Stitch Help

[Marion Watts]

Working on a silnylon tarp. Stitch lines are coming out a little wonky. Thread tension seems right according to the manual, and when I stitch on a cotton type fabric it straightens out. Any tips for working with the sil and keeping the stitches straight?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwuC09TV3vK1ZUU4YXM2UW9ic0E/view?usp=docslist_api

[Jerry Adams]

Is the tension correct? stitch the same on both sides of fabric?  cotton could be different than silnylon

Is the correct side of the needle forward?  I have put the needle in backwards and it’s weird.  More like it drops stitches though.  I assume by “wonky” you mean the thread comes out on one side but goes in on the other side.

Maybe you need a new needle.  Maybe you have the wrong type of needle for that machine.  Is the thread threaded through the machine correctly?

If the tension is correct (both sides of fabric look the same) maybe it doesn’t matter?

Good you’re testing on a scrap piece.  Make sure you try sewing two long strips together and make sure the top piece doesn’t stick on the foot a little so it gradually slips relative to the bottom piece.  That is, for each strip, make one mark, then another mark exactly 5 feet (or whatever) apart.  Start sewing with the two strips aligned.  By the time you get to the end, 5 feet away, the marks should be exactly lined up.

[Marion Watts]

I should have said that the link I included in my first post is to a picture of how the stitch looks. Every stitch kinda “kicks out” looks to me…

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, I saw picture, maybe play with stuff I suggested and it’ll get better, and maybe it’s just cosmetic – don’t worry about it

[Ken M]

I find that slight angle to one single stitch is quite normal.  Especially noticable on very thin fabric as it shows up the slight puckering of the fabric.  Your stitch “line” is still going straight and looks reasonably tensioned.  If you look very closely at the needle hole you can just see the bottom (bobbin) thread crossing over the top thread.  It goes roughly perpendicular to your stitch line.  As the needle is coming up thought the fabric that bobbin thread twists the upper thread just a bit to the left.  When the needle goes back down through the fabric it is right in line again.  Hence that slight zig-zag look.  Both of my machines will do the same thing in the same direction so I suspect it has something to do with the way the bobbin hook pulls or twists the thread as it loops through the top thread.

Needle and thread:  A smaller size needle matched with a thinner thread will show less angle because the “zig” is also smaller.

KenM    Louisville, Ohio

[William Kerber]

I agree with Ken that I think that stitch is fine. I just think it’s the way a thinner and slicker fabric feeds through a home machine. You might try grabbing the material in front of and behind the presser foot to kind of tension it, but not too much as you still want the feed dogs to pull it through. Another option it to try a walking foot, but I usually don’t bother. Personally, I’d be fine with a stitch that has a little slant to it.

[Roger Caffin]

I think your sewing is fine. Silnylon is very light compared to cotton, and you won’t get the threads in a dead straight line as with cotton.

You could try increasing the thread tension top and bottom just a whisker, but you might do more harm than good.

You might also get slightly better results by have an extra layer or two of fabric in the seam. Silnylon is very light …

Cheers

 

 

[Marion Watts]

Thanks guys. I’ll just roll with it then!

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