Upper Thread Not Pulling on Your Single Needle Embroidery Machine? Here's How to Fix It.

Whew, let me tell you about the embroidery stress I had recently—maybe this will help you if your machine ever acts up the way mine did!

So, I was working on a school project—doing patches for uniforms—so everything needed to be neat and perfect. But for some reason, the thread just wasn’t pulling from the top. It was barely moving, and the machine was only stitching with the bobbin thread. The designs were coming out messy and untidy, and I was getting real frustrated.

I tried rethreading the top thread... nothing.
I rethreaded the bobbin... still nothing. I even removed the bobbin cover to check for any jams or issues, and still—nothing. At one point, my needle broke (just to add to the chaos).

I was literally going in circles trying to figure it out. Then the machine suddenly gave me a prompt saying the bobbin thread was almost empty, and that’s when it hit me—it might be the tension.

I quickly checked, and guess what? The upper thread tension was set to 9! I normally stitch on 4. One of the kids must’ve passed by and decided to "help" Mummy out by turning knobs they shouldn't be touching 😂.

I adjusted the tension back to 4, ran the same sample again—and boom, everything was working perfectly. Designs came out clean, neat, and the thread was pulling just like normal. What a relief! That issue had me stressed out for hours 😅

So yeah, if you’re ever stitching and notice the top thread not pulling or your design looks off—check your tension! Sometimes it’s the simplest things causing the biggest headaches.

If this post saved you some stress or gave you that “aha!” moment—you’re welcome 😅. I love sharing real behind-the-scenes moments like this because I know how frustrating embroidery hiccups can be.

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