Let's talk tension for just a second.
This is something that most people want to adjust the tension when something goes wrong,
but believe me, it's the last thing I change.
I'll always double check the needle, the threading of the machine.
Have I cleaned it lately?
All those things are going to come first.
I have put a different color of thread in the bobbin so we can see some of the changes
that might be being made here.
One of the things that sometimes happens, and when you're using two different weights
of thread, you'll see a stitch on the front, but maybe you see some where you can almost
pull it right out the other side.
See how I'm just pulling the bobbin thread out?
The stitches are not complete at all.
That definitely means something needs to be changed, and that means that the top tension
needs to be a little bit tighter.
By changing it to be a little bit tighter, then you have the same look of stitch, both
on the front and the back.
Then that way I have purple on the back, and I have red on the front.
Let me do this with a zig-zag.
I'm going to stitch number four, and I want you to actually see what this looks like.
Yes, I have had to put my tension to zero to get you this result, but because the machine
works, it's kind of hard to make the tension show anything if I don't actually change it.
Let's say you're tension is at zero, so the top thread is very, very loose.
That means when you flip it over to the backside, here we go, you see a lot of the red thread
from the needle pulled to the back.
We definitely know that we need to adjust it, or pull it up to the top, and make it
so it's more even.
By making a tighter adjustment at the top, we'll pull it up on the front side.
Once again, you should have a zig-zag that's red on the front and purple on the back.
You really can balance out the machine to be perfect every single time.
What if you're sewing along and you hear something just sounding terrible.
Something's pulling, something's tight, it just doesn't sound right.
You look at the front and it looks fine, but you flip it over and you have this.
Once again, with the purple thread in the bobbin, is it a purple problem?
It's not, it's a needle problem because we're seeing all the red, as I sometimes call this,
hairy loops.
Often times this is when you thread the machine incorrectly.
I literally had to pull this out of the tension area for me to get you this result.
What happens is is sometimes when you thread with the presser foot down, that means those
tension discs have closed, and the thread is just riding on the outside of those discs,
and we're not getting any tension whatsoever.
Once again, just make sure that you thread with the presser foot up so the discs are
open, and keep in mind that if you hold onto your thread with your left hand to thread
it, and resist it with your right hand, you'll drop it right into that tension disc.
Make sure that when the presser foot is lowered, it is tight when you feel that working there.
Then just finish it off.
Honestly, this is definitely not a tension problem, it is an operator error problem because
you didn't thread your machine right.
Don't be freaked out about this, just re-thread your machine, but make sure you re-thread
it from the very beginning back at the spool, not just a halfway re-thread.
That's the only problem that you're seeing here.
If you're ever getting stitches pulled to the top side, which often happens when you
do decorative stitches and you don't want the results that you're getting.
You're going to see that your bobbin thread is coming to the top.
You can kind of see where the purple is showing a little bit more here.
What we want to do is reduce the tension.
The tension on top is too tight, so you need to go the opposite way.
Just remember, if you don't remember which way to go, one's going to make it worse, and
one's going to make it better.
Definitely go ahead and drop that down to a smaller number.