How to Adjust Tension | Sewing Machine

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Hi, I'm Jennifer from Workroom Social. Now let's talk about thread tension.

Thread tension is really important on your sewing machine because you want your stitches to be really nice and even, meaning that the stitches on top and on bottom are the same.

This is your tension adjustment right here, and every sewing machine has one. The lower number means that it's loose and the higher number, mine goes all the way up to nine, means that the thread is really tight. So, depending on what you are sewing, what kind of fabric, and how many layers, what kind of thread you're using, your tension is going to change.

I just want to illustrate for you what you're looking for in thread tension. I've set my thread tension right now to zero, which means that it's super loose, and we're going to sew some stitches. Now let's take a look and see what that looks like. You can see here, with the loose thread tension, if you flip it over, the bobbin thread is pulling the top thread through because the top thread is not tight enough; it's not holding its own, if you will, so you can see all the little light blue dots coming through. So that's a loose thread tension.

Now, if we want to see what a too tight thread tension is, I'm going to turn my tension all the way to nine, the highest it can go. Just stitch a little bit and we'll pull this out. You can see, even when I'm pulling it out it's kind of hard because the thread is really being held tight. We have the opposite problem here. So, in this example, we have the bobbin thread being pulled up through the fabric because the top thread is much too tight.

I'm going to take this down to around a four, somewhere in the middle, and sew a couple of stitches. Now let's take a look at that. Now you see here, you have little blue dots on the front, and that's the bobbin thread; you have light blue dots on the back which is the top thread. As long as they are even, you know that your sewing machine is making even stitches.

If we look at all of the stitches that we've made and compare them, we look here and we see that we have a lot of little blue bobbin threads coming out on top. We have the opposite problem here where we have the top stitch thread is all on the underside, no bobbin here. Then we go to our balanced example where we can see a little bit of each thread, the top and the bobbin thread on both sides. That's a well-balanced stitch.

Now, I'm using two different colors here to illustrate this example but if you're sewing a garment or something, and you've got your top stitch here and your bobbin thread are going to be the same color, so you're not actually going to see these little dots. But this is a good way to see if your machine has a good thread tension.

[cakedoow]

Thank you so much I’ve had this problem with my thinner fabrics for so long I can now finally sew all types of projects I’m working on. Including the ones that were on stand by due to this issue

[TwizzlerLife]

clear easy actions now I can sew. Jennifer is a great speaker.

[pruepennington]

Thank you very much for this tutorial, it told me what I wanted to know in simple terms so that I understood immediately. I hate listening to loads of waffle, you get straight to the point... Thank you so much .

[carolflegel]

Yay! You just saved me $25+ from me not having to take my machine into a repair shop. I had the tension dial too loose and now I get perfect stitches top and bottom! THANK YOU!

[trish]

Best explanation I have found so far and works for me 😀

[hannahj]

Thank you for showing the basics! I just got a new machine, and the instructions, while precise, assume the reader knows what is higher/lower tension.

[The_Mimewar]

That’s the one knob I had yet to figure out. Thank you!

[brownr]

Is it necessary to thread that bottom bobbin for the machine to thread or can you just thread the top and it still work?

[syedraza]

thanks a lot to solve the basic problem for new person

[j.tamburello]

It would be helpful to know when to use the upper and lower end of the tension button.

[MimiSquad]

can you make a video on this same sewing machine threading it upsetting the tension and whining the bobbin and setting it up to sew? I wanna know how to set up the one I have

[asuncionmagdaet]

Thank you very much. Naayos ko Ang tahi 😊

[dasetapalmer]

Thank you for this information it will be a great help 👍

[philphillips]

Thank you so much. Simple straight to the point video, and it answered my question perfectly.

[johnklingbeil]

Thank you. I'm going to try this with 2 different color threads.

[sandibeach]

What type of fabric are you using in your video? Really enjoyed video!

[KateRigby]

Great video. I never understood about thread tension but this really helped. Thank you

[lindacastro]

Helpful! Now I know what to look for so I'm not fumbling in the dark. Thanks!

[buckmajor]

I fixed the top thread and needle alignment problem.
I need to know if the spring is the problem? How to know know what the original one looked like?

[debrapratt]

How do you replace the whole tensioner off, need to know how to put back together again please