machine now or is it something you’re going to duplicate?

That was my first inclination too but I figure it’s worth a try.

And thanks, that is just a setup I’m going to duplicate. I ordered a pulley off eBay and I should get it this week. Just need to measure what size belt I’ll need once I get it in there

 

[4090Sharps]

The downside to that is the needle is making a smaller hole the thread knot has to be pulled up through.

Someone I spoke with today also suggested I switch to a size 16 needle so that the smaller eye of the needle acts in parallel with the thread tensioner to help pull the thread to the middle of the fabric. This sounded contradictory to me but it kind of makes sense. And it’s using the actual machine power to pull the knot instead of just the tensioner

I've had more issues with small needles, personally. A stack of tightly woven fabric and a small needle can make for a really bad time cleaning out thread from a hook. Because of that, I mostly reach for a 19 when I sew.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Tighten the top more. If its "maxed" in the sense the knob has hit a stop, pull the knob off and reindex it so you can tighten further.

For example a kenmore I used for a couple specific things when I was sewing was something like 0-10 tension, I needed more, I took off the knob once it was maxed and reinstalled it at something like 5 so it was more like 5-15 going forward.

 

[dlee56]

Tighten the top more. If its "maxed" in the sense the knob has hit a stop, pull the knob off and reindex it so you can tighten further.

For example a kenmore I used for a couple specific things when I was sewing was something like 0-10 tension, I needed more, I took off the knob once it was maxed and reinstalled it at something like 5 so it was more like 5-15 going forward.

That’s a great idea I’ll have to dive into my thread tensioner assembly to see if it indexes. If it does I actually have a spare one laying around so I could just index each for higher or lower tension and then swap them out as needed.

 

[dlee56]

I may also play with using a washer to shim the spring to add more tension