I wish I had a tension dial I could ratchet back after a hard day at work. Your sewing machine won't ever be stressed out, but its tension can still get out of whack. You can take it to your dealer for adjustment or test and re-set it yourself.

Determining Proper Tension

A sewing machine creates stitches by interlocking the bobbin thread with the needle thread. When the needle goes down into your fabric, a hook catches the needle thread and wraps the bobbin thread around it creating what's called a lockstitch.

When your sewing machine's tension is out of balance, the result will be weak seams that are loose or pucker, and thread that breaks. It's not pretty.

Below at the DIY steps to test and adjust your tension control. Be careful. If you don't feel comfortable making these precise adjustments, call your dealer. Bring in your machine and have your dealer walk you through it. Next time, you can do it yourself.

To examine your tension, thread your machine with one color of thread and use a contrasting thread on the bobbin. Set your stitch length to about 10 stitches per inch, which is a standard setting of about 2.5 on most machines. Using scrap of folded fabric, sew several 4- to 5-inch diagonal test seams. Observe the seam on both top and bottom surface. Use a magnifying glass if necessary.

Balanced Tension

Ahhh. Proper tension produces evenly locked stitches with no top thread showing on the bottom of the fabric, and no bobbin thread showing on top of the fabric.

Upper Tension Too Tight

When the needle thread tension is stronger than the bobbin thread tension, the needle thread pulls the bobbin thread through the top of the fabric.

Upper Tension Too Loose

When the bobbin tension is stronger than the needle tension, it pulls the needle thread to the bottom of the fabric.

Adjusting Thread Tension

Adjusting the tension on a sewing machine is one of the more frustrating tasks for beginners. Actually, it's no picnic for me either. It takes a good set of eyes (or magnifying glass), and the patience to make tiny adjustments and continually recheck until your tension is balanced. I have the magnifying glass...

Before You Begin

What may appear to be a thread tension problem, may in fact be something else:

• Did you thread your machine correctly?
• Is your bobbin placed correctly in the bobbin holder?
• Is your needle bent, dull or incorrectly inserted?
• Look in your bobbin case. Is your machine full of lint? If so, use your lint brush to gently clean it.

Check your instruction manual if you are unsure, and never continue to sew on a machine that is not working correctly. It can damage your machine.

Additional Tension Test

If, after looking at the illustrations above you are still unsure, you can test tension another way:

Take your fabric with the sample stitching, hold each end of the stitch line and pull gradually until you first feel thread break. The fabric will stretch a bit because you are pulling on the bias.

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

Making Adjustments: Baby Steps!

Check your manual to see where the tension adjustment dial is located. Once you've determined what your problem is, here's how to fix it. Just remember to make small adjustments, and retest until you reach balance.

• To loosen the thread tension: Turn the dial a half a number lower. Retest, by moving the tension slightly each time, until tension is balanced. 
  
• To tighten the thread tension: Turn the dial a half number higher. Retest, by moving the tension slightly each time, until tension is balanced.

The Other Tension

There is also a lower tension adjustment located on the bobbin case. Just assume the lower tension is correct until you have made adjustments to thread tension.

Bobbin tension should be adjusted ONLY when you can't fix the problem by adjusting your thread tension. To adjust bobbin tension, refer to your instruction manual to locate the bobbin tension screw. The righty-tighty, lefty-loosey law applies here. Make tiny adjustments (1/8 turn at at time). Test and repeat.

Comments (3)

1craftymomma said:

	... Thank you so much for this. My sister-in-law is always messing up my machine. I think this will make it quicker for me to fix it
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May 28, 2009
Votes: -1

SewPink18 said:

	... The paragraph under: Making Adjustments - Baby Steps! says To Loosen the thread tension: Turn the dial a half number higher and To Tighten the thread tension: Turn the dial a half number lower. THIS IS EXACTLY OPPOSITE of what the instruction manual says for my Janome machine. I believe this information here is WRONG and that is not good for an informational article!
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June 01, 2009
Votes: +0

alicia.thommas said:

	... Oh boy! What a great catch SewPink 18. Thanks to your eagle eye, that error has been corrected. Sorry everyone!
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June 01, 2009
Votes: +0