Sewing machine help

[daughtersrus]

I have a Kenmore sewing machine (model #3851764180) that I've had for many years. I don't do a lot of sewing, pretty much just repairs. (my DH bought it for me the Christmas after DD was born because I glued her Halloween costume together. )

Earlier this week I was using it. It was fine and then all of a sudden, it stopped feeding the fabric through. I checked the stitch setting and the width and length and they are all where they should be. We took the plate off above the bobbin case and cleaned that out as well as the foot plates. There was a little fuzz but that's about it.

My DH is usually able to repair anything but he's never taken a sewing machine apart. Before he does that, I thought that I'd post here and see if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[bethbuchall]

I hope someone has an answer, because my Kenmore sewing machine started doing the same thing a couple of years ago. I almost never use it anymore. It's about 21 years old. I can't justify a new one with the amount of use it gets.

I found that if I take the plate off and gently nudge the feed dogs while turning the wheel, I can get it to work for a little while.

I should ask my dh to look at it, but he's not usually around when it happens and then I forget. Maybe it just needs oiling or something?

 

[daughtersrus]

bumping to see if the night crowd can help.

 

[PrincessMickey]

If everything is cleaned out maybe try putting a little oil on it. Hope that helps. If that doesn't help then I would take it somewhwere where they can clean and service it.

 

[merryweather20]

I'm not sure how old the OP's sewing machine, but my Mom had a 20+ Kenmore and it just got to the point where it could not be fixed. We tried Sears repair a couple of times, then drove it 1.5 hours to a special sewing machine wizard a couple of towns away. Nothing nadda, it could not be fixed.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

DW is a sewing expert and teaches sewing, mostly Bernina computer interfaced sewing machines. But she also uses some older singers and other ones she has gotten over the years.

The older singers need to be taken into a sewing machine shop and have maintence and adjusting every once in a while. The tolerences can get off and cause them to jam.

She also talks about having different feet for the machines for different sewing situations.

 

[asta]

Material is fed through a sewing machine by the little tractor looking strips on the either side of where the thread comes up. They usually move in an up and back type motion and the presser foot presses the fabric against them. If these things aren't moving, it probably means that a gear has broken or slipped out of place. The only other problem I can think of is that the presser foot is not exerting enough pressure to move the fabric through. There is probably a dial on the machine that will let you adjust that.

 

[scrapquitler]

Do you have lever somewhere on your machine where you can drop the 'feed dogs'? (That's the bumpy strips that move the fabric thru the machine)...if you accidentally dropped the feed dogs, those strips will be down below the level of the machine bed rather than slightly above it, and that will cause the machine to not feed the fabric thru. Look for a lever on the front bottom of the machine or on the right hand side (it might be a button that pushs in and stays in rather than a lever). Maybe thats all that is wrong.

 

[Imzadi]

It's probably the rubber belt got loose or finally lost it's tightness after all this time. Rubber degrades over time. You may be able to simply get a replacement belt and have hubby put it on.

 

[Maridw]

You might try and take it in for a tune-up. I have a Kenmore that was my grandmother's and have had no trouble. Actually I take that back, at first I wasn't threading it correctly and it would constantly jam. Once I figured out the correct way to thread it, I've had no problems.

One of these days I will get the cams out and figure out how to use them to do all the fancy stitches.