What causes this?

[Mrs.A]

I'm curious...my tension seems good and the stitch quality looks fine but, when I pull the thread through the needle (like when you move away & come back to pull up the bobbin thread), the top thread is curly... it looks like curling ribbon. Can anyone explain why this happens? Should I change the thread path? Right now I'm using 100 weight silk thread with a correspondingly small needle and So Fine in the bobbin. Your thoughts?

[ffq-lar]

It's like when you curl flat ribbon with the scissors. Pulling the thread--which has a corrugation to it with the twist--will cause it to curl against whatever it is pulled against. In this case it's the eye of the needle. I test my top tension by feel and by whether the thread curls when pulled through the needle.

I bet you're getting beautiful results with your thread combo. Hmmmmm--silk thread.....

[DawnCavanaugh]

Mrs. A,

Linda's right, the top thread is stretching just a bit as it travels through the eye of the needle. If your tension is satisfactory there isn't really a need to change anything. But if you start to experience thread breakage, loosen both the top and bobbin tension a little so that both are not pulling as hard. That will relieve some of the strain on the silk thread.

[RitaR]

When I bought my first Viking, I was told if a spool is on the machine itself, to you it is pulling right around the back of the spool towards your belly, so the thread comes off the spool from the right,to your left.

I find it works quite well for any post on the machine itself. Maybe if the cone on the apqs machine is doing this try turning the spool upside

down, in which case, you will need a thread sock. On cotton thread it doesn't make much difference on any thread that is slikery or like a poly.