Bought a Kenmore 385.16324 sewing machine new 16 yrs ago. It has been a work horse. I use it all the time. The tension is now a problem, see photos: #1 is top and #2 is bottom. I have cleaned the bobbin case, feed dogs, replaced the needle, rethreaded it numerous times, and worked on tension settings after each sample row. I am still getting the weird stitches on the back side. Any suggestion what to do next?
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I have an old Kenmore and this happens to me all the time.
My troubleshooting steps are to:
1. Clean out the bobbin casing--my machine is a dust magnet and I take an old toothbrush and work away from the machine to clean it all out.
2. Does your machine have a screw in the casing for the bobbin? Mine does and if I play with that screw tension, usually it is too loose, then it fixes the tension issue
3. make sure my thread is new. I have a huge collection of thread and if I use an old thread, that is usually the first reason I get this issue.
4. If the thread is new, I will unwind the thread on to a new spool so not to waste it and unthread and rewind a new bobbin...preferably with new thread...but sometimes a slow rewind with the old thread (a second try) fixes the problem.
Post back how it goes!
Thank you for taking the time to post did a huge clean...oh my, need to do that more often...lol. Yup checked all the threading up and down to make sure it was threaded correctly, it was. Thread I am using is new but good suggestion. Now the only time I get some semblance of a stitch is when the upper tension is set at 9....not good.
Make sure your machine is threaded correctly. Also check how your bobbin is threaded. Check housing for thread pieces and fabric pieces that may have build up over time and clean out, This will make connections skip/stitch.
Thank you for taking the time to post. Yes thoroughly cleaned the bobbin case, feed dogs and surrounding area, wow should have done that a long time ago....bobbin threaded correctly, now I think it is the upper tension, will only get some semblance of stitches if the tension is set at 9.....may have my husband open the top up..
I had this issue with a Sear sewing machine I own that has a lot of fancy buttons and stitches on it. My sister in law tried all she could do to correct this problem. We could not get the tension to hold on the machine and all the time we had the same issue as you are having right now. I finally had to take the machine into the repair shop where they had to put in a whole new tension part for the machine to correct this issue.
After 16 years of use I believe you're probably putting everything together correctly so there must be a problem that just normal adjusting and cleaning cannot correct.
Maybe this is just telling you to start looking around for a replacement - nice retirement present!
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. My husband and I went through it all again last night, no luck. Looks like it is off to the service center tomorrow. Sears Service is no longer open as Sears went into receivership a couple of years ago but do have an independent in a city not far from here. Will see what they find and if not to expensive to fix will have it done, was hoping to have a few more months out of my machine but I guess it is tired....so sad.
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