Sewing/Threading A Bobbin on a sewing machine

[OnFireforHim]

Hi : )

How do I thread a bobbin on an old singer sewing machine? My sewing machine, the one I learned to work on broke, but in the meantime i am using an old one that my grandmother gave me a long time ago. However, I cannot get the thing to thread the bobbin through the hole under the needle. Anyone have any idea, or any websites that can tell me?
Thanks so much

 

[AdJesumPerMariam]

Are you trying to thread a new bobbin, or trying to pull the thread up through the hole so you can sew? Is it the machine that has a drop in bobbin, or is it kinda on its side?

 

[cameocat]

I know the real old Singers you had to start the bobbin by hand, first.

 

[OnFireforHim]

I am trying to pull the thread up through the hole. The place where the bobbin goes is not on the side, but a little door opens up right about under the needle. I tried using the instructions on the singer website, but it still wouldn't thread/come up through the hole...hrm...

wow, i can't imagine starting it by hand..heehee, i guess it's not as old as it could be!

 

[pmcleanj]

How old is this old Singer? Is the bobbin shaped like a regular bobbin (wider around than it is long) or is it longer than it is around?

 

[OnFireforHim]

I have no idea how old it is...not antique old, but maybe 20 or 30 years. it is all metal, but not the antique looking black metal. it is a really heavy, and beige metal.
I don't know if this makes a difference, but it is attached to a wooden stand, and it folds down into the stand, and you cover up the machine with a wooden lid. but not quite like those wooden desks that you can buy and put a sewing machine into...somehow different, and smaller. and the machine doesn't come out of the stand at all...
hmm, one side of the bobbin is larger then the other side. like, the top circle is big, and the circle on the bottom is little. and plastic, with no little metal case that goes around it, which is what i am used to (those metal ones with a little metal case you pull out and then put back into the machine). does this make any sense?

Thank you so much for your help, everyone : )

Oh, i just checked, and it says "Touch & Sew. Special Zig Zag Model 626"

 

[HeatherJay]

Have you tried the singer website? I know they have information and downloadable manuals for the newer machines...who knows? They may have some information on yours there, too.

www.singer.com

 

[pmcleanj]

hmm, one side of the bobbin is larger then the other side. like, the top circle is big, and the circle on the bottom is little. and plastic, with no little metal case that goes around it, which is what i am used to (those metal ones with a little metal case you pull out and then put back into the machine). does this make any sense?
Oh, i just checked, and it says "Touch & Sew. Special Zig Zag Model 626"

Ohhh! You have a Touch & Sew!!! I remember when those came out!! They were the hottest thing since sliced bread in the sewing machine world at the time -- well, in the American sewing machine world, anyway (Elna was truly the hottest thing back in those days). This makes things much easier. The long-axis bobbins are on the antique-old machine, and they are quite different.

If I'm remembering and guessing right, you slide open the little door under the needle, and the bobbin drops in flat. You need to have spun the bobbin the right way. There's a slot that you double it back through, until you hear a little click. DON'T close the door yet. Thread the needle, hold on to the end of the needle thread with the left hand, and crank the handwheel through one stitch, then pull on the needle thread. That should pull the bobbin thread up. THEN close the door over the bobbin compartment.

That's basically what's described on this page, http://www.singerco.com/resources/bobbin.html, though, which you've already seen. So if that's what you've been trying, and it hasn't been working, at least you now know that you've been doing the right thing! You might need to take it for servicing. Fortunately, it predates the electronic machines, so any sewing machine shop should be able to service it for you.

Also, for $7, you can download a copy of the instruction manual here: http://www.sewusa.com/Sewing_Machine_Manuals/Singer_Manuals/626_Instruction_Manual.htm

 

[HclldmSwt]

lol, sorry wrong s/n \/

 

[OnFireforHim]

^hah, I had posted and noticed that I wasn't on the screen name that I had originally posted with...a bit confusing! LOL anyways...

Thank you so much for all of your help! Well, I tried what the site said, then tried again after reading this, and for some reason is still didn't wanna come out of that little hole. But I have had such bad luck with all of these machines!
Well, since I am already spending a nice little sum of money to fix my machine (which i am appreciating so much more after having gone through all of this!!) , I figured I would put the old one away until I had some extra money to have it serviced. So, because I was getting so frustrated (I was trying to finish a skirt by yesterday for a meeting), I went and bought a little kids beginner sewing machine just so I could finish up! But, it was missing like, all of the pieces. So I took it back and exchanged it. This one had all of the pieces so I left happily. When I got home, my sister had this fabric I had bough a long time ago to make a scrub top for her (she's a nurse). So I started, and was almost finished, when the arm that cranks the thread up and down, broke, and fell into the machine!! SO, now I have no skirt, and the scrub top is on hiatus. Go figure. but that's' what I get for expecting this cheap little machine to actually do anything...lol. So, I am just going to drop my machine off on saturday so I can hopefully have it by the end of the weekend. and then i am going to return the kids/beginner machine, and then save up to have the one my grandmother gave me fixed, and then go back to having it for emergencies. In the long run I want to get a super nice machine, but the one I use regulary is about thirty years old, but my grandmother taught me how to sew on it when i was about 6, and then she gave it to me when she couldn't see well enough to sew anymore, so there's lots of sentimental value, and I just really am used to it, and how it works. I know it inside and out, and can take it apart and put it back together in nothing flat. BUT I just can't fix it...lol.

Anyways, that you so much for helping me. Hopefully I will take my singer in, and she will tell me i just wan't getting it in right or something...lol. she's a family friend, so maybe she'll cut me a deal for having to have TWO macines serviced : ).

 

[pmcleanj]

^hah, I had posted and noticed that I wasn't on the screen name that I had originally posted with...a bit confusing! LOL anyways...

Thank you so much for all of your help! Well, I tried what the site said, then tried again after reading this, and for some reason is still didn't wanna come out of that little hole. But I have had such bad luck with all of these machines!
Well, since I am already spending a nice little sum of money to fix my machine (which i am appreciating so much more after having gone through all of this!!) , I figured I would put the old one away until I had some extra money to have it serviced. So, because I was getting so frustrated (I was trying to finish a skirt by yesterday for a meeting), I went and bought a little kids beginner sewing machine just so I could finish up! But, it was missing like, all of the pieces. So I took it back and exchanged it. This one had all of the pieces so I left happily. When I got home, my sister had this fabric I had bough a long time ago to make a scrub top for her (she's a nurse). So I started, and was almost finished, when the arm that cranks the thread up and down, broke, and fell into the machine!! SO, now I have no skirt, and the scrub top is on hiatus. Go figure. but that's' what I get for expecting this cheap little machine to actually do anything...lol. So, I am just going to drop my machine off on saturday so I can hopefully have it by the end of the weekend. and then i am going to return the kids/beginner machine, and then save up to have the one my grandmother gave me fixed, and then go back to having it for emergencies. In the long run I want to get a super nice machine, but the one I use regulary is about thirty years old, but my grandmother taught me how to sew on it when i was about 6, and then she gave it to me when she couldn't see well enough to sew anymore, so there's lots of sentimental value, and I just really am used to it, and how it works. I know it inside and out, and can take it apart and put it back together in nothing flat. BUT I just can't fix it...lol.

Anyways, that you so much for helping me. Hopefully I will take my singer in, and she will tell me i just wan't getting it in right or something...lol. she's a family friend, so maybe she'll cut me a deal for having to have TWO macines serviced : ).

Do you know how to do any kind of hand stitching?

As a businesswoman and mother of two, I spend an awful lot of time NOT at my sewing machine. Recently I've found that I make more progress on projects if I carry them around in a sewing bag and set a few stitches by hand over lunch or coffee or while waiting for children to finish a ballet class.

For ordinary seams, take three to six running stitches each about two millimetres long (between a sixteenth and an eighth of an inch long), then take a backstitch. That will lock and strengthen the stitching. The more often you backstitch, the stronger (and bulkier) the seam. For crotch and underarm seams bacstitch every stitch; but for standard seams one in four is about right.

You could get that scrub-top finished, after all

Good luck.