Tutorial-Fine Tuning Your Sewing Machine Tension

During my epic Halloween sewing fest, I did run into one major problem with my old Kenmore sewing machine. Somehow, somewhere, my upper and lower tensions went completely out of whack. In the past, this would be the one major thing that would keep me from sewing at all, but finally, I have learned how to fine tune the tension so the machine feels like it just had a trip to the sewing machine shop.But let’s begin with making sure the machine is off, and unplugged. Then following your manual, give that baby a good dusting out and oiling so she will be running at optimal smoothness.

Once you are finished with that, you will need to plug her in, then turn her on. Work that oil in by letting her sew a bit of air for a minute or two.

Now to fine tune the tension. Make sure you are using a standard, quality cotton sewing thread, not an embroidery, quilting or other thread. Remove the bobbin housing with the bobbin inside. Taking a small screwdriver, loosen the tension (turning the screw to the left) as far as you can without the screw completely coming out. Then in small increments, tighten (turning the screw to the right) the tension just a touch as this tension is highly sensitive. When the tension is just right, you should be able to hold the bobbing housing with the bobbin inside by the bobbin thread without the bobbin thread coming out any further. It doesn’t take much tightening to get to this stage. Replace the bobbin and housing back into your machine.

Grab some scrap fabric (double thickness) and begin straight stitching, paying attention to the tension of the threads. Begin adjusting the upper tension until both upper and lower threads look correctly sewn.

• A perfect stitch will have threads locked between the two layers of fabric with no loops on the top or the bottom.
• If the upper thread lays on top of the fabric in a straight line, the upper tension is tighter than the lower tension and you will need to loosen it a bit.
• If the bobbin thread lays on the bottom of the fabric in a straight line, then the bobbin tension is tighter than the upper tension and you will need to tighten the upper tension.

Now you will need another 2 pieces of scrap fabric, something with enough room to sew on the bias. I prefer 8 -10 inch squares to sew diagonally on. Make a row of bias stitching on the double thickness of fabric, if the fabric puckers, both tensions are too tight and you will need to loosen both of them. If you have stitching that looks correct, hold the row of stitching taut between the forefinger and thumb of each hand. Pull gently and evenly with both hands until you hear or feel thread breakage.

• If both threads break - both tensions are in proper balance
• If neither thread breaks - both tensions are too loose
• If only the upper thread breaks - upper tension is too tight
• If only the lower thread breaks - upper tension is too loose

Continue to finely adjust and sew on the bias until you have both threads break when you pull evenly on the fabric.

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