I have a Brother sewing machine that I love. It's worked great for many projects. I think this is more of a me problem than a machine problem. When I try to sew certain fabrics my machine won't stitch. It happens with thin fabrics mostly. Is there something I should be doing?
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Yes, there are some things you should be doing:) Following the instructions in your sewing machine user guide, be sure that you are:
Making all the needed adjustments to the stitch settings - for thinner fabrics especially! Stitch width and length, upper thread path tension setting, and feed dog height adjustments all need to be made.
Using the right needle, and thread in upper thread AND bobbin. Sewing any fabric requires the use of the right needles and threads to ensure skip-free stitching. Your user guide should have a table showing which needles and threads to use for each fabric type.
Using a needle that hasn't been dulled by too many sewing hours - a dull needle can cause the skipping you're describing.
Trying to sew a fabric that's been pre-washed enough times to remove any excess fabric sizing sprayed or soaked into the fabric at the mill. Sizing is used to make a fabric hold its shape/hand/drape/crispness in the shop so it's more attractive to buyers, and to deflect dust and stains. Some mills load so much sizing onto/into their fabrics it can take up to 10 washings to get it all out so you can sew it without skipped stitches (not only does sizing defect dust and stains, it acts as a shield so well it often deflects needles too!).
Putting the starting edge of the thin fabrics a quarter to half inch back so the starting sewing point is not the very edge of the fabric (starting a thin fabric at the very edge often causes it to be pulled under the throat plate - and skip stitches). Another little sewer tip is to grasp the thread tails (should be two, one upper and one bobbin) and gently pull the fabric through the first two inches of stitching.
There are other reasons for skipped stitching but the above should sort your issue. If you don't have your user guide, Brother does offer some free downloads for their machines, and also sells replacement hard copies.
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