Any dressmakers out there?

[ArcticBells]

I'm trying to take in a dress down the side seams as it's a bit loose. The material is 99% polyester and 1% elastic.

The sewing machine is either knotting up the thread or doing a few inches without leaving stitching at all. I've tried tightening and loosening the tension, polyester and cotton thread all without success. Could it be the needle? Do I need a special one?

I'm not great at sewing but have made all my own curtains etc over the years .

Any suggestions please?

Are you using a twin needle? That would be better on something with stretch.

You can get stretch needles and your machine may have a stretch stitch setting.

Sounds like a threading issue to me. Most likely the bobbin.

Rethread it all and make sure you have the bobbin in correctly.

is it a nice sharp needle or a blunt one last used for making curtains?

My sewing machine is ancient! It doesn't have many settings other than zigzag and two tension dials !

Set it back to the original settings for the tension. It's usually marked somehow on the dial.

Nice sharp new needle for polyester.

Is it a freshly wound bobbin, wound correctly?
is it the correct bobbin for the machine
are there any loose tails on the bobbin after winding?

have you tried it with a different fabric to see if it's a machine issue or a fabric issue?

@pastabest the machine works fine on a bit of cotton sheeting. I'm thinking it must be the needle.

Thank you for the replies