The Easiest Way to Fix a Skipped Stitch

You know what sucks? When your sewing machine skips a stitch in the middle of an otherwise perfect job.

Don’t freak out! It happens to the best of us.

Fortunately, a lot of experienced trimmers in The Hog Ring community know just what to do and are happy to share their tips.

In fact, Chuck Bench of Stitch Rod and Trim put together this awesome tutorial on how to fix a skipped stitch.

Chuck writes…

Have you ever had your machine skip while sewing a top stitch or French seam? It’s super annoying, especially when you already ran several scrap pieces to test the thread tension.

If it’s a simple, run-of-the-mill repair, you might let it slide. But if it’s a high-dollar project and everything has to be perfect, you’ll need to start over.

Or maybe not…

Here’s a tutorial on how to cosmetically “fix” a skipped stitch so that it doesn’t show and ruin your work.

For this tutorial, I used 270 top thread and a 92 bobbin with a 22 needle. I know that combination isn’t advised, but my supplier didn’t send the correct needles with the thread I ordered and the job couldn’t wait — so I did what I had to do.

Anyway, here are the steps you’ll need follow:

1. Freak out over your skipped stitch

2. Calm down and thread a needle

Grab a sewing machine needle (who doesn’t have an extra 30 of these lying around?). You can also use an ordinary sewing needle.

Take a 12″ piece of your bobbin thread and thread it through the needle.

3. Stick it in the hole

On the top side of the material, insert the needle into the hole under the missed stitch where the bobbin should have caught it. Don’t go through the top stitch to get to the hole. Instead, go on one side of the top stitch.

4. Pull the thread through the hole

With the needle still in the hole, flip the material over and pull the thread through on one side.

5. Back the needle out

Once your thread is through, back the needle out of the same hole.

6. Stick it in there one more time

Just like you did in step 3, stick the needle back into the hole under the missed stitch where the bobbin should have caught it. Only this time, poke the needle through the hole on the opposite side of the top stitch.

7. Pull the thread through again

Once you have the needle far enough in there, go ahead and pull the other side of the thread all the way through the hole. Now you should have both sides of the thread on the back side of the material and it should be looped around the skipped top stitch on the front side of the material.

8. It’s time to pull and tie

Hold both sides of the thread and pull it as tight as you can to yank the top stitch back into the cover. Once it’s nice and tight, tie it off in a square knot.

9. Breathe a sigh of relief

Flip the cover over and take a look at the skipped stitch. If you followed these steps correctly, it should look normal on the front side.

In this shot, it doesn’t look perfect because I was using 270 thread and it’s THICK — but you get the point.

Happy stitching everyone! For more great tutorials, join The Hog Ring forum and visit our “How To” section.