The Most Common Embroidery Mistakes #9 Embroidery Project

It’s amazing how many new embroiderers call up their equipment company and say: “My machine has quit sewing. It worked fine yesterday, but nothing will stitch today.” Then they are asked the following question: “Have you done anything different to your machine since yesterday.” The reply is: “No. I changed out the needles, but I didn’t do anything different to the machine.”

Therein lies the obvious cause for the problem. The needles have to be installed correctly. If they are backwards or sideways, a stitch cannot be formed. The vertical groove must always face the front, while the cut-out area behind the eye, must face the rear. Needles are small and fingers are big, so it’s easy to install them incorrectly. Consider using a set of hemostats, since they will allow you to lock onto the needle. If you lock them on such that the handles face straight out in front of the needle, you will always be aware of the orientation of the needle as you install it. Plus, the long handles of the hemostats make it easy to maneuver the needle into place.