Tension question

Perhaps a size 18 needle and loosen the bobbin tension just a tiny bit and the thread tension as well, but just a tiny bit at a time,try it and see what happens. Also, polyester/cotton thread is probably better. Emily

My guess is the material is far to heavy for your home sewing machine. Monofilament is the devils work, just plain nasty stuff.

If you start playing with the bobbin tension, you may never get it back where it belongs, and that will cost you a trip to your dealer. Better to buy an extra bobbin case for special projects. Bobbin tension adjustments are very sensitive - often one eigth of a turn is too much.

Roger.

There's gadget called a sewing awl for just such projects. It's a heavy-duty sewing-machine needle in a pin vice that has a nice fat handle that you can push with your whole hand.

If it's not quite *that* hard, you can get a heavy-duty thimble at a quilter's store.

I've heard of a gadget called a "sailor's palm" for pushing needles through canvas and leather, but I've never seen one.

Google turned up an astonishing number of hits, but not one offer to *sell* a sailor's palm! I did learn that they come in "seaming palms" and the heavier-duty "roping palm". Adding "seaming palm" to the search criteria brought the hits down to three, and the third one mentioned two sites that sell palms. $14 at one, $16.50 at the other -- and these, according to another page I'd read, are cheap, dual-duty palms for weekend sailors.

Joy Beeson