Machine sewing help...

[Sew3stitch]

I’m trying to make bunting for my daughter. Normally I bondaweb the letters on and hand stitch over but as this takes so long, I decided to work on my machine skills and overstitch that way.

After playing around with the settings I’ve done most of the letters, came back another day to finish off and now this is happening (on the zig zag stitch). So frustrating as I fiddle with the settings, go back to my practice piece then try the letter again and it doesn’t work on there.

Any ideas? It is my late mum’s machine so perhaps 20 years old but she’s obviously not around to ask!

There is an actual stitch type that does that, have you switched a dial by mistake? Either that, or double check the tension on it.

It's not getting stuck in the bondaweb, is it? That might explain the dragging effect.

Are you sure you're on a standard zig zag? That's an actual stitch on some machines. Also is it a new sharp needle? It will cause problems if you're attempting it with a ballpoint or a blunt sharps.

Definitely the zig zag stitch. I noticed a bit of sticky on the needle so I changed to a fresh one but perhaps it is the bondaweb sticking to this needle too. I have no idea why the same problem doesn’t happen on my test piece...

The tension wheel has lots of numbers with 4-6 having a line next to so I’m guessing they’re the standard or most common settings so I’ve been playing around largely with those. Just getting very sick of unpicking dodgy sewing, probably would have been quicker hand stitching in the end

Thanks for all the replies. Turns out the thread was the issue as when I tried a different one it worked ok.