by Rita Freer

Because I travel to events with my machine, I have the machine in a trailer.  When the weather gets warm, I cannot use paper sided bobbins since they seem to swell with the humidity.  Recently, while using a plastic sided bobbin, the machine stopped stitching and broke the needle.   I saw the bobbin was a mess and after replacing the needle, I inserted a new bobbin.  Now the machine would not form stitches and kept breaking needles.   .

I decided to check the lower end of the machine and oil it .  I couldn’t find anything wrong until I attempted to insert another bobbin.  Then I realized it did not snap in place.  Upon further investigation,  I found one side had come off the bobbin and was still stuck in the bobbin case.  Upon removal, the machine sewed fine.  In four years of embroidery. this has never happened before;  but I will be aware it’s possible now.   On a commercial machine, a service call can be quite expensive.  I will always check the bobbin case before inserting a new one.