I have a Britannia CS4000 Coverstitcher.  It's been a while since I last used it, and I have just got it out to do the hem and neck on a t-shirt.  Every time I start to stitch it is fine for about an inch, and then (usually) the left hand needle thread breaks.  Sometimes it's the right hand one, and on occasion the looper thread.

I know I had this problem before, and that I found a solution (on the internet), but I cannot remember what it was, or find it.  A niggling voice at the back of my mind keeps mentioning the feed dogs.

I have tried tweaking the tension for the left hand needle thread, but that just makes that line of stitching a bit loose - and, as I said, it isn't always that thread anyway.

To cap it all I can't find the manual, and there doesn't seem to be one online.

Any ideas?

Just posted this on the vintage machines board.  It isn't really vintage, so I'm posting it here too.

If anyone knows of an led bulb that will fit a Husqvarna Megaquilter (the same as Janome 1600P and various others) I would be eternally grateful!  According to the manual it's 12v, 5W, and it looks like this:

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

I did manage to get one that fitted the description, intended for (from memory) a car number plate light, but it didn't fit very well, and didn't work.

I placed an order with Higgs and Higgs at 6.26am today, and received the notification of shipment at 8.08am...    (free 2nd class postage on orders over £50).

Not only that, but I emailed a query to them at 8.49pm yesterday and had a (helpful) reply at 9.35pm...   

Clearly they don't sleep any better than I do!

... with code 25offdresses until 27th February.   

... a quilt which may be made up of blocks, but they form one overall design rather than a repeated pattern?

I want to look for books of patterns like that, but just can't think how to describe them.

Do you think it will work if I make piping from this cotton twill tape?



It's for my sewing machine cover, and it will have to go around some short, tight curves.

A week ago I did an embroidery onto velvet with my embroidery machine.  It worked well, but I wasn't happy with the colours (partly because the velvet is dark blue, and the pattern was designed for pale fabrics).

Today I repeated the embroidery with different colours, and also repeated some of the colours to make them more concentrated (ie got to the end of a colour and then started again from the beginning to go over the same ground again).  It worked really well, and I was very pleased.  I put both embroideries into the washing machine to rinse away the soluble stabiliser, and then ironed them on the back.  When I turned them over I could see marks on the newer one.

It seems that the hoop had rubbed away the surface of the velvet, pretty much all the way around.  This didn't happen at all on the first one.

Has anyone else had this happen?  I can see three possible causes:

• I used different hoops - the same size, but different - maybe the hoop was rougher?
• Because I repeated some of the sections, the fabric was under greater stress for the second one (29k stitches for the first one, roughly 45k for the second).  Maybe it rubbed against the hoop more?
• The velvet (which is good quality cotton velvet) is just going to do this, and I would be better using something else?

I have an alternative design, but it is 72k stitches, and I really don't want to do all that and then find it has the same problems.

Any thoughts/ideas/experiences that might help?