How old is my sewing machine and how do I diagnose tension problems?
Can’t tell you how old it is — could probably make a guess from a picture, but that’s about it. As to your tension headaches… the issue appears to be with the upper thread tension. The most common newbie mistake I see that causes this is threading with the presser foot down — the thread never enters the upper tension. But let’s go through some other possibilities: 1) crudded up upper tension disks (lint, buildup from someone running hand quilting thread, rust, etc.) Take a piece of much-washed woven cotton, about muslin weight (pillowcase hems work well. Moisten a fold of this fabric with rubbing alcohol or unflavored vodka. Open the tension disks by raising the presser foot, insert the fold of moist fabric and “floss” with the moistened fabric and repeat with dry fabric. Sometimes this needs to be done a couple or three times before you get all the cruddlies out. Rust, unfortunately, means new tension disks. 2) Stuck or broken upper tension spring. Replace. Can be a DIY job or may
