1. “Tensile Strength”

2. “Linear Density”

3. “Elongation at Break”

This edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter examines each of these terms in detail. These properties are crucial in determining how a thread will perform in different sewing applications, from durability to flexibility and suitability for various fabrics. By achieving a better understanding of these important thread characteristics, I believe that we can elucidate sewing thread in general— why certain thread is better for certain projects, why working with a specific fabric calls for a specific thread, how strong is a certain thread, how stretchy is a certain thread, etc.

I hope you find it helpful.

—Cale

Linear Density

Linear density refers to the mass per unit length of a fiber or thread. It is a critical measurement in the textile industry because it determines the thickness, strength, and performance of a thread. Different systems are used to express linear density, and Mettler provides values in Nm (Number Metric) and dtex (decitex).

Common Linear Density Units in Threads

1. Number Metric (Nm)

   • Definition: The number of 1,000-meter lengths of thread that weigh 1 kilogram.

   • Example: Nm 50 means that 50 kilometers of the thread weigh 1 kg.

   • Interpretation: A higher Nm number means a finer (thinner) thread, while a lower Nm number means a thicker thread.

2. Decitex (dtex)

   • Definition: The mass (in decigrams) of 10,000 meters of thread.

   • Example: dtex 150 means that 10,000 meters of the thread weigh 150 grams.

   • Interpretation: A higher dtex number means a thicker thread, while a lower dtex number means a finer thread.

3. Denier (den)

   • Definition: The mass (in grams) of 9,000 meters of thread.

   • Example: A 40 denier thread means 9,000 meters weigh 40 grams.

   • Interpretation: Like dtex, higher denier = thicker thread, lower denier = finer thread.

4. Tex

   • Definition: The mass (in grams) of 1,000 meters of thread.

   • Example: Tex 30 means 1,000 meters of thread weighs 30 grams.

   • Interpretation: A higher Tex number means a thicker thread.

Why Does Linear Density Matter in Sewing?

• Thread Strength: Thicker threads (lower Nm, higher dtex) are generally stronger.

• Sewability: Finer threads (higher Nm, lower dtex) work better for lightweight fabrics.

• Appearance: The thickness of the thread affects stitch definition and seam bulk.

Tensile Strength

Tensile strength is the maximum force a thread can withstand before breaking when stretched. It is measured in centinewtons (cN), where 1 cN ≈ 1 gram-force.

For example: A thread with a tensile strength of 1,600 cN can withstand 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs) of force before breaking.

Why is Tensile Strength Important?

1. Durability & Load-Bearing Ability

   • Higher tensile strength threads can withstand more stress without breaking.

   • Threads with lower tensile strength may snap under tension.

2. Thread Selection for Different Applications

   • Heavy-duty sewing (jeans, leather, upholstery) → High tensile strength.

   • Lightweight fabrics (silk, chiffon, quilting cotton) → Lower tensile strength is acceptable.

3. Seam Strength & Longevity

   • A thread with high tensile strength ensures seams last longer.

   • Threads that break easily can cause premature seam failure.

How is Tensile Strength Measured?

1. Tensile Testing Machine

   • The thread is clamped at both ends and stretched until it snaps.

   • The force required to break it is recorded in centinewtons (cN).

2. Factors Affecting Tensile Strength

   • Material Type: Polyester is stronger than cotton.

   • Thread Thickness: Thicker threads generally have higher tensile strength.

   • Thread Construction:

     • Core-spun threads (e.g., polyester core with cotton wrap) are stronger than regular spun threads.

     • Filament threads (continuous fiber) are usually stronger than staple fiber threads (thread made from short, discrete fibers).

Comparing Mettler Threads by Tensile Strength

Choosing the Right Thread for Your Project

• For Strong Seams (Jeans, Leather, Upholstery, Buttonholes) → High tensile strength (2,000-6,000 cN).

• For General Sewing (Cotton, Polyester, Mixed Fabrics) → Medium tensile strength (1,000-2,000 cN).

• For Decorative Sewing & Embroidery → Moderate tensile strength (~1,000 cN).

• For Stretchy Fabrics & Activewear → Lower tensile strength (elastic thread) but high elongation.

Elongation at Break

Elongation at break is a measure of how much a thread can stretch before it breaks when subjected to tensile force. It is expressed as a percentage of the original length.

For example: If a thread is 100 mm long and stretches to 120 mm before breaking, its elongation at break is 20%.

Why is Elongation at Break Important?

1. Flexibility & Stretchiness

   • Threads with higher elongation are more flexible and stretchable.

   • Threads with lower elongation are more rigid and break more easily under tension.

2. Durability & Wear Resistance

   • Threads with moderate elongation can absorb stress and movement, making them ideal for garments and upholstery.

   • Threads with very low elongation are more brittle and may snap under tension.

3. Thread Performance in Sewing

   • If a thread stretches too much, it may cause seam puckering or loose stitches.

   • If a thread doesn’t stretch enough, it may break under high stress (e.g., in activewear or upholstery).

Typical Elongation at Break Values for Threads

How is Elongation at Break Measured?

1. Tensile Testing Machine

   • The thread is clamped at both ends and pulled until it breaks.

   • The machine records the change in length.

   • The result is expressed as a percentage of the original length.

2. Factors Affecting Elongation at Break

   • Material Type: Polyester and nylon have higher elongation than cotton.

   • Thread Construction:

     • Filament threads (continuous fibers) tend to stretch more.

     • Spun threads (shorter fibers twisted together) have lower elongation.

   • Thread Finish: Some coatings or treatments can alter elongation.

Choosing the Right Elongation for Your Sewing Project

• For Strong Seams (Jeans, Leather, Heavy-Duty Sewing) → Lower elongation (less stretch, more stability).

• For Stretchy Fabrics (Activewear, Knitwear, Lingerie) → Higher elongation (more flexibility).

• For Embroidery & Quilting → Moderate elongation (prevents puckering but doesn’t stretch too much).

  ---

Article Summary

1. Tensile Strength – This refers to the maximum amount of tensile (pulling) force that a thread can withstand before breaking. It is typically measured in centinewtons (cN) and is an indicator of how strong the thread is.

2. Linear Density – This describes the thickness of the thread, usually expressed in tex, denier, or decitex (dtex). It indicates the mass of the thread per unit length, with higher numbers corresponding to thicker threads.

3. Elongation at Break – This refers to the percentage increase in length that a thread can undergo before it breaks under tension. A higher elongation percentage means the thread is more stretchable and resilient, which is particularly useful for flexible or stretchy fabrics.

These properties are crucial in determining how a thread will perform in different sewing applications, from durability to flexibility and suitability for various fabrics.

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Identifying the source of a strange machine sound can be challenging—sometimes it's difficult enough that it requires a trained technician. However, there is a straightforward method you can try at home to diagnose some of the more common sewing machine issues. This approach involves trial and error.

Simply put, you'll systematically remove potential sources of noise, one at a time. If you remove a part and the noise persists, then that particular component is not the issue. If the noise stops after removing a certain part, then you've identified a likely culprit.

So, which parts should you begin checking to isolate the noise? I always recommend starting with the needle.

Needle

Whenever I hear a sewing machine making a strange sound, the first thing I do is remove the needle. Then I run the machine again and listen for whether or not the peculiar sound remains.

A dull needle can cause a “popping” noise when penetrating the fabric. A bent needle may cause a “ticking” noise because it is deflecting off the hook during the stitch-making process. A needle that wasn’t inserted properly may scrape against the floor of the bobbin case basket.

If you remove the needle and the sound goes away, then insert a fresh needle and run the machine again. If you were hearing a “popping” sound caused by a dull needle, then that should go away with a fresh needle.

If you were hearing a “ticking” sound, then that could also go away with a new needle given that the old needle was bent. However, even with a fresh needle there is a chance that the “ticking” sound remains, which indicates that the machine’s needle-hook clearance may be too tight— or that the needle is deflecting off some something other than the hook.

Presser Foot

Though it’s rare, I have seen instances where the needle plate deflects off the presser foot, which would certainly cause a strange sound:

However, the main reason I like to remove the presser foot when troubleshooting is to make sure that the sound I am hearing is not merely the sound of the presser foot making contact with the feed dogs, which is completely normal. An integral part of a sewing machine’s design is that the presser foot holds the fabric down against the feed dogs. If those two parts were not making contact on every stitch, then the machine would not be able to sew.

Needle Plate

If the sound isn’t coming from the needle or presser foot, then remove the needle plate and run the machine and see if the sound remains. This is a key part of this troubleshooting process because the needle plate is situated so close to a bunch of different moving parts.

• Needle strikes against the needle plate will cause a sound— if you have a fresh needle in the machine and you’re still getting needle strikes on the needle plate, then your needle bar may be misaligned or your needle plate needs to be repositioned.
  

• If the feed dogs are out of alignment, then they may be scraping up against the side of the needle plate.

• If needle plate itself is damaged, it could be making contact with the bobbin case. However, even if the needle plate is not damaged, it could still be making contact with the bobbin case, in which case we would need to examine the state of the bobbin case and hook area.

Bobbin Case and/or Hook

Sewing machines designed with a top loading bobbin (horizontal rotary hook machines) are especially susceptible to needle strikes on the bobbin case, which can damage the bobbin case, leading to strange sounds while sewing.

On these horizontal rotary hook machines, the bobbin case sits atop the hook race, which is thin ledge on the inner edge of the hook. The outer rim of the bobbin case makes contact with the hook race.

The outer rim of the bobbin case makes contact with the hook race. Both parts are designed to reduce friction, with the hook made out of a smooth metal and the bobbin case is made out of a smooth plastic. However, a significant needle strike to the bobbin case can damage the shape of the underside of the bobbin case, distorting it in a way so that the hook no longer rotates smoothly underneath. Instead, the increased friction of the hook rotating under the distorted bobbin case will cause a scraping sound that did not exist before.

Depending on the severity of the needle strike(s), the bobbin case may or may not be able to be repaired. If the needle strike is minor, then it is possible to smooth out the burr on the plastic bobbin case with emery tape. If the burr cannot be smoothed out, then the bobbin case will have to be replaced.

Sometimes, removing the bobbin case will get rid of the sound, but not because of a damaged bobbin case. It is possible for the hook race itself to be damaged with a burr in the metal, which scrapes against the bobbin case and generates a scraping sound. If you find a burr on the hook race, it can be really difficult to smooth it out with emery cord. Even for a trained technician, sometimes the burr is bad enough that the entire hook will have to be replaced.

All the same issues with the hook and bobbin case are also possible or sewing machines where the bobbin loads from the front— vintage Pfaff, vintage Bernina, modern Bernina — though it’s much more rare. These machines tend to be loud, but the most common reason for the noise is that the hook race is dry and in need of lubrication.

If you have one of these machines and it seems to be sewing loud, try lubricating the hook race with a drop of oil, then run the machine again and see if the sound goes away.

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If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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I accidentally dropped a needle down through the needle plate hole and I can’t find it! What do I do? I live an hour away from your store, I really don’t want to have to bring it all the way to the shop!

I realized that I receive questions about this subject fairly often, both for the case where someone drops a whole needle into the machine, and for the case where the needle breaks and the broken half disappears inside the machine.

There are various Reddit threads discussing it, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with the answers I found there, so I thought I’d share my opinion in this edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter.

I hope you find it helpful.

—Cale

The needle dropped into my machine and I can’t find it..... what do I do?

First, stay calm. I know it appears that we have a big problem on our hands. The needle disappeared down into the guts of the machine where so many important parts are located—— the feed dogs, the bobbin & bobbin case, the hook system, the automatic thread trimmer.

What if the needle lodged itself into an undesirable space among these critical components?

If I try sewing again, I’ll break my machine, right?

The truth is, there is a very small chance that the needle has landed in a location where it can harm your machine. If you dropped your needle inside your machine, or if the needle broke off inside your machine, and you cannot see it when you go looking for it, then it is highly likely that the needle has fallen all the way down to the bottom of your machine and is resting harmlessly on the floor of the machine’s cover.

Thank you, gravity!

Ask any seasoned sewing machine technician—— when we open up a machine for service, it is very common that we find pins and needles and other things resting harmlessly on the floor of the machine’s cover.

Troubleshooting 101: Turn the Handwheel

If your needle has disappeared into the recesses of your machine and you cannot find it, and you want peace of mind that it is not in a space that can damage the machine, there is a simple way to troubleshoot.

Simply turn the machine’s hand-wheel toward you so that the needle goes up and down a few times.

Pay attention as you turn the hand-wheel. Does the machine turn over smoothly? If so, then you’re in the clear.

Remember, we are afraid that our needle has found its way into a spot that can disrupt the proper operation of the machine’s internal components—— the feed dogs, the bobbin & bobbin case, the hook system, etc.

If the needle was to find its way into an undesirable spot, we should be able to feel it when you turn the handwheel. It would feel like a jam or a bind—— something of that sort. And if you do feel that jam/bind, then you probably need to take your machine to a sewing machine technician.

Doublecheck the Hook Race

The one place where I have found multiple broken needle tips is the hook race. I can imagine that this is not a spot sewists will look at when searching for their broken needle tip.

The hook race varies slightly depending on the type of hoo system the sewing machine is designed with:

• On a machine with a horizontal rotary hook (AKA drop-in bobbin), the hook race in the thin metal ledge on which the bobbin case basket sits.

• On a machine with a vertical hook system (rotary or oscillator), the hook race is the thin metal ledge on which the hook itself rides along.

Modern Bernina machines (e.g. B770, B740, B570, B475) are designed the B9 hook system, which is a very unique vertical hook design. With the B9 hook system, the hook race is magnetic, and over the years I have found broken needle tips stuck onto the hook race due to this magnetism.

Fortunately, the engineers at Bernina are very clever and designed the machine to give the sewist an error message on the screen if there is a potential obstruction in the hook area. The error message shows the image of gears with a red X, and the machine won’t let you sew until you remove the hook, clear the obstruction, and re-install the hook properly

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In this edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter, I'm going to talk about why sewing machines are getting bigger and what this means for sewists.

• We'll dive into the history of why manufacturers have been increasing the size of home sewing machines.

• Then I will analyze how this trend affects the sewing machine landscape as a whole

• You might assume the bigger the machine, the higher the price, right? That used to be true, but it's no longer the case. I'll explain why.

I hope you find it interesting and helpful,

—Cale

Janome Starts the Party

In 2019, Janome dropped a bomb on the sewing machine landscape when they introduced their new top-of-the-line sewing machine, the Janome Continental M7, which featured an unprecedented 13.5 inches of throat space, making it the largest home sewing machine available.

In addition to the massive throat space, the Continental M7 was the first home sewing machine to be equipped with an industrial grade brushless servo motor. This combination of advanced motor technology and throat space superiority was an absolute game changer. If you've ever sewn on an M7, you know just how incredible its touch and responsiveness feel. Owners of the machine often remark that it's challenging to use anything else afterward.

Increased throat space makes sewing more enjoyable for several reasons. More room means less feeling cramped and constrained as you sew, plus enhanced visibility and lighting, and easier handling of large fabric pieces. Additionally, a larger throat space typically means a larger overall machine (larger footprint), which often contributes to a smoother sewing experience that people find more enjoyable.

The Continental platform proved so successful that Janome quickly followed up with the Continental M17 in 2022. This sewing-embroidery combo machine retained the M7's 13.5-inch throat space and brushless servo motor while introducing advanced embroidery capabilities and stitch regulation for free-motion quilting. Janome's innovation set a new standard, motivating other companies like Bernina, Brother, and Baby Lock to soon develop similar machines.

Bernina Follows Suit

In 2024, Bernina introduced their new flagship sewing-embroidery combo machine, the B990, one-upping Janome by half an inch with a total of 14 inches of throat space, making it the largest available in any home sewing machine. Bernina’s decision to slightly exceed Janome's 13.5-inch Continental M17 throat was intentional, allowing them to claim the title of the machine with the most throat space in the world.

To understand how significant this trend is, let's take a brief look at the history of Bernina’s throat space evolution over the past two decades:

• In 2004, Bernina launched the Aurora 440, a groundbreaking machine at the time, primarily due to its stitch regulator (BSR), a technology that dramatically influenced the sewing machine market. Despite the BSR technology innovation and its exceptional build quality, the Aurora 440 had a modest 7.5 inches of throat space to the right of the needle.

• By comparison, Bernina’s Q16 long-arm quilting machine boasts a 16-inch throat, just two inches larger than the B990.

• Bernina's former flagship machine, the polarizing B880, provided 12 inches of throat space.

• Bernina’s popular 7-series sewing machine platform (B770, B740, B735, etc.) offers 10 inches of throat space.

Brother & Baby Lock

Later in 2024, Baby Lock and Brother, released their own top-of-the-line super machines designed of both sewing and embroidery: the Baby Lock Radiance and the Brother Aveneer. These machines took the competition even further, featuring a comical 14.1-inch throat space, just edging out the Bernina 990 by one-tenth of an inch.

Perhaps I am too much of a sewing machine nerd for my own good, but I have started refering to this era in the sewing machine industry as the The Great Sewing Machine (Throat) Space Race.

Where do we go from here?

The obvious question is: how big will sewing machines get?

Will we see another significant jump, perhaps machines with 16 inches of throat space— essentially matching the size of long-arm sewing machines but with the features of home machines?

I do think it’s a realistic possibility that we see a sewing machine with a 16 inch throat. Sewists, especially quilters, appreciate the benefits of machines with larger throat spaces. Manufacturers have recognized this preference. In my experience selling hundreds of sewing machines, I've never met a sewist who regrets opting for a larger throat space— quite the opposite. Larger throat space improves visibility and lighting, makes maneuvering quilts and large fabric easier, and usually results in a larger, more stable machine footprint, enhancing the sewing experience.

However, there is a practical limit. The Janome M17, Bernina B990, Brother Aveneer, and Baby Lock Radiance already weigh over 40 pounds without their embroidery units attached. A machine with a 16-inch throat would likely be even heavier, making it extremely difficult for many sewists to move without assistance.

With all that said, I believe focusing solely on size misses the more critical point: will these larger-throat-space machines become affordable and accessible to more sewists?

Currently, machines with substantial throat spaces like the Bernina B990, Baby Lock Radiance, and Brother Aveneer have an MSRP around $24,000. If I had to guess, most dealerships tend to have these machines priced around $5,000 lower than MSRP. Fortunately, prices are starting to decrease. Janome, for example, responded to competitors' 14-inch machines not by increasing throat space further, but by introducing the Continental M6 and Continental M8.

The M8 is essentially a souped-up M7, sharing its robust platform of 13.5” throat and brushless servo motor, but adding an ASR stitch regulator, an improved needle threader, and an innovative thumb wheel. At $5,999, the M8 is the most affordable home sewing machine on the market with over 12 inches of throat space and stitch regulation.

Meanwhile, the Continental M6 offers a generous 13.5 inches of throat space at an even lower price of $3,999. While it lacks extras like stitch regulation and embroidery capabilities, it's an exceptional machine for its price, making advanced features accessible to more sewists.

I anticipate Bernina, Brother, and Baby Lock will follow Janome's lead by offering similarly stripped-down, more affordable versions of their larger machines.

Another positive outcome of the rise in large-throat-space machines is the increased availability of quality pre-owned machines. Sewists upgrading to larger models often trade in their previous machines, leading to an influx of high-quality, pre-owned options like the Bernina 7-series (10” throat), Janome M7 and MC15000 (11” throat), and combination machines from Brother and Baby Lock. These pre-owned machine represent great value, especially if you get them from a dealership who offers parts and labor warranty on their pre-owned machines. In many cases, you can get a machine with 10+ inches of throat space more than 40% off the original price.

That’s all to say: while sewing machines are growing bigger and more expensive, there's also a beneficial trend of increased availability of affordable, high-quality machines with substantial throat space.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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Within this email, they shared one piece of information that really grabbed my attention: geopolitical events are having a large impact on the cost of oil, directly impacting all modes of freight.

The effect is that this particular sewing machine manufacturer is facing 5%-15% increases from freight carriers across all modes. For The Sewing Machine Shop (my family’s small sewing machine retail and repair business), this means we can expect the cost of machines and parts to increase.

In this state-of-the-union email, the manufacturer listed a variety of things they are planning to do to mitigate impact: origin consolidation, early booking appointments, larger carrier pool for domestic deliveries, review of package sizes for FedEx ground shipments, etc.

Still, in no uncertain terms, cost of products is expected to rise, and this increase will be shouldered by both the manufacturer, the retailer, and the customer.

Albeit frustrating from a pure business standpoint, I consider myself fortunate that the sewing machine industry serves as a substrate to help me better understand the complexities of the world. Given my job, I can’t help but view the world through a sewing machine-colored lens.

In the 21st century, the vast majority of sewing machines are manufactured in and imported from Asia. Machines of this origin make their way to North America by boat, meaning there is a dependence on ocean freight. If the cost of diesel rises due to a conflict like the one happening in the Strait of Hormuz, or if ships must take longer routes due to something like the ongoing Red Sea crisis, then the cost to import a sewing machine rises as well.

That doesn’t mean every sewing machine price is immediately affected by such events. Dealers and brands can absorb some costs temporarily, shift production, or delay increases. But ultimately the rising cost of freight will eventually be reflected in the price of imported products, and the sewing machine industry is no exception.

In times like this when the business faces tangible adversity completely outside our control, I find myself feeling incredibly proud of my father and the work culture he has created at The Sewing Machine Shop. The ethos he’s infused into the business truly helps us combat rising costs.

He’s been in this business for decades and operates according to a simple principle: although he has the ability to carry any machine in the world, he has consistently chosen to only carry the highest quality machines. In a sense, this choice is self-serving— after all, he is the head technician of The Sewing Machine Shop, so carrying high-quality machines and foregoing poor quality machines means less warranty repair work in the long run. Still, so many dealerships choose to carry every machine under the sun, whereas his disciplined approach gives him undeniable credibility.

He shines in moments like the one we’re currently in, because he’ll target a specific model of sewing machine, and make a massive bulk order of that one model in order to negotiate a better price per unit with the manufacturer. He can then pass the savings onto the customer, thereby combating the rising cost of goods.

He did this a few weeks ago in light of the rising freight prices, ordering 30 units of the Baby Lock Victory, his favorite 4-thread serger under $2,000. The price of the Victory rose during the Covid-19 pandemic, then rose again due to tariffs, and was looking to rise yet again in lieu of geopolitical conflicts affecting cost of freight. However, he got such good deal on the bulk order of 30 units that he is able to price the Victory at $1,499, hundreds of dollars lower than what it would have cost otherwise, back to the pre-pandemic price ballpark.

This isn’t the first time he has done something like this.

Late in 2025, when tariffs caused the price of the Janome Continental M8 (one of his favorite sewing & quilting machines) to increase substantially, he made a massive order of the Elna 792 Pro, which is the Janome M8 but with a brand nameplate. He bought 70 units of the Elna 792 Pro and got such a good price that he was able to price them at $5,999— thousands of dollars less than what they cost elsewhere.

I wrote about this Elna 792 Pro bulk order in great detail in an article a few months ago: How Tariffs Changed the Sewing Machine Business Overnight.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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You will unlock the full archive of over 150 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

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Ontology is defined as a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them. Therefore, we can think of sewing machine ontology as a set of concepts and categories in the domain of sewing machines that shows properties of sewing machines and the relations between them.

Personally, my understanding of sewing machines deepened tenfold when I was able to wrap my head around bedrock sewing machine concepts, rather than simply memorizing specific information. Instead of encountering a problem and trying to think of another time when I encountered that same specific problem, I began to see a problem and trace my steps back toward the overarching sewing machine concept that the problem is tied to.

With that said, this edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter is dedicated to the concept of the unobstructed thread path. Obstructions to either the upper thread path or lower thread path will absolutely sink your stitch quality, whether it be skipped stitches, thread looping, or thread breakage. It’s an important concept to understand because thread path obstructions can manifest in a relatively wide variety of variations.

Review: How a Stitch is Made

A stitch is essentially a knot that gets tied between two sources of thread— the bobbin thread and the needle thread. The knot is formed below the needle plate, when the needle reaches its bottommost position and begins its trajectory upward. As it begins to move upward, the thread forms a loop at the eye of the needle (on the backside of the needle).

Now, this entire time the machine’s sewing hook has been rotating around the bobbin case and bobbin. The position of the hook point is timed with the position of the needle, so that the hook passes behind the needle (just above the needle eye) when the needle has risen approximately 2-2.5 millimeters above bottom dead center (the needle’s bottommost position).

This precise timing allows the hook point to pass through (or catch) the thread loop as it is formed. After catching the upper thread loop, the hook continues its rotation around the bobbin case, taking the [needle] thread along for the ride. During “the ride”, the needle thread and bobbin thread form a loose knot with each other near the top of the bobbin case.

At this point, the stitch is essentially done being made— all it needs now is to be cinched up into the fabric by the take-up lever, then get properly positioned in the middle of the fabric by way of the upper thread tension and bobbin case tension. It’s an ingenious process that requires precision, without much room for error. In turn, it can all be derailed if either thread path is obstructed.

Whether it be the upper thread source (needle thread) or bobbin thread source, the thread must flow freely from the thread source as your sewing machine sews and makes stitches. There are many different points along the thread path where obstructions can occur and prevent the thread from flowing freely. We’ve actually published quite a few articles on the specifics of these obstructions already, so I will link you to those relevant articles when appropriate. Hopefully, by putting all these examples of thread path obstructions here in one place, we can hammer the concept home.

Spool Cap

Your spool cap ought to be slightly larger than thread spool itself. If the spool cap is smaller than the thread spool, then the thread is susceptible to getting snagged on the rough plastic of the spool. If it’s much larger than the thread spool, then the thread can still get snagged.

A snag serves as an obstruction to the upper thread flowing freely. It can prevent the thread loop from being formed at the eye of the needle, which results in skipped stitches.

Needle Eye Too Small or Thread Too Thick

The thread has to flow freely throughout the stitch-making process. One point where this is tested is at the needle eye.

Thread shredding often occurs because the needle eye is too small for the thread to pass through it freely. There are two potential reasons for this.

1. The needle eye could be too small (e.g. using a size 65/9 needle with normal 40/50 weight thread).

2. The thread could be too thick (e.g. using 12 weight thread with a universal 80/12 needle)

Either way, an inharmonious combination of needle eye size and thread weight serves as a thread path obstruction. The needle and thread must be compatible with each other.

Compacted Lint in the Tension Discs

If compacted lint and/or shredded thread becomes wedged between a sewing machine’s upper tension discs, then the tension discs will not be able to close properly. If the tension discs don’t close onto the thread properly, you upper thread will have zero tension.

Where are your upper tension discs?

The thread must pass through closed tension discs in order for a successful stitch to get made. Otherwise, you will get small loops on the underside of your fabric.

The Pull Test

The Pull Test is a troubleshooting test invented by my dad, and it might be the most helpful information I could give a sewist in regard to troubleshooting their machine.

Performing the pull test will tell you whether or not your upper thread is under a zero tension condition. When you pull the thread with the presser foot raised, the thread should pull freely. When you pull the thread with the presser foot lowered, you should feel tension. If you pull the thread with the presser foot lowered and you feel no tension, then your tension discs are not closing on the thread all the way for some reason and you have a problem that needs to be solved.

Another useful aspect of the pull test is that it can indicate other thread path obstruction beyond the tension discs. As I said before, when you pull the thread with the presser foot raised, the thread should pull freely. But what if it’s not pulling freely? What if you feel a snag somewhere?

Such situations have arisen numerous times when I’ve troubleshooted sewing machines. It means there is an upper thread path obstruction somewhere that needs to be cleared. It could be the spool cap is too big, too small, or is damaged with a nick that keeps catching the thread. It could be that there is a nick in the plastic shell of the machine that the thread is getting caught on. It could be compacted lint or shredded thread stuck somewhere other than between the tension discs. Either way, the pull test is one of the first things you should do when experiencing stitch quality issues like thread looping or skipped stitches.

Lint/Thread Between the Bobbin Case Tension Discs

Just like the upper thread path needs to be clear of obstruction, so does the bobbin thread. And, just like compacted lint can obstruct the upper tension discs from closing properly, it can cause the same issue with the bobbin case tension discs (circled in red below).

If compacted lint and thread gets stuck between those discs, the discs will not close properly. If the discs don’t close properly, then the bobbin thread will have zero tension and get sucked up to the top of the fabric, manifesting as small loops (a.k.a. eyelashes). If you ever get these small loops on the topside of your fabric, clear out any obstruction between these discs by using canned air or something thin like a pin or needle.

Needle Strikes on the Needle Plate & Bobbin Case

Needle strikes on the needle plate, bobbin case, and presser foot can serve as thread path obstructions.

Similar to the spool cap, all of these parts are designed to be extremely smooth because the thread slides over across their surfaces during the stitch-making process. Sharp burrs born from needle strikes (as seen in the photos above) can create all sorts of problems, such as thread breakage or unwanted thread loops.

Poorly Wound Bobbin

As strange as it sounds, a poorly wound bobbin is an obstruction the bobbin thread itself.

You want the thread to flow freely from the bobbin. There is a portion of the bobbin thread that is “next up” in the sense that it is the next portion of the bobbin thread that will be used to make a stitch. When you wind a good bobbin where the thread is tight and even, the portion of the bobbin thread that is “next up” should flow freely from the bobbin as it partakes in the stitch-making process. However, if you wind a loose sloppy bobbin (as seen in the photo above), the thread that is “next up” may be buried underneath other loose threads due to the bobbin being wound sloppy and uneven. Therefore, the thread that is “next up” has to pass through the thread it is buried under, which essentially acts as an obstruction in the bobbin thread path.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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The Three Fundamental Stitch Systems & Why They Exist

If you strip sewing down to its essence, there are only a few ways to join fabric together with thread.

Modern machines have evolved into three dominant stitch systems:

• Lockstitch (standard sewing machine, embroidery machine, long-arm quilting machine)

• Overlock stitch (serger)

• Coverstitch (coverstitch machine)

They are not interchangeable. Each one exists because it solves a different mechanical problem.

In today’s edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter, I am going to break it all down.

I hope you find it helpful,

—Cale

1. The Lockstitch (Standard Sewing Machine)

What it is

The lockstitch is the most common stitch in the world.

It uses:

• 1 needle thread (top)

• 1 bobbin thread (bottom)

These two threads interlock in the middle of the fabric.

How it works

• The needle carries thread down through the fabric

• A hook grabs that thread and wraps it around the bobbin thread

• The stitch tightens and “locks” in between the fabric layers

Why it exists

The lockstitch was designed for strength.

It creates a tight, stable seam that does not stretch.

What it’s good for

• Woven fabrics (cotton, denim, canvas)

• Construction seams

• Topstitching

• Zippers, buttonholes, detail work, quilting

Its limitation

The lockstitch has one major weakness: it does not stretch well.

That’s why it may struggle with:

• Knit fabrics

• Activewear

• Anything that needs elasticity

2. The Overlock Stitch (Serger)

What it is

The overlock stitch uses:

• 1–2 needles

• 2 loopers (upper and lower)

• 3–5 threads total

Instead of locking threads inside the fabric, it wraps thread around the edge.

How it works

• The needles form straight stitches

• Loopers swing back and forth, wrapping thread around the fabric edge

• A built-in knife trims the fabric as you sew

The result is a seam that is sewn, finished, and trimmed all at once

Why it exists

The overlock stitch was invented for speed and edge control.

In manufacturing, fabric edges fray. The overlock stitch solves this by encasing the raw edge in thread.

At the same time, it allows for some stretch, unlike a lockstitch.

What it’s good for

• Finishing raw edges

• Sewing knit garments

• T-shirts, leggings, athletic wear

• Fast garment construction

Its limitation

• Not as precise as a lockstitch

• Not ideal for detailed work

• Doesn’t create a “clean topstitch” look

3. The Coverstitch (Coverstitch Machine)

What it is

The coverstitch uses:

• 2 or 3 needles (top)

• 1 looper (bottom)

• 3–4 threads total

On the top, you see parallel straight lines

On the bottom, you see a looper forming a zigzag/chain

How it works

• Multiple needles create rows of straight stitches

• A looper connects them underneath in a flexible chain

Unlike a lockstitch, this structure allows the seam to stretch without breaking.

Why it exists

The coverstitch was designed specifically for: stretch + appearance

It solves a problem neither of the other stitches handles well:

• Lockstitch = clean but not stretchy

• Overlock = stretchy but not visually clean

The coverstitch gives you a professional finished look with elasticity

What it’s good for

• Hemming knit garments (T-shirts, sleeves, activewear)

• Necklines

• Decorative topstitching on stretch fabrics

If you’ve ever looked at the hem of a T-shirt, that’s a coverstitch.

Its limitation

• Cannot join fabric edges like a serger

• Not ideal for structural seams

Thank you for reading!

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With that said, today I will make the argument that the corner of the sewing world inhabited by sergers and coverstitch machines is where the most important technological developments have taken place. The vast majority of innovation comes from the engineers at Baby Lock, and their improvements in technology is rooted in a utilitarian spirit. Their sergers aren’t as flashy as other brands— no color touchscreens or anything like that. Instead they are designed as tools that are easy to use, difficult to break, and allow the user to work seamlessly (no pun intended).

What is a Serger?

A serger machine, also known as an overlock machine, is a specialized machine designed to create professional-quality seams, hems, and finishes.

Unlike a traditional sewing machine, a serger uses multiple threads (typically three, four, or five) to simultaneously stitch fabric, trim excess material, and overcast raw edges. This combination of functions helps prevent fraying and gives garments and projects a polished, professional-made look.

Why Would I Want to Use a Serger?

Sergers excel at handling tasks that traditional sewing machines struggle with, such as sewing stretchy fabrics or creating clean, fray-resistant seams.

One reason why sergers excel in this arena is because the machine is designed to make an overlock stitch, which has greater ability to stretch as fabric stretches in comparison to the lockstitch that a sewing machine is designed to make.

Another reason sergers are so good at sewing stretchier fabrics is because are capable of differential feed.

A serger with differential feed has two sets of feed dogs—one in the front and one in the back—that can move at different speeds relative to each other. By adjusting the differential feed settings, users can prevent fabric from puckering, stretching, or gathering unintentionally. For instance, when sewing lightweight or stretchy fabrics, increasing the differential feed can help eliminate unwanted ripples. Conversely, decreasing the differential feed can be used to create intentional gathers or ruffles. This level of control is especially beneficial for achieving professional-quality finishes on a wide range of fabrics, from delicate silks to heavy knits, making differential feed an indispensable feature for both beginner and experienced serger users.

Additionally, sergers can create decorative edges and unique stitch patterns, adding a creative flair to garments and home decor items.

What are the Best Sergers?

In my opinion, the Baby Lock serger machines coming out of the Suzuki factory in Yamagata, Japan are clearly the best sergers in the world. They’re easy to use, difficult to break, and last for decades. I have not encountered evidence to persuade me to recommend any other brand, though I am open to arguments that would change my mind.

You can see these Baby Lock sergers being made by hand in the Yamagata factory here:

Founded in the 1960’s, Baby Lock has more than half a century of experience manufacturing sergers, and that experience translates into a remarkably reliable product. They are mechanically sound and the electronics are superb, making them a favorite of both sewing enthusiasts AND sewing machine technicians around the world.

Where Baby Lock really stands out is that they have combined this reliability with innovative features that competing manufacturers have only recently began to copy. There are 2 features in particular that stand out above the rest:

1. Air-Threading Loopers (and needles)

2. Automatic Thread Delivery (ATD)

Air-Threading Sergers

A challenge with traditional sergers is the complexity of threading 3-5 different spools of thread, requiring precise threading through multiple small guides and tension disks, which can be confusing and time consuming.

Air-threading on a Baby Lock serger is an innovative feature that simplifies the threading process, making it faster and more user-friendly. With air-threading, Baby Lock sergers use a built-in mechanism that utilizes a burst of air to automatically thread the loopers with minimal effort from the user.

The process works by inserting the thread into a designated threading port and then pressing a lever or button to engage the air-threading system. A stream of air pushes the thread through the internal pathways and into the looper eye, completing the threading in seconds.

This technology eliminates the frustration of manually threading loopers, especially in tight or hard-to-reach areas. Baby Lock’s air-threading feature is particularly appealing to sewists of all experience levels, as it saves time and ensures consistent threading for smooth, high-quality stitches.

Automatic Thread Delivery (ATD)

Another challenge with traditional sergers is that it is notoriously difficulty to balance the tension. Not only are there 3-5 thread spools under tension, but they create a stitch that sits on the edge of the fabric, opposed to a sewing machine where the stitch is a simple knot from two thread spools that sits in between the fabric we are sewing.

Again, Baby Lock addresses this problem with utter perfection. Automatic Thread Delivery (ATD) is a beautiful mechanical system (no electronics involved) that measures the amount of thread needed to make a perfect stitch. Tension dials are eliminated and any brand or type of thread can be used without adjustments. Perhaps a more simple way to explain ATD is that you can think of it essentially as automatic tension.

ATD works by sensing the thread feed and making precise adjustments in real-time, ensuring even, professional-quality stitches every time you sew. Whether you’re working with delicate silk, stretchy knits, or heavy denim, ATD ensures consistent results without the need for constant fine-tuning of tension, allowing users to focus more on creativity and less on fussy details.

Read the article below or more information on Baby Lock and their history:

Serger FAQs

What Sergers are Best for Beginners?

If the $1,500-2,000 price point is compatible with one’s budget, then the Baby Lock Victory is ideal for beginners. The air-threading system takes the fuss out of threading, while ATD takes the fuss out of balancing tension, which will make your serger experience stress free and fun.

Sergers vs Coverstitch Machine

While sergers and coverstitch machines may look similar and share some overlapping features, they serve distinct purposes in the sewing world.

A serger machine is primarily used for overlocking, which involves stitching seams, trimming excess fabric, and overcasting edges to prevent fraying, all in one step. It is excellent for creating strong, stretchy, and professional-looking seams.

On the other hand, a coverstitch machine is designed specifically for hemming and topstitching. It does not have blades for trimming fabric but excels at creating clean, durable hems, such as those seen on t-shirts, and decorative stitching on the right side of the fabric.

In addition to their sergers, Baby Lock makes a couple incredible standalone coverstitch machines: the Baby Lock Euphoria and the Baby Lock Applaud.

Can Sergers do Coverstitching?

Yes, both the Baby Lock Splendor and Baby Lock Triumph are combination machines capable of performing the function of a serger machine and a coverstitch machine.

There are several key differences between the Accolade and Triumph.

1. The Triumph has air threading for both the loopers and needles, whereas the Splendor only has air-threading loopers.

2. The Triumph has a larger 5” inch workspace to the right of the needle, about double the size of the Splendor.

3. The Triumph is design with a slider to control variable speeds while sewing.

4. The Triumph as a knee lift that raises/lowers the presser foot.

Thank you for Reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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Everyday I see machines where the needle threader’s tiny wire hook is broken off or bent so severely that it cannot be straightened out. In these cases, the needle threader has to be replaced. An average cost for a threader is about $12, but they can be as high as $40 depending on the machine.

To Review:

At the center of the needle threader mechanism, there is an extremely tiny hook-shaped wire that is critical to the success of your needle threader.

When you engage your needle threader, that tiny wire hook passes through the eye of the needle, from the back to the front.

The wire hook passes through the eye of the needle and sits there, waiting for you to give it some thread that it can pull through the needle eye.

Our job is to deliver the thread to that tiny wire hook. If we do our job properly, then that tiny wire hook will pull the thread through the eye of the needle when the needle threader is released.

The automatic needle threader is an incredible feature on your sewing machine. However, that tiny wire hook is very delicate and can become bent out of shape. When bent, it renders the needle threader useless. You can follow all the steps to perfection, but your needle threader will not work if that tiny wire hook is bent out of shape.

What causes the wire hook to bend?

When that tiny wire hook gets bent, 99% of the time it is because the wire hook has crashed into the needle instead of passing through the needle eye.

Below I have given you a list of the top 5 things you can do to prevent this crash.

(1) Using a needle with too small an eye

Needle eyes get larger with needle size. For example, a 90/14 size needle has a larger eye than a 80/12 needle, and a 80/12 needle has a larger eye than a 70/10 needle.

On any needle below size 80/12, the eye of the needle is too small for the needle threader’s tiny wire hook to pass through successfully. From my experience as a technician, as well as my father and uncle’s wealth of experience (over 70 years combined between the two of them), we can tell you that the tiny wire hook is guaranteed to get bent out of shape if you attempt to use your needle threader on any needle below size 80/12.

Now, I am not saying you can’t use needles below size 80/12 to sew. You certainly can. 75/11, 70/10, 60/8, etc.— they are made for a reason. But, if you do, I highly recommend that you thread those needles by hand instead of using your needle threader.

(2) Utilize your needle up/down button

Needle threaders are designed to work with both the needle and take-up lever in their highest position. If you pull down your needle threader lever when the needle is not in the highest position, the threader’s tiny wire hook will not be properly aligned with the needle eye. The wire hook will crash into the needle and get bent.

Part of the challenge here is that it is difficult for us to visually gauge whether or not the needle is truly in the highest position. You can see this in the photograph below— the needle looks like it’s in its highest position, but it’s not quite all the way up. Therefore, the tiny wire hook is doomed to crash into the needle right above the eye.

The good news is that the companies who make sewing machines are aware of this problem. Therefore, they have started putting a needle up/down button on most of the modern machines.

I strongly recommend you get in the habit of pressing the needle up/down button before you thread the top half of the machine. It will position the needle in the highest position (the ideal position for threading) and help you prevent the tiny wire hook from crashing.

For those of you who do not have a needle up/down button, the same principle applies: your needle threader is designed to be used when both the needle and take-up lever are in their highest position. Therefore, turn the hand wheel until both the needle and take-up lever are in the highest position, then engage your needle threader.

What is the take-up lever? It is the mechanism shaped sort of like a shepherd’s crook on the top-left side of your machine. In the photograph below I have circled the take-up lever in red.

(3) Bent needles

Imagine your needle threader’s tiny wire hook passing cleanly through the needle eye.

Now imagine your needle is slightly bent to the left or the right.

Instead of passing through the eye cleanly, the tiny wire hook may now rub against the inside wall of the needle eye and bend slightly, or perhaps it crashes into the needle head-on and bends badly. OR maybe the needle is bent to the point where the wire hook misses the eye completely. Any way you cut it, changing your needle relatively often will help save your needle threader.

(4) Needles not fully inserted

If your needle is not fully inserted into the machine, the tiny wire hook will crash into the needle and bend.

How do you know if your needle is fully inserted?

The hole in the needle bar in which you insert your needle— there is a pin that stops the needle from being pushed up any higher. Make sure you insert your needle all the way up until it hits that pin.

Below, the two photos on the top row show the needle inserted all the way up until it has hit the pin. The two photos on the bottom row show a needle that has not been fully inserted— you can see a little bit of daylight between the top of the needle and the pin and that daylight makes all the difference. If we were to attempt to use our needle threader, the tiny wire hook would crash into the needle (above the eye) and bend.

(5) Pull the lever straight down

This only applies to the more basic semi-automatic needle threaders, oppose to the fully automatic needle threaders.

When you pull down the needle threader lever, the telescopic shaft that you lower is thin and has flex in it. It is important to pull the shaft straight down without any lateral force left or right. If you apply lateral force, this may cause the threader wire to crash into needle, or miss to the outside of the needle.

In the photo below, notice how my finger is positioned toward the left side of the lever. The position of my finger creates lateral force to the right, and you can see the wire hook is missing the needle eye to the right.

In this next photo, my finger is positioned directly on top of the lever, pulling straight down. No lateral force whatsoever, and the wire hook passes through the eye of the needle without a problem.

Un-bending the bent hook…

Sometimes the tiny wire hook can be un-bent. Sometimes it can’t and will need to be replaced.

If it’s merely bent to the left or right, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to straighten it out. However, if that tiny wire hook is kinked, it will most likely have to be replaced.

Either way, it is no easy task. That tiny wire hook is really small and delicate, so un-bending it requires a certain level of coordination and eyesight. It also requires patience because there is lots of trial and error involved.

Here is the tool our technicians use to straighten out:

We shaved off the tip of a needle so that we can use the narrow walls of the needle eye to tweak the thin wire hook in one direction or the other and hopefully straighten it out again.

Thank you for Reading!

Needle threaders are an incredible feature, but they are delicate mechanisms. There’s not a lot of room for error, and I believe we can help reduce user error by gaining a better understanding of how they work. The information I put in this article came from fixing hundreds and hundreds of needle threaders over the years , so I hope you found it helpful.

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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Archive

In this edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter I will attempt to demystify the needle threader. I am going to explain exactly how needle threaders work and pinpoint a few intricacies that I’ve picked up on over the years. It is my firm belief that having a solid understanding of your needle threader mechanism will help you use your needle threader more successfully.

In principle, all needle threaders work the same way…

At the center of the needle threader mechanism, there is an extremely tiny hook-shaped wire that is critical to the success of your needle threader:

When you engage your needle threader, that tiny wire hook passes through the eye of the needle, from the back to the front.

The wire hook passes through the eye of the needle and sits there, waiting for you to give it some thread that it can pull through the needle eye.

Our job is to deliver the thread to that tiny wire hook. If we do our job properly, then that tiny wire hook will pull the thread through the eye of the needle when the needle threader is released.

Vocabulary Clarification: when we pull the needle threader lever down, I say the needle threader is engaged because the wire hook passes through the eye of the needle; when we let go of the lever, I say the needle threader is released because the wire hook pivots back out of the needle eye.

Given the minuscule size of the wire hook and the needle eye, there is not a lot of room for error. Over the years I have noticed a few common things that can go wrong when using the needle threader, and I am going to focus on those common issues now:

(1) Full Pivot

Notice in the videos above how the needle threader pivots back and forth, allowing the wire hook to pass in and out of the needle eye. Something I see often is that people do not pull the needle threader lever down all the way. They pull it down 95%, but the problem is that the wire hook does not pivot all the way through without that final 5%. In other words, the needle threader is not fully engaged, and it will not work if it’s not fully engaged.

On many of these needle threaders, the tricky thing is that it feels like you’ve pulled the lever down all the way. You feel like you’ve reached a natural stopping point and you don’t want to pull the lever down any further because you don’t want to break the machine. It’s understandable, but it’s something you need to push past in order to make your needle threader work. If the needle threader doesn’t achieve full pivot, then the wire hook does not fully pass through the eye of the needle, and your needle threader will not work.

(2) Hold The Thread Taut

If you watched the video earlier, then you heard me use the word “taut” 50 times in two minutes. I’ll reiterate it again because it’s super important: when doing the needle threader dance, hold the thread taut in your fingers. The needle threader dance requires a certain level of coordination. After all, we are handling super small objects (thread) and trying to fit them into really small places (needle eye). Precision is important, and holding the thread taut gives you the most amount of control and precision over the thread.

In other words: the thread will not go where you want it to go if you hold the thread lightly; there’s a better chance it will go where you want it to go if you hold it taut.

If you hold thread lightly in your fingers, you will have less control over the thread. It will bend and twirl and it will be more difficult to get it to go to the places you need (to that tiny wire hook). Again, I understand why you might feel the need to hold the thread lightly— that little wire hook is delicate, and perhaps you don’t want to break anything.

Don’t worry about that. Hold the thread taut.

If you hold the thread taut, then when you try to bring the thread to the bottom of the needle, it will go where you want it to go. If you hold the thread taut, then when you slide it up the front of the needle shaft into the tiny wire hook, the thread will go where you want to go. If you hold it lightly, it may twirl behind the needle or find its way to the topside of the wire hook, neither of which are a recipe for needle threader success.

(3) “Baby, you gotta let me go.”

If thread could talk, this is what it would say to you right as you release your needle threader lever.

Something I see often is a person who says they can’t get their needle threader to work, but then I watch them try to do it and they do everything perfectly. They follow the needle threader steps to tee, they hold the thread taut, but when the moment of truth arrives and they release the needle threader lever, they don’t let go of the thread in their fingers. They continue to hold onto it firmly, and this is a problem. The tiny wire hook pulls the thread through the needle eye, but the user never lets go of the thread and essentially un-threads the threaded needle. It’s Sisyphean.

To avoid this issue, remember the following: as you release the needle threader lever with one hand, let go of the thread you’re holding in the other hand. You can see a clear example of this in the video below:

Note: For some reason I see this most often on Bernina needle threaders.

One Last Thing…

Now, some of you don’t have a needle threader like the ones I have shown so far. You have a nicer needle threader that is more automatic, probably on your Janome or Brother or Baby Lock. Your needle threader looks a little bit different, and it should be easier to operate, but the same principles I’ve stressed so far still apply.

When you slide your thread into the various guides (especially that last couple thread guides), it is important that the thread is taut. If you slide your thread into the guides and the thread is loose, your needle threader will fail.

You still need pull the needle threader lever down all the way. If you don’t pull the lever down all the way, then the tiny wire hook won’t fully pass through the needle eye, and the needle threader will fail.

In Conclusion…

Needle threader frustration is one of the most common issues we see among sewists, so I hope you found this information helpful.

The funny thing is, I feel like this article was a comprehensive deep-dive examination of needle threaders — and I still feel that way — but I realize I didn’t even touch on a really common needle threader issue, which is the tiny wire hook getting bent out of shape. It’s not an exaggeration to say that our technicians probably replace 2-3 of those tiny wire hooks every day.

Thus, this is only Part 1 of our needle threader examination. Stay tuned for an upcoming Part 2, in which we will talk about what causes that tiny wire hook to get bent, as well as all the preventative measures we can take. I will also show you how to make the same clever tool our technicians use to un-bend that tiny wire hook when it gets bent. It might save you a trip to the shop.

Let me know what you think in the comment section. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

—Cale

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Fabric stabilization is key to the stitch-making process. By fabric stabilization, I mean that it’s important the fabric does not move while a stitch is being made.

This may appear intuitive as face value. It’s fairly obvious that we don’t want the fabric moving left to right as we’re sewing, because if the fabric moves laterally while the needle is in the fabric, the needle will bend and/or break.

However, less intuitive is the idea that we don’t want the fabric moving up and down as we’re sewing. This type of movement is more subtle, but results in skipped stitched by way of a concept my dad calls flagging.

In today’s edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter, I will explain how flagging can happen, why it causes stitch quality issues, and what we can do to prevent it.

Flagging as an Impediment to Loop Creation

A sewing machine concept we keep coming back to is the importance of loop creation.

I mentioned loop creation a few times over the past year, but let’s quickly review the concept:

• The function of a sewing machine is to stitch cloth together by tying a knot with two sources of thread (the upper thread spool and the bobbin thread). Regardless of what machine you have, the knot is formed below the needle plate when the needle goes down below the needle plate hole, where the bobbin thread is laced through the upper thread loop.

• As you sew, the needle goes down and the needle goes up, over and over again. As the needle goes down, the upper thread that you’ve threaded through the needle eye is taut. When the needle goes down below the needle plate and reaches its bottom-most position— what sewing machine technicians call bottom dead center— the thread is still taut. But, as the needle begins its path upwards, a thread loop forms just above the eye of the needle.

• Just as this thread loop is formed, the hook point of the machine’s hook mechanism comes along and passes through thread loop. The hook point “catches” the thread loop and takes it along a 360 degree path around the bobbin case. While riding along this path, the upper thread forms a loose knot with the bobbin thread. Then, as the needle reaches its high point, the action of the take-up lever cinches the knot [formed below the needle plate] up into the fabric we are sewing. That, in short, is how a successful stitch is made.

A necessary condition for loop creation is a change in the relationship between the eye of the needle and the fabric — specifically, a shortening of distance between the eye of the needle and the fabric.

However, if the fabric rises upwards with the needle, then there is no change of relationship (in terms of distance) between the fabric and the needle. If that distance does not shorten/decrease, then the loop will not form. And, if the thread loop doesn’t form, or if it is distorted in such a way so that the hook does not pass through it, then the stitch will not form and you will get skipped stitches.

My dad refers to this phenomenon as “flagging”, because the fabric is sort of billowing up and down with the movement of the needle like a flag in the wind (the needle is the wind).

What causes flagging?

Below I will detail a 5 common causes that come to mind, as well as solutions to each specific situation.

(1) Free Motion Quilting

As the needle rises from its lowest position below the needle plate, the fabric will naturally rise with it. That is one of the main reasons why sewing machines are designed with a presser foot— to hold the fabric down as the needle rises up. Without the presser foot, the fabric would rise with the needle and the loop would never be created, which always results in skipped stitches

Now, nobody tries to sew without a presser foot, so most of the time presser foot is able to do its job. However, free motion sewing requires a unique presser foot that is designed in such a way so that it does not extend down all the way down to the needle plate. It is also less robust in the sense that the surface area of the foot contacts less fabric.

This design is necessary for free motion sewing because the user needs to be allowed freedom of movement. However, freedom of movement means the sewist is responsible for holding the fabric down as she sews, and failure to hold the fabric down with adequate force may result in flagging.

That’s all to say, if you get skipped stitches during free motion sewing, make sure you are exerting some downward force on the fabric. Also, many modern machines allow you to adjust the height of the foot during free motion in order to control drag— this is an awesome feature, but make sure it isn’t hovering too high above the fabric to where it provides zero support.

(2) Misuse of Presser Foot Pressure Adjustment

Most modern sewing machines above the $500 range have a dial that gives the user the ability to adjust their presser foot pressure.

This adjustment controls a spring inside the machine that dictates the force the presser foot exerts down onto the fabric. Essentially, you can control how hard the foot is pressing the fabric down against the needle plate and feed dogs.

From my experience, I have come to believe that the presser foot pressure adjustment is best remained untouched. It’s not really unnecessary, except in certain cases when you are sewing something super super thick and must lighten the adjustment, or ultra ultra thin and must increase the adjustment. To illustrate the superfluousness of the feature, consider the fact that vintage Pfaff and Bernina machines didn’t give you the option to adjust presser foot pressure, and those machine perform beautifully.

Anyways, if you have your presser foot pressure adjustment set too light, then there is a chance the fabric won’t be held down against the needle plate with adequate force and vertical movement is possible. This is another potential instance where flagging may occur.

Typically, you want your presser foot pressure adjustment set somewhere in the middle (e.g. if it ranges from 0-10, then keep it between 4-6; if it ranges 1-6, then keep it at 3).

(3) Dull Needle or Wrong Needle

Using a dull needle or the wrong needle type can cause flagging if it doesn’t pierce the fabric easily and pushes the fabric down into the needle plate hole before piercing through.

You could say that this is a unique case where what goes down may come back up. If fabric gets pushed down into the needle plate hole when the needle enters the fabric, then there is a chance the fabric will move vertically upward, back above the needle plate surface during the stitch making process. Such a situation puts us in “flagging” territory.

Using a dull needle can potentially have this effect and cause flagging. So, if your needle is dull, insert a fresh needle.

Using the wrong needle type may cause flagging, especially on stretchy fabrics that slingshot back up above the needle plate surface after being pushed downward. If you are getting skipped stitches on stretchy fabrics, I recommend using a Schmetz Stretch Needle.

Additionally, a straight stitch needle plate has a smaller hole than a zig-zag needle plate, which will reduce the chance of flagging because there is less space for the fabric to get sucked down into. In other words, a straight-stitch needle plate provides more fabric stabilization.

(4) Decorative Stitch Patterns

When we sew a decorative stitch pattern, the number of stitches per centimeter is much higher than the stitches per centimeter when sewing a straight stitch. Whereas a straight stitch requires 1 stitch every 2 millimeters (given that our stitch length is 2 mm), some decorative stitches require 5-10 stitches every 2 millimeters.

That is a lot of holes being poked into a small area of fabric, weakening the fabric’s stiffness and weakening the overall support. This increases the chances the fabric will get pushed down into the needle plate hole and potentially start flagging.

The answer to this problem is fabric stabilizer. As the name implies, fabric stabilizer is designed to stabilize the fabric, which reduces the chance that the fabric weakens and flags.

(5) Embroidery

Machine embroidery is particularly susceptible to flagging because the fabric is hooped and does not have the needle plate directly underneath to stabilize it. Therefore, when you place the fabric in the embroidery hoop, the fabric must be hooped tightly (taut) so that no vertical movement is possible. We don’t want the fabric flapping up and down every time the needle goes to make a stitch.

In addition, we are again dealing with extremely dense stitch patterns, so fabric stabilizer is absolutely necessary.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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The full 2026 edition isn’t finished yet, but he has already written something important about the brands we carry at The Sewing Machine Shop, and I think it is worth posting here.

I hope you find it helpful.

—Cale

Ultimate Sewing Machine Review for 2026

The first sewing machine reviews we shared were back in 2017, and I never anticipated just how popular they would become. To this day, I still receive emails and phone calls referencing that original review, and it’s incredibly rewarding to know how many sewers found it helpful.

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “Dan, what is your favorite machine?” Before I tell you what my favorite machines are for 2026, I should clarify that the machines we sell range from $200 to nearly $20,000, so I will give you my favorites in various budget ranges.

It’s important to remember that we have the ability to carry any make or machine model available, and we choose not to do so. I have carried a few brands in the past that I don’t carry now. I am not going to comment on the machines that I don’t carry. Just know that if I don’t handle a particular line or model of machine, it is because I believe there is something a little or a lot better at that price point.

Warm regards,

Dan Schoenberg

Owner and head technician of The Sewing Machine Shop in Walnut Creek, CA.

Why Take My Advice?

My father, Ramon, was a Chief Mechanical Design Engineer in the pump industry. Born in Argentina, he also was the “Hefe” (Boss) of a factory in Buenos Aires Argentina called Madex, licensed by Husqvarna AB Sweden, early in his career. The factory made sewing machines and components for the South American market. Here is a cool video of this factory:

Ramon was a super technical and analytical guy. Not a day went by without him pointing out to his five kids products that were beautifully designed and manufactured with high-quality materials. He also never hesitated to express his displeasure with cheap and poorly designed products.

Following in his footsteps, I majored in Engineering and now find myself analyzing products both good and bad on a daily basis. With 34 years in the sewing machine business, having sold roughly 20,000 sewing machines and servicing another 45,000 machines as a technician, I think I have the experience and expertise to offer some guidance.

Brands We Currently Represent

Before we get to the sewing machine reviews, I want to briefly talk about the brands we represent and why I pick the machines that I pick.

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “Dan, what is your favorite machine?” This is a hard question to answer for a couple of reasons. First off, the sewing machines we sell range in price from $200 to nearly $20,000. Secondly, certain brands make strong machines at one price point, but less strong at other price points. Therefore, I have categorized the review to give you my favorite machines in various budget ranges.

There are several brands we do not carry that, in my opinion, range from poor to good. I would like to carry machines that are very good to exceptional. I have chosen the following brands based on Quality, Innovation, Value, and Reliability. In addition, the following companies support us in a way necessary to take care of our customers after the sale is made.

Bernina

This Swiss company is the only family-owned sewing machine manufacturing company left in our industry. They still produce a limited number of machines in Switzerland but most of their machines are now manufactured in their solely owned and operated factories in Thailand.

What is important to remember is that their machines are very unique compared to all other manufacturers in that their machines still use an all-steel front loading bobbin system. Two distinct front-loading designs (B9 Rotary Motion and CB Oscillating Motion) give the Bernina owner a very unique sewing experience and feel. The machines are very sturdy with an almost industrial/ commercial experience.

They combine this traditional old-world feel with incredible innovation- such as their Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR) for free motion quilting, Built-In dual feed, oversized “Jumbo” bobbins, and more. Bernina owners are among the most loyal and I can see why but Bernina machines are not for everyone.

Virtually all other quality household machines without the Bernina nameplate are top-loading drop-in bobbin machines, also referred to as horizontal axis rotary hook machines. Good quality machines with this design are easy to use, easy to maintain, reliable, and very smooth and quiet. The question is who manufactures the best horizontal axis rotary hook machines. I believe the two best manufacturers are Japanese companies: Janome and Brother.

Janome

Janome is a Japanese company with a long and rich history. For many years their machines were branded New Home in the U.S. market. You will also find Janome built machines branded under the Necchi, Elna, and Juki nameplates. Janome also makes specific models for Baby Lock, and Bernette. We are now stocking and recommending Elna models in select categories.

Simply put, they make the most trouble-free sewing machines in the world. Their electronics, including circuit boards, display panels, etc. are the most reliable. Some might say this is my opinion, but I say it is a fact-based on 27 years as a chief technician.

Elna

Elna was originally a Swiss company that rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, but the company de-registered in 1995 and was eventually absorbed by Janome.

In 2026, Janome makes a handful of their machines with Elna logo for marketing purposes, meaning some of Janome’s best machines have an identical Elna twin.

At the beginning of 2026, we seized the opportunity to make a bulk order of Elna machines, which allowed us to bring down the price of these machine by hundreds of dollars.

• Elna 792 Pro = Janome Continental M8

• Elna 782 Pro = Janome MC9480

• Elna 720 Pro = Janome MC6700

In 2026, these 3 machines offer some of the best value out of all the machines we carry.

Baby Lock

Most Baby Lock sergers are manufactured by Suzuki Machinery Co. in Yamagata Japan. The Baby Lock sergers we carry are all made in this factory and, in my opinion, are the best sergers in the world.

Below I've linked is a great Youtube video of the Suzuki factory making Baby Lock sergers by hand. Notice how many women work on the line. I also saw this in Janome's Thailand factory when I visited. The machines were meticulously assembled by hand almost entirely by women.

Brother

Almost all of Brother and Baby Lock’s premium sewing machines are made in the same factory. Generally speaking, whenever you see a Baby Lock sewing or embroidery machine, there is a near-identical Brother equivalent machine, built in the same factory and built on the same platform. The differences are cosmetic: the branding on the front of the machine, and Brother has a license with Disney to sell embroidery machines with Disney designs . One important note here is that Brother does not make Baby Lock’s serger line.

Juki

I have known Juki machines all of my professional life as we started exclusively as an industrial sewing machine company. Juki excels in producing high speed sergers and rotary hook machines. They are relatively new to the household sewing machine market here in the U.S. Having brought in their top loading horizontal axis hook home sewing machines, I still think that Janome and the Brother factories are producing a more refined and quality product than Juki’s product.

Having said this, I am a huge fan of Juki’s TL series of semi industrial straight stitch machines as well as their 18” longarm TL-350QVP. This series allows Juki to showcase their heritage and experience making the finest high speed industrial sewing machines and sergers. We currently stock and highly recommend three TL series machines, a couple of sergers, and their one Janome built drop-in bobbin machine model. We also carry and highly recommend many Juki industrial sewing machines for the professional.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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You will unlock the full archive of over 150 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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If you want to read more about some brands we choose not to carry, I will link you to a previous article I’ve written below:

Thank you,

—Cale

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LECTURE NOTES

Why Understanding Mechanics Matters

My goal for this lesson is straightforward:

If you can develop even a basic grasp of sewing machine mechanics, it will pay dividends down the road.

Because eventually, every sewist runs into problems:

• Skipped stitches

• Bird’s nests

• Jams

• Broken needles

• Feeding issues

And when that happens, understanding what the machine is trying to do gives you a much better chance of solving the problem.

A Quick Word on My Background

Before we dive in, here’s a bit of context.

I’m fourth generation in the sewing machine business.

• My great grandfather Stepik Schoenberg operated a factory in Argentina manufacturing sewing machine parts for Husqvarna Viking.

• His son, my grandfather Ramon Schoenberg, was a mechanical engineer who eventually began manufacturing a machine called the MADEX.

• In 1963, Ramon immigrated to Berkeley, California, fixing sewing machines part-time and teaching his son Marty repair work from a young age.

• Marty grew up to run a traveling repair business out of a van, mostly servicing industrial machines.

• In the late 1980s, Marty recruited my dad, Dan, and together they started The Sewing Machine Shop — Marty fixing, Dan selling.

I began servicing machines myself around 2010, and since 2020 I’ve been doing it full time.

How Does a Sewing Machine Make a Stitch?

Let’s define the function of a sewing machine:

A sewing machine binds multiple layers of fabric together using thread.

It does this by automating the ancient process of sewing by hands:

1. The needle pokes a hole through fabric

2. A knot forms between the needle thread and bobbin thread

3. That knot gets cinched tight into the fabric

4. The fabric advances forward

5. The machine repeats the cycle

But how does that knot actually form?

To answer that, we need to look inside the machine.

The Two-Shaft System

At its core, a sewing machine is built around two rotating shafts:

• The upper shaft

• The lower shaft

When you press the foot pedal:

• The motor runs

• The belt turns

• Both shafts rotate

• Every critical mechanism moves in sync

All stitch formation comes down to what’s attached to these two shafts.

The Upper Shaft

The upper shaft drives two major components:

1. The Needle Bar

The needle bar does exactly what you’d expect:

• Moves the needle down through the fabric

• Then pulls it back up

Down, up, down, up — over and over again.

But the needle alone does not make a stitch.

That requires the second component…

2. The Take-Up Lever

The take-up lever is one of the most important parts of the machine.

You see it every time you thread:

Your thread passes through the take-up lever eyelet before going down to the needle.

Its job is critical:

The take-up lever pulls the stitch tight.

A stitch forms below the needle plate, but it becomes a real seam only when the take-up lever:

• swings upward

• pulls the knot up

• cinches it into the fabric

The Classic “Bird’s Nest” Problem

If you ever accidentally thread the machine but miss the take-up lever…

Something awful happens:

• The knot never gets tightened

• Loose loops pile up underneath

• You get the dreaded bird’s nest

So when you see looping underneath, the first thing to check is:

Did the thread go through the take-up lever?

Upper Shaft Review

So far:

• The needle penetrates the fabric

• The needle thread forms a loop underneath

• The take-up lever tightens the knot into the seam

Now we move to the lower half of the machine…

The Lower Shaft

The lower shaft drives two critical mechanisms:

1. The Hook Mechanism

2. The Feed Mechanism

Let’s start with the hook.

The Hook Mechanism: Where the Stitch Is Born

The hook rotates around the bobbin and bobbin case.

Its timing is unbelievably precise.

Here’s what happens:

• The needle goes down

• Then rises about 2–3 mm from its lowest point

• At that exact moment, a loop forms in the needle thread

• The hook passes behind the needle

• The hook point catches that loop

That loop-catching moment is the foundation of the stitch.

Once the hook catches the loop:

• It carries the needle thread around the bobbin case

• The needle thread lassos the bobbin thread

• A loose knot forms underneath

Then the take-up lever pulls it tight.

That’s the lockstitch.

Skipped Stitches (And Why They Happen)

Skipped stitches occur when:

The hook fails to catch the needle thread loop.

No loop caught = no stitch formed.

Common causes include:

1. Hook Timing Problems

If the machine is “out of time,” the hook arrives:

• too early

• or too late

• too high

• or too low

This often happens after a jam.

Fixing timing requires a technician.

2. Needle-Hook Clearance Issues

The hook must pass extremely close to the needle:

• Close enough to catch the loop

• Not so close that it hits the needle

Too far = missed loop

Too close = needle strikes

3. Bent Needles (The #1 Cause)

In my experience, the most common cause of skipped stitches is simple:

A slightly bent needle.

Even a small bend changes everything.

So if you get skipped stitches, the first thing to do is:

➡️ Replace the needle.

A fresh needle solves more problems than people realize.

The Feed Mechanism

Once the stitch is tightened, the fabric must move forward.

That’s the job of the feed dogs.

Feed timing matters:

• While the needle is in the fabric, feed dogs drop below the plate

• Once the needle exits, feed dogs rise

• Then they move forward by the stitch length setting

If stitch length = 3 mm, fabric advances 3 mm.

Needle Strikes and Feeding Errors

Feed timing problems often show up when:

• Sewing thick fabric

• Pushing or pulling fabric manually

• Doing free-motion work

If fabric moves while the needle is down:

• Needles bend

• Hook gets struck

• Burrs form

• Bobbin cases get damaged

This is why we always say:

Let the machine feed the fabric. Don’t force it.

Conclusion: The Stitch Is a Symphony

To summarize:

• The upper shaft drives the needle bar and take-up lever

• The lower shaft drives the hook and feed mechanism

• The hook catches the loop

• The threads form a knot

• The take-up lever tightens it

• The feed dogs advance the fabric

• The cycle repeats

That’s how a sewing machine makes a stitch.

Coming Soon in Future Lessons

There are many other critical topics I’ll cover in future posts, including:

• Needles and proper selection

• Thread quality

• Tension systems

• Bobbin winding

• Presser feet

• Needle plates

• Check springs

• Needle threaders

So stay tuned.

And if you watch the video, I hope it gives you a deeper appreciation for the brilliant mechanics happening beneath the covers every time you sew.

I looked closely at the needle. It was the same new needle I personally inserted less than 24 hours ago, but there was a glaring problem: a ring of lint was stuck to the needle shaft. I felt the needle shaft with my finger— it was a little bit sticky.

“Have you been spraying your fabric with adhesive?”

“Yes I have.”

And therein lies our problem: if adhesive gets on the needle, it interferes with proper loop creation, rendering stitch formation impossible.

Loop Creation

As you sew, the needle goes down and the needle goes up, over and over again. As the needle the goes down, the upper thread that you’ve threaded through the needle eye is taut, sort of hugging up against the needle shaft.

When the needle goes down below the needle plate and reaches its bottom-most position— what sewing machine technicians call bottom dead center— the thread is still taught. However, as the needle begins its path upwards, a thread loop is formed just above the eye of the needle— it is no longer taut, no longer hugging up against the needle shaft (as seen in the photos below).

Just as this thread loop is formed, the hook point of the machine’s hook mechanism comes along and passes through thread loop. The hook point “catches” the thread loop and takes it along a 360 degree path around the bobbin case. While riding along this path, the upper thread forms a loose knot with the bobbin thread. Then, as the needle reaches its high point, the action of the take-up lever cinches the knot [formed below the needle plate] up into the fabric we are sewing. That, in short, is how a successful stitch is made.

In the video below, focus on the thread loop that forms above the needle eye, and how the hook point passes through the loop in order to make a stitch:

Why is adhesive problematic?

If your fabric is coated in excess adhesive, then there is a possibility the adhesive will adhere to the needle shaft when your needle pierces through the fabric, and this interferes with loop creation.

Think about it: the thread loop forms above the needle eye; the sewing hook passes through that loop. If the needle shaft is sticky, then the thread may get stuck on the shaft, distorting the shape of the thread loop, or preventing the loop from forming altogether. That’s when skipped stitches occur: if the hook doesn’t successfully pass through the thread loop, you will get a skipped stitch every single time.

Does this mean you can’t use adhesive at all?

I am not saying that you can’t use adhesive at all. However, from the perspective of a sewing machine technician, excessive adhesive often leads to skipped stitches, so I highly recommend you use the least amount of adhesive that you can get away with when you do use adhesive for a project.

At my dad’s shop, we carry 505 Temporary Adhesive and Spray n Bond Basting Adhesive, both of which are pretty good in terms of not gumming up the needle.

A few miscellaneous notes before close:

1. Velcro
   There is adhesive in Velcro. If you do so Velcro, there is a good chance your needle will get really sticky, so just be aware that you may have to change your needle a lot more than usual in order to finish a Velcro project.

2. Adhesive on the Hook & Bobbin Case
   If way way wayyyyyy too much adhesive is used, there is a chance that it can get down below the needle plate and coat the bobbin case, bobbin case basket, and/or sewing hook. If this happens, stitch quality will suffer and changing the needle won’t help. You will likely need to take the machine to a technician capable of removing the hook in order to clean it properly.

3. Nonstick Needles
   The needle manufacturer, Schmetz, makes a Super NonStick sewing machine needle that is essentially a Universal Needle with a reinforced blade, extra wide eye, deep scarf, and a slightly rounded point. The eye corresponds to a needle two sizes larger (i.e., the 70/10 NonStick eye is similar to a size 90/14 regular Universal eye). The anti-adhesive coating (NIT) resists sticky stablizers, fusibles, and adhesives. Use for machine embroidery, machine appliqué, multi-media quiltings, sewing vinyl, and hoop and loop tape. If you are sewing with adhesive, these non-stick needles are better than generic needles, but not 100% effective if one uses excessive adhesive or the adhesive type is super sticky.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

Subscribe now

You will unlock the full archive of over 140 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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Even though the first group probably outnumbers the second, this is one of those problems that’s worth putting on the internet. It causes real frustration, it sends a lot of perfectly good machines into repair shops, and in many cases it can be solved at home.

I hope you find this helpful.

—Cale

Automatic thread trimmers

Automatic thread trimmers are one of the great conveniences of modern sewing machines. Press a button, the thread trimming mechanism cuts both the needle thread and bobbin thread, and you’re ready to keep sewing. Still, there are a few common issues:

• They don’t always work well with thick, stiff thread or ultra-fine, slippery thread.

• Compacted lint or shredded thread can cause them to misfire or get stuck.

• The needle becomes unthreaded immediately after using the auto thread trimmer.

The first two problems are fairly straightforward to address: be mindful that auto thread trimming may not behave perfectly with “outlier” thread types, and keep your machine clean, particularly under the needle plate and in the bobbin area.

It’s the third issue I want to focus on today, where the needle becomes unthreaded immediately after using the auto thread trimmer.

I’ve met many sewists over the years who run into this problem and assume something is broken, so the machine goes straight to the repair shop. Sometimes that is necessary, but oftentimes there are a few things you can check and fix yourself first.

The challenge & the genius behind auto thread trimming

Auto thread trimming is clever technology, because it has to overcome a basic mechanical challenge: in order to cut thread, the thread must be taut.

Think about cutting a piece of string with scissors. Is it easier when someone is holding the string tight, or when it’s slack? The answer is it’s easier when it’s taut. When the blade meets the thread, there’s no give, so the blade slices through cleanly.

Over the last 20-ish years, sewing machine engineers have come up different thread trimming designs that keep the thread taut at the exact moment the trimming mechanism fires.

Here, we see a second challenge, which is that when you cut taut thread, the moment the cut happens, the tension (of tautness) is released and the thread snaps back. It essentially slingshots in both directions. Imagine two people engaging in a tug-of-war with a piece of rope, and a third person suddenly cuts the center of the rope with a samurai sword. Those two people playing tug-of-war would go flying backwards.

This isn’t a problem for the bobbin thread because the bobbin won’t suddenly unwind, but it is a problem for the needle thread. If nothing is done to manage that release of tension, the upper thread will slingshot and the needle will become unthreaded.

Engineers solved this in a very clever way.

When you press the auto thread trim button, two things happen at the same time:

1. The thread trimming mechanism cuts the thread below the needle plate.

2. A stepper motor momentarily releases the upper thread tension discs, creating slack in the needle thread above the needle plate.

In turn, the thread below the plate is taut and gets cut cleanly, but the thread above the plate has slack. That slack prevents the needle thread from slingshotting out of the needle. It’s brilliant design.

So why does the needle sometimes become unthreaded?

If your needle is becoming unthreaded immediately after auto thread trimming, there is one underlying reason: the upper thread is remaining taut during the trim.

99% of the time, this is not because the stepper motor or tension mechanism has failed. Instead, something else is preventing the thread from relaxing and causing it to snag, keeping tension on the thread even though the machine is trying to release it.

The most common culprit: the spool cap

In my experience, the most frequent cause of this snag is the spool cap.

This can happen a few different ways:

• There may be a nick or burr on the spool cap that the thread is catching on.

• The spool cap may be the wrong size.

If the spool cap is too small, the thread can snag on the rough plastic edge of the spool itself.

If the spool cap is too large, the thread has to climb up and over an unnecessary height, which introduces extra undue tension, sometimes enough to defeat the tension release during trimming.

I’ve written a detailed article on how to choose the correct spool cap for your thread, which I’ll link below:

Using the Pull Test to locate a thread snag

If the spool cap isn’t the issue, the next thing I recommend is performing The Pull Test.

I’ve written about The Pull Test before as the #1 thing you can do to eliminate small loops (often called “eyelashes”) on the underside of your fabric. It also happens to be an excellent way to locate a thread snag.

Here’s how to use it for this problem:

1. Thread your machine fully except for the needle.

2. Lift the presser foot.

3. Gently pull the thread.

The thread should move freely, with almost no resistance.

If you feel drag, resistance, or a snag, that means the upper thread is catching somewhere.

Now comes the process of elimination. Slowly begin unthreading the machine one guide at a time, performing The Pull Test after each step.

• Fully threaded (except the needle). Feel a snag?

  • If the answer is yes, unthread the needle bar thread guide. Feel a snag?

    • If no, then the snag is in the needle bar thread guide.

    • If yes, then unthread the next section of the machine, then test again.

      • Key areas to check: take-up lever, upper tension discs, and any other point on the upper thread path that the thread physically makes contact with.

If the snag disappears after you unthread a specific point, you’ve just located the problem area.

For example:

• If the snag disappears when you remove the needle thread guide, that guide likely needs to be smoothed or replaced.

• The same logic applies to the tension discs, the take-up lever, the check spring, and any other threading point.

Take it slowly. The Pull Test doesn’t lie.

Conclusion

When an automatic thread trimmer causes the needle to become unthreaded, it truly feels like a mysterious problem.

Fortunately, it’s usually a simple issue of unwanted tension, often from something as unassuming as a spool cap, or a tiny snag somewhere along the thread path. Understanding how auto thread trimming actually works makes the problem far less intimidating, and tools like The Pull Test give you a systematic way to track it down.

Sometimes a machine actually does need service, but before you load it into the car and head to the repair shop, it’s worth spending a few minutes checking these things.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

Subscribe now

You will unlock the full archive of over 140 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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Archive

From the archives: I wrote this article over a year ago, and it’s still one of the pieces of advice I point people to most often when fabric starts misbehaving.

Fabric puckering is one of the most common and most frustrating problems sewists run into. It distorts the fabric as you sew, leaving ripples and wrinkles where you wanted clean, flat stitches. Quilters, crafters, and garment-makers all encounter it eventually.

In today’s edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter, I want to walk through why puckering happens and share a handful of practical troubleshooting solutions that work:

• Support delicate fabric with stabilizer

• Use straight-stitch needle plate

• Match needle type to your fabric

I hope you find it helpful.

—Cale

What Causes Fabric Puckering?

In order for a sewing machine to make a stitch, the needle travels downward and pierces the fabric, then continues downward through the needle plate hole and down below the needle plate. Down here, the needle and hook do a little dance that results in the formation of a knot between the needle thread and bobbin thread. Then the needle rises up out of the fabric, the knot gets cinched tight, the fabric is fed forward, and the process repeats.

Puckering occurs near the beginning of this process, when the needle pierces the fabric and travels downward through the needle plate hole. If the fabric gets pushed down into the needle plate hole after the needle pierces the fabric, and the knot is tied while the fabric remains pushed down into the needle plate hole, then it will maintain that pushed-down— puckered— shape.

The key is to avoid a scenario where the fabric gets pushed down into the needle plate hole as the stitch is being made. There are a few ways we can avoid this scenario.

(1) Straight-Stitch Needle Plate

The vast majority of modern sewing machines are designed with a maximum stitch width of either 5.5mm, 7mm, or 9mm. This means the needle plate hole has a corresponding width of either 5.5mm, 7mm, or 9mm. It also means the machine has the ability to sew decorative stitches or monogramming stitches at a maximum width of either 5.5mm, 7mm, or 9mm.

The downside is it also means that there is a hole of either 5.5mm, 7mm, or 9mm that your fabric can get sucked down into.

In theory, the wider the needle plate hole, the more susceptible the machine is to puckering fabric. Thankfully sewing machine manufacturers are aware of this, which is why they make straight-stitch needle plates for nearly every machine.

With the small straight-stitch needle plate hole, the fabric we’re sewing is better supported. There is literally less space for fabric to get pushed down into, so puckering is far less likely to happen. Some manufacturers will even put 3 small holes on their straight stitch plate so that sewists can avoid puckering while sewing with the needle in the far left or far right position. If you occasionally experience fabric puckering and you don’t have a straight-stitch needle plate for your machine, I highly recommend it as a solution.

(2) Stabilizer

Sometimes a straight stitch needle plate will not solve the puckering problem. What if we are experiencing fabric puckering on a zig-zag stitch, such as a buttonhole, a decorative stitch, or monogramming?

The answer is stabilizer.

Fabric puckers when it gets pushed into the needle plate hole. It gets pushed into the needle plate hole if the fabric is not sufficiently supported. Think of stabilizer as fabric support.

When we do a zig-zag/decorative stitch pattern, the number of stitches per centimeter is much higher than the stitches per centimeter when sewing a straight stitch. Think about it: whereas a straight stitch requires 1 stitch every 2 millimeters (given that our stitch length is 2 mm), some decorative stitches require 5-10 stitches every 2 millimeters. That is a lot of holes being poked into a small area of fabric, weakening the fabric’s stiffness and weakening the overall support— and making it more likely that the fabric will get pushed down into the needle plate hole and pucker.

Leather generally doesn’t pucker because it’s stiff and naturally supportive. Denim doesn’t really pucker either for the same reason. If you are sewing thinner fabric and it’s puckering during a zig-zag or decorative stitch, add a sheet of stabilizer underneath the fabric to provide support .

(3) Matching the Needle to the Fabric

Depending on the fabric one is sewing, the wrong needle can cause puckering if it’s not piercing the fabric as easily as it ought to. Remember, the key to avoid a scenario where the fabric gets pushed down into the needle plate hole as the stitch is being made.

For example, if we are using a ballpoint needle (with a rounded needlepoint) to sew on a tightly woven cotton, it may not pierce the fabric crisply. Instead of piercing crisply, the needle may push the fabric down into the needle plate hole before poking through the fabric, and this can cause puckering.

A dull needle can cause puckering for the same reason. A dull needle won’t pierce the fabric crisply and instead will push the fabric down into the needle plate hole before poking through the fabric.

I have already written a handful of articles on needles and the importance matching the needle to the fabric, so I will link those articles below for anybody who is interested in learning more:

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

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—Cale

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Any machine.

That is something that will forever impress me.

We take in machines of all types, from all brands, from all eras. Juxtapose that with your average auto shop, which usually specializes in a few brands from a specific timeframe. You can’t take a BMW to just any auto shop for repair. The same goes for my 2001 Toyota Camry; not every shop will take it in.

Meanwhile, at our shop, we take in sewing machines, sergers, embroidery machines — you name it. We work on all brands: Bernina, Baby Lock, Brother, Janome, Juki, Viking, Pfaff, Singer, and more. We service both domestic and industrial machines, spanning hundreds of years: modern machines, mid-20th-century machines, and even the occasional pre-1900 relic.

We have the know-how to fix them all, and I am both proud and astonished by that fact.

Yet, with all that said, a sewing machine technician does face a major challenge when repairing older vintage machines: sourcing parts.

The Challenge of Sourcing Parts

It can be difficult to source parts for machines manufactured more than 20–25 years ago. If it’s a machine from the 1970s or 1980s (or older), that challenge increases tenfold.

Why is this the case?

Some brands simply don’t exist anymore, like Kenmore and White. Other brands still exist in name, but the ownership has changed multiple times over the past few decades. For example, many of the original European sewing machine manufacturers have been bought and sold over and over again, and the new owners often don’t support older generations of machines. They stop manufacturing common parts.

Even Bernina — which is still owned by the original founding family — only produces so many parts for their older machines. And to crystallize the problem: Bernina does not manufacture circuit boards for machines that came out 25+ years ago.

Here’s a concrete example that shows the challenge.

A Real Example

The other day, a young woman came into the store with a vintage White sewing machine manufactured sometime in the 1980s. She was excited because she found it at a thrift store or garage sale for very little money.

All she needed from us was the foot pedal / power cord.

Unfortunately, this machine took a foot pedal that’s fairly obscure. I went into the attic and sifted through our graveyard of sewing machines, but I couldn’t find what she needed. I even searched online by make and model, and still came up empty.

Even if we had found the right foot pedal, the machine itself wasn’t in good shape. I tried turning the handwheel, but it wouldn’t rotate more than 180 degrees, due to a bind somewhere inside. Even if she could find the foot pedal, the machine needed service, which would cost about $200, not including parts.

In this case, she was honestly better off buying the least expensive machine we sell: the Baby Lock Zest, which costs less than a full service. It’s simply a more reliable machine at this point, and it comes with:

• a full parts & labor warranty

• free classes on how to use it (which we offer in-store)

• easy access to presser feet, bobbins, accessories, and replacement parts

But let’s run a thought experiment: what if we serviced that White machine and needed parts? How would we source them?

Aftermarket Parts: Pros & Cons

In some cases, we can find an aftermarket part online. While it usually isn’t as high quality as a part made by the original manufacturer, it will often get the machine running again, though we’re not always confident in its longevity.

Even if we can find an aftermarket replacement, it still isn’t always wise to go through with the repair. The Singer Touch-n-Sew is a perfect example.

At least once a month, someone comes into the store with a Touch-n-Sew from the 1960s or 1970s. The complaint is almost always the same: the needle isn’t picking up the bobbin thread.

Nine times out of ten, we discover that the hook isn’t turning at all. We know this issue very well: it’s typically caused by a broken gear in the top half of the machine.

In this case, we can still get an aftermarket gear. However, we’ve decided that this is no longer a repair we will perform, even though we know how.

Why?

We have two reasons.

First, it requires us to dissect the entire top half of the machine and rebuild it. It takes a long time to do properly, which means the customer ends up paying $500+ for the repair.

But even if the customer is willing to pay that, we still won’t do it because that broken gear is usually a sign of a larger problem.

These machines are more than 50 years old, and the internal components are brittle. That gear is often just the first of many parts that will break in the coming years. We know this because we’ve been burned by it multiple times.

There have been times when we begin disassembling a Touch-n-Sew to replace the gear, and another part breaks along the way — often cracking, but occasionally disintegrating in our fingers.

And sometimes we successfully replace the gear… only for the customer to return a few weeks later with an entirely different issue because another brittle part has failed.

You can see our dilemma and why we came to this decision.

Harvesting Parts from the Graveyard

If we can’t find an aftermarket replacement, we sometimes harvest parts from a dead machine in our sewing machine graveyard. Here’s a real example from a few years ago.

A woman came into our store with an old Elna SU manufactured in the 1950s. The machine’s motor had died, but because the machine was more than 50 years old, the original motor was no longer being manufactured.

She was in a tough spot. She absolutely loved the machine and didn’t want to replace it.

My father (Dan) dug through the graveyard and found another Elna SU. That donor machine was inoperable because of a worn-out needle bar assembly, but the motor still worked perfectly.

My dad performed sewing machine surgery. He removed the dead motor from the customer’s Elna and replaced it with the working motor from the graveyard machine. While operating on the machine, he also noticed a few cracked gears that could cause problems soon. The donor machine’s gears weren’t cracked, so he swapped those in as well.

In the end, he essentially took two dead machines — one dead in the lower shaft, one dead in the upper shaft — and built one fully working machine.

He is the Dr. Frankenstein of sewing machine repair.

The Larger Point

Just because you can repair a vintage machine doesn’t mean it’s always wise to do so.

In that Elna SU case, the customer paid over $800 for the time and labor it took to repair the machine.

For $800, you can get a beautiful modern Japanese-designed sewing machine that’s guaranteed to work for many years, and comes equipped with features you’ll use every time you sew:

• automatic thread trimming,

• automatic needle threader,

• automatic buttonhole,

• needle up/down,

• and more.

With that said, I do want to acknowledge something important, which is that sewing machines can be extraordinarily sentimental objects.

Part of the beauty of the sewing community is the intergenerational nature of sewing machines. Oftentimes, people entrust us with machines gifted by a parent as a graduation present, or by a spouse as an anniversary gift.

I understand why someone would feel strongly about repairing their vintage machine, but as someone who helps run a sewing machine service department, I also feel an obligation to share this as a kind of PSA so sewists understand the challenges we face when repairing older machines and can make informed decisions before investing time and money into repairs.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

Subscribe now

You will unlock the full archive of over 140 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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Today I want to share story that takes you behind the scenes of The Sewing Machine Shop, my father’s sewing machine retail and repair business in Northern California.

This story brings together a handful of different sewing machine topics that I’ve written about over the past year or so, and I think people might find it interesting to see how all of these things weave together through the lens of a small family business.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your subscribership and support. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

Warm regards,

—Cale

Tariffs

The story starts with new tariffs being imposed on goods imported to the United States over the past ~6 months, which have had a particularly tangible effect on the price of electronic products imported from Asia.

The vast majority of the machines we sell at our store are made in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. Sewing machines imported from these four countries fall subject to “reciprocal tariff” rates brought on by Executive Order 14257.

• Thailand: ~ 36% tariff

• Taiwan: ~ 32% tariff

• Japan: ~ 15% tariff

• Vietnam: ~ 46% tariff

As of the day I am publishing this article, there are very few machine models that haven’t seen some sort of price hike. Some machines have shot up in price a little. Some machines have shot up in price significantly. Here are a few concrete examples:

• Juki TL-2010 MAP (Minimum Advertised Price, which is set by the manufacturer) rose $100, from $999 to $1,099 (Made in Vietnam)

• Baby Lock Triumph MAP rose $500, from $4,999 to $5,499 (Made in Japan)

• Janome Skyline S6 AE MAP rose $200, from $1,699 to $1,999 (Made in Taiwan)

Our Favorite Machine Skyrockets in Price

Gun to my head, if I had to pick my favorite top-of-the-line sewing machine in the world, I’d pick the Janome Continental M8.

From the technician’s perspective, the machine is extremely well-built and (in my opinion) the most reliable in the world. We simply don’t see problems with the M8, and we expect them to continue performing at a high level for decades to come.

From a sales perspective, I love selling the M8 because it’s my #1 customer satisfaction machine. Sewists love it. The combination of 13.5” throat space, the powder-coated flatbed frame, and the brushless servo motor creates a unique sewing experience that’s genuinely enjoyable for the user. Add on the stitch regulator, walking foot, pivot function, plus a litany of other useful features, and you’re looking at a bona fide dream machine for people who love sewing.

For a long time, we priced the Janome Continental M8 pretty aggressively in an effort to get this beast into the homes of as many sewing enthusiasts as possible. But because of the tariffs, we had to raise the price of the M8 by nearly $1,000, which pushed it into a new price point that made it really difficult to sell.

The decrease in M8 sales really hurt the business. Needless to say, we were looking for ways to solve this problem.

An Opportunity Presents Itself

An interesting fact about Janome is that they make sewing machines for a bunch of different brands, such as Baby Lock, Bernette (Bernina), and Elna. This is a practice that’s not uncommon in the automobile industry, known as badge engineering.

Anyways, all Elna sewing machines made in 2025 are manufactured by Janome. In fact, other than the name on the cover of the machine, they’re literally identical to the Janome equivalent in every conceivable way.

Although we don’t normally sell Elna machines at The Sewing Machine Shop, we are technically a certified Elna dealer. And with the price of the Janome Continental M8 skyrocketing — as well as other Janome machines like the MC6700 and MC9480 — my dad started looking at the price of Elna equivalents to our Janome favorites.

What he discovered was that his cost on the Elnas was significantly lower than the Janome equivalents, even after the recent tariff-driven Janome price hike. The Elna 792 Pro, which is the identical equivalent to the Janome Continental M8, was priced especially low. At that cost, he could sell the Elna M8/792 Pro at the same pre-tariff Janome M8 price.

Still, my dad went one step further. He saw that there were 85 Elna M8s in stock, so he called our rep at Janome and asked if they would lower the cost per machine if he bought all 85 of them.

Our rep was blown away. This is not the type of call he gets every day. He actually had to call his boss (the VP of Janome) and ask if he was allowed to sell all their Elna M8s to one dealership.

The Outcome

In the end, Janome would only sell my dad 70 units of the Elna M8, saying they needed to save a few for other dealers — but they did reduce the cost per unit because it was such a massive order.

This allowed us to lower the price of the Elna M8 (technically, the Elna 792 Pro) even more, down to $5,799, making the cost to the customer lower than the pre-tariff price of the Janome M8. We also got good pricing on the Elna equivalents of the Janome MC6700 and the Janome MC9480.

The first portion of shipments was fulfilled last week:

Conclusion

The more I learn about the family business, the more respect I have for my dad. The financial risk he takes on a daily basis is something not everyone can stomach, and it’s at the forefront of my mind whenever he makes massive purchases like this.

Depending on the vendor and the order, our business is typically given somewhere between 30–90 day terms to pay for machines once they’re delivered. Most of the time, we’re buying between 4–10 units of a single model, with the expectation that we’ll have sold most (if not all) of them by the time payment is due.

That’s not going to happen here. It might take over a year to sell all of these Elna machines, which means we’ll be operating at a loss in the short term until they eventually move.

My dad is well aware of this, yet he was keen to make the bulk order anyway. He’s been around sewing machines for 40+ years and is an engineer at heart. He truly knows how good the M8 is; this isn’t bias or a hunch. It’s objectively the most impressively engineered home sewing machine ever made. All of them will sell eventually, as long as we can communicate what we know.

Before making the purchase official, Dad reached out to my brother, Lewis, and to me, and asked whether we thought we could successfully tell the story of the Elna M8 / 792 Pro to our customer base. If not, they wouldn’t sell in a timely fashion, and the order probably wouldn’t be worth making.

I’m confident we can tell that story, and I told him so. He’s imparted an ethos of education and transparency into The Sewing Machine Shop, which gives us a unique ability to show prospective buyers why this is such a good deal. We already have written material on tariffs, badge engineering, brushless servo motors, powder-coating, and more. We can show them the frame. We can show them the motor. We can show them the effects of tariffs over the past six months, and we can show them how we’ve worked around those tariffs to create a genuine win-win for both our business and the customer.

It’s honestly a joy to be a part of a business like this, partially because I get to work with my dad and brother, and partly because I think we’re doing something different compared to every other sewing machine dealership in the country. It’s a big reason why I love sewing machines and love my job.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please share this publication with your fellow sewists. Your support goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

Thank you,

—Cale Schoenberg

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In Part One, I wrote about the success of Bernina’s CB oscillating hook system, which powered iconic machines like the 830 Record, the 1030, the 1530, and the Aurora 440.

If you haven’t read Part One yet, you can find it here:

Today, in Part Two, I’m going to spend a lot of time on the B9 hook, which Bernina first unveiled in 2012. By telling the story of this hook system, we can better understand not only the past 15 years of Bernina, but also the direction the company is heading.

The B9 Hook System

In my opinion, the release of the Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR) in 2004 is a true landmark moment. It marks the point when a switch flips, when Bernina goes from being a manufacturer we could fairly describe as “stubborn” to arguably the most innovative sewing machine manufacturer in the world.

Not long after introducing the BSR, Bernina released two entirely new sewing machine platforms that were unlike anything else on the market.

The first was the new 830 model, released in 2009 (and bearing little resemblance to the beloved 830 Record). This machine featured an extremely exotic (arguably over-engineered) design that required 15 patent applications, capped off by one of the most unconventional bobbin-loading systems ever put into a home sewing machine.

Personally, I’m a much bigger fan of the second platform Bernina released in 2012: the platform built around Bernina’s patented B9 Hook System.

If you remember from Part One, Bernina ran into a serious engineering problem in the 1990s. Their machines built around the oscillating CB hook had a buttery smooth touch and feel that sewists absolutely adored. However, that same design simply wasn’t compatible with modern features like 9mm stitch width and automatic thread trimming.

The B9 hook system solved that problem.

It managed to marry the smooth, controlled motion of an oscillating hook with the speed and efficiency of a rotary hook. A centrally positioned driver with oscillating cams allows the hook to run smoothly and quietly, even at sewing speeds of up to 1,000 stitches per minute.

The hook itself is large and made of steel, which gives it the heavy, planted feel and beautiful stitch quality of Bernina’s old-school CB hook machines, while still supporting modern features like automatic thread trimming, 9mm stitch width, embroidery capability, and more.

Perhaps as a happy accident, the B9 hook system required a larger bobbin case, which in turn required a larger bobbin. Bernina calls these “Jumbo” bobbins, and they hold roughly 70% more thread than the standard bobbins used by most Japanese-made sewing machines.

It’s safe to say the B9 hook system was a home run. Thousands of loyal Bernina owners upgraded from their oscillating-hook machines to B9-hook models, and they were happy to do so.

With the release of the B9 hook platform, Bernina suddenly emerged as arguably the most innovative sewing machine manufacturer in the world.

For the next decade:

• The B9 hook system delivered exceptional stitch quality and a heavy, old-world feel, while combining the best aspects of oscillating and rotary hook designs.

• Jumbo bobbins offered 70% more thread capacity than traditional bobbins.

• From 2012 to 2022, Bernina was the only manufacturer offering stitch regulation (BSR) for free-motion quilting on a home sewing machine.

• B9-hook machines featured a large, intuitive touchscreen with a built-in instruction manual accessible directly on the screen.

• Bernina’s Creative Consultant was a highly innovative software feature that required lots of R&D, built directly into the machines and allowed sewists to totally customize their sewing experience depending on the fabric and thread they were using.

• Higher-end models (such as the B570, B770, and B790) could accept an embroidery unit, but did not require buyers to purchase one upfront, a level of flexibility unique to Bernina.

• Those same higher-end Bernina machines also featured built-in dual feed, eliminating the need for external attachments.

Bernina Reaches an Inflection Point

Until 2019, if someone told me Bernina made the best pure sewing machine in the world, I probably wouldn’t have disagreed.

But 2019 is the year Janome released the Continental M7, a serious machine with 13.5 inches of throat space, a powder-coated metal frame, and the first home sewing machine ever built around a brushless servo motor. The only thing missing was stitch regulation, which Janome added in 2023 with the Continental M8.

At that point, I started side-eyeing Bernina.

They had been using essentially the same platform for over a decade. They were still installing semi-automatic needle threaders on machines that cost north of $5,000, like the B740 and B770. Throat space was still capped at around 10 inches. Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers were clearly pushing forward.

I’d argue that by this point, Janome had surpassed Bernina in the all-important category of the best pure sewing machine in the world.

The obvious question became unavoidable: What was Bernina’s next move?

How were they going to respond to a new generation of Japanese sewing and embroidery machines?

Bernina must have sensed this moment too, largely because of their fiercely loyal customer base who hold the brand to such high standards. I regularly hear from Bernina owners asking if I can personally relay their requests and design suggestions directly to the company.

While I don’t quite have that kind of pull (yet), I can say with confidence that Bernina heard their loyalists loud and clear.

The result was an absolutely spectacular sewing-and-embroidery combination machine:

The B990.

Bernina 990 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

In 2024, Bernina released the B990, a true sewing-and-embroidery flagship with a massive 14-inch throat space, an enormous 16.1” × 12” embroidery field, built-in dual feed, built-in stitch regulation, a fabric and design scanning system, a state-of-the-art touchscreen, a pinpoint laser, and more.

What makes the B990 special isn’t just the feature list, but rather how Bernina managed to combine cutting-edge technology with the traditional, old-world feel that defines the brand.

Rather than abandoning what made Bernina machines great, they doubled down on it. The B990 retains the patented B9 hook system, while layering in the kind of innovation Bernina owners had been waiting for—— features you actually use every time you sit down to sew or embroider.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• 14.1” throat space

• A truly automatic needle threader

• Built-in stitch regulation

• Oversized “Jumbo” decorative stitches

• A large, high-resolution color touchscreen

• Intuitive, fast navigation

• The ability to scan fabric and preview embroidery designs

• The largest embroidery field Bernina has ever offered (16.1” × 12”)

• A pinpoint laser for exact needle placement

• Automatic stitch-plate recognition

Additionally, the B990 is one of the few machines Bernina assembles in their factory in Steckborn, Switzerland. The quality control on the machines is top notch.

What Makes the B990 Different (In Plain English)

Bernina designed the B990 around an extended freearm that gives you a full 14 inches of space to the right of the needle, paired with a massive embroidery hoop. The result is a machine that finally feels comfortable when working on large quilts, garments, and embroidery projects, without forcing you to wrestle the fabric.

One of the most impressive additions is Bernina’s Placement Scanner and Camera system. The machine can scan your embroidery hoop and show both the hoop and the needle area directly on the screen. You can preview exactly how a design will sit on your fabric, including scale and thread color, before stitching a single stitch.

For sewing and embroidery precision, Bernina added a pinpoint laser that shows you exactly where the needle will enter the fabric, both at the start of a stitch and during movement. No doubt, it’s a luxurious feature, but it is the type of thing that sounds small until you use it, and then wonder how you ever worked without it.

Stitch regulation is fully integrated into the machine through Bernina’s Integrated Stitch Regulator (BISR). With the included sensor-equipped stitch plate and compatible presser feet, you get perfectly even stitches at any speed, whether you’re free-motion quilting, ruler work quilting, or working on detailed projects.

The B990 also automatically recognizes which stitch plate is attached. If you select a stitch, needle, or presser foot that isn’t compatible, the machine simply won’t sew—— an added layer of protection that prevents costly mistakes.

On the creative side, the B990 allows you to resize stitches anywhere from 25% to 500%, undo and redo steps with ease, and even design your own stitches by drawing directly on the touchscreen. It’s powerful without feeling overwhelming.

For embroidery placement, Bernina expanded its 2-Point and 4-Point Placement tools, allowing you to precisely fit designs into specific areas of fabric. Virtual positioning lets you confirm exact stitch points before the needle ever touches the fabric.

Finally, Bernina brought longarm-style quilting functionality into the embroidery space with customizable quilt designs. You can scale patterns freely, adjust stitches per inch, and secure quilts more effectively—— essentially turning the B990 into a highly capable computerized quilting system.

Thank you for reading!

If you find my work valuable, please upgrade to become a paid subscriber. All revenue supports my family and goes a long way in helping me to continue to write.

Subscribe now

You will unlock the full archive of over 140 similar sewing machine educational essays and articles.

All support is hugely appreciated.

—Cale

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In today’s edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter, I am going to delve into both the history and mechanics behind Bernina’s world-renown stitch quality. If you ever wondered why Bernina has such a loyal following and why their brand recognition is the strongest in the home sewing machine industry, this article will help quench such curiosity.

–Cale

The Importance of the Bernina 830 Record

From my personal experience in sewing machine retail, I trace Bernina’s cult-like following back to the Bernina 830 Record, which was released in 1971. Even in 2025, people are still obsessed with this machine. Whenever we get a pre-owned 830 Record at The Sewing Machine Shop, we sell it for around $800, sometimes more if it is in superb condition and/or if it comes with many of the original accessories.

I have always attributed the popularity of the 830 Record to the fact that it is designed with an oscillating CB hook. This hook system is mounted vertically in the machine, where a metal hook rides along a metal hook race. It also uses a metal bobbin inside a metal bobbin case, creating a sturdy, satisfying feel for the sewist operating the machine.

Additionally, unlike other machines that use a rotary hook (whether it be a horizontal rotary hook or vertical rotary hook) where the hook constantly rotates clockwise, the 830 Record uses an oscillating hook system. True to the name, the Bernina CB hook oscillates back and forth in each direction clockwise and counterclockwise. It consistently produces a beautiful stitch and is capable of doing so with a variety of thread types, which I can at least partially attribute to the manner in which the thread slides across the face of the hook as the stitch is being formed, and the mechanics of how it slides off the hook as it is cinched up above the needle plate and into the fabric.

The 830 Record was not the first Bernina sewing machine designed with an oscillating CB hook system. Before the 830 came the lesser known 730 Record (manufactured in 1963), the lesser-lesser-know 530 Record (manufactured in 1954), and the Bernina Model 125 (manufactured in 1945). It begs the question: why did the 830 Record become so popular?

I suggest a the answer lies in the aesthetics of the machine. The top of 830 Record is designed to easily open up and reveal a clear vantage of the machine’s upper shaft in all its glory: from the metal stitch selection gears, to the needle positioning mechanism, to the take-up lever mechanism, and more. You can see the Swiss engineering at work, and it is a sight to behold. Furthermore, there is a practicality to this design: the user is able to easily clean the machine of lint and oil critical components that typically are only accessible to a trained technician who know how to split the cases of the machine.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

The 830 Record was a hit, so much so that Bernina released the 930 Record 10 years later in 1981 with very few notable changes. In my opinion, the lack of differentiation between the 830 and 930 is symbolic in the sense that Bernina recognized they had an incredible product, so they chose to lean into their strengths. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

As we plunge on into the 1980’s, we enter the dawn of the computerized sewing machine age. Bernina knows that people love the stitch quality that their CB Oscillating hook machines produce, so they exercise wisdom and stay with that platform. Still, they begin to integrate some computerized features. For example, in 1986 they come out with the Bernina 1130, which has a selection of computerized stitch patterns, as well as automatic one-step buttonhole. By the time we arrive at the Bernina 1530, we are getting the famous roller-ball screen that was quite advanced for the time.

Fun Fact: the roller-ball on the Bernina 1530 essentially controlled a “mouse” on the screen that allowed the user to select stitches and alter settings. Over time, this ball would get sticky with dirt and grime and would cease to operate smoothly. Before he retired, my Uncle Marty would often do a crazy repair job where he removed the roller ball from the circuit board and soaked it in alcohol overnight to clean it thoroughly before ultimately re-installing the ball. Now that he is retired, I don’t know of anyone who currently performs such a difficult, specific repair job.

Bernina’s Dilema & The Need for Innovation

Fast-forward to the 1990s…

Bernina continued to manufacture new sewing machine models, each iteration offering minor changes and upgrades to the machine’s interface and computerized functions. The key word I want to stress here is minor changes. Bernina already figured out how to create a machine with beautiful stitch quality that sewists absolutely loved. It’s the reason behind their loyal following, and Bernina hung their hat on that strength for 20+ years.

Another way to look at it was that Bernina had become stagnant from a sewing technology perspective, and other companies were catching up. Pfaff and Viking rolled out features like automatic thread trimming, electronic presser foot lift, and larger stitch width capabilities. Japanese companies were investing in machine embroidery and automatic needle threaders and touchscreens.

Bernina faced a dillema. From an engineering perspective, it is impossible to offer 9-millimeter stitch width or automatic thread trimmers on a machine that uses Bernina’s CB Oscillating hook system. There was a demand for such features, so Bernina decided to pivot. In 1993 they come out with the 1630, which is essentially a remake of the very popular 1530, but designed with a rotary hook system instead of CB oscillating hook. This vertical rotary hook system gave the 1630 the ability to do larger decorative stitches because it had a 9-millimeter stitch width instead of the 5.5-millimeter maximum stitch width of the previous models.

Bernina Rotary Hook Machines: A Short Lived Era

We now enter the era of Bernina rotary hook machines. In 1998, Bernina came out with the Artista 180, a true computerized machine equipped with all the ease-of-use features that previous Bernina machines did not have: automatic thread trimming, an automatic needle threader, 9 mm stitch width, and more. Then, in 2002, Bernina collaborated with Microsoft to manufacture the Artista 200, equipped with a CD-ROM, LCD screen, and memory functions for stitch combinations and embroidery designs.

Generally speaking, people did not like this era of Bernina rotary hook machines. My reason for saying this is twofold. One, I work in a shop that repairs sewing machines and has sold Bernina’s for 25+ years. Every week we receive 10+ Bernina machines for service, and the rotary hook models are by far the least common. People who once owned one of these models usually have moved on to another machine by now.

The second reason for my claim is that Bernina would soon stop manufacturing rotary hook machines altogether. Why? One, they are Swiss and they wanted to flex their engineering prowess. Two, they knew their customer base did not like them as much as the CB Oscillating hook machines.

Thus, Bernina pivoted once again. In 2004, they released the Aurora 440, the first home sewing machine with a stitch regulator for free motion sewing—— dubbed BSR, which stands for Bernina Stitch Regulator. This was a revolutionary game-changing piece of sewing technology, and Bernina knew it. Therefore, they did not design the Aurora 440 with the less-than-satisfactory rotary hook system. When Bernina unveiled the new BSR technology on the Aurora 440, they went back to the old-school CB Oscillating hook system, which was a telling sign of things to come.

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