Heist

Thanks! I think you absolutely just nailed it. Just about an hour ago I took the machine apart after trying every single tension, different thread types, etc. etc. There's no reason for it to be skipping this many stitches and being this finicky. There is something hitting or rubbing against something else and it affects the "top" of the rotation if that makes any sense. I'm bringing it into a local technician tomorrow to see if this can be altered or if the machine is just defective. Unforunately the dealer is in California and I'm in Miami, FL...they said they will accomodate my return but since I waited 2 months for this machine, I'm hoping it's just a matter of some fine tuning!

Thank you! I spent some time playing with the tension and it has definitely gotten better even though it still skips stitches here and there. But at least it's sewing. I have to order some leather needles online so once those come in I will experiment further. I'm not sure if you would know this but I was studying the way the foot comes down and it looks like the foot itself is slightly over to the left as compared with the bottom teeth (I'm sorry I don't know the technical words for what I'm trying to describe!) Should these be lined up? I'm wondering if that has something to do with the skipping stitches. Thanks again!

Hi! I've been reading these forums and they've been very helpful so far, and many topics have come close to what I'm looking for but I'm about to give up and I'm hoping someone has some information to help me. I want to sew garment weight leather, specifically, leather taken from old coats. I just purchased a Family Sew FS388 because from what I've read these machines work for sewing lighter (garment) weight leather. I can't purchase an industrial machine (price, space, weight, etc.) so this machine seemed perfect. So far the machine seems to sew thick layers of fabric well but when I try to sew leather it sometimes skips stitches and sometimes just doesn't even sew at all. It just leaves long lines of thread behind and bunches up the leather. It seems to be ok when I sew the leather together with fabric (either with the leather on top or bottom), although that's not perfect either as it skips a stitch here and there too. I called in to the place where I bought it and he insists that this machine will sew leather and that I should try a different needle as it could be bent (I'm using the one that came with the machine now) and experiment with the tension. Could these problems be coming from that? Or is there something else I should be concerned about. I would appreciate any help and advice. I've been trying so hard for so long to figure this out that I'm about to just give up!