We are happy to introduce a new series on janomelife: Covering questions that so many of you ask us in person at shows; at Janome Dealer stores; as well as in the comment box of janomelife. We figured a new series once a month to answer these questions would be good for many people who might read janomelife and say…..”so glad you asked that as I was wondering too”
Here goes with the first one: Please tell me what is the difference between the different coloured Janome bobbin cases?
Good question. Happy to answer it!
Ok, so we have clear, pink and blue bobbins……I’m not talking about bobbins today. I’m talking about the bobbin cases that these bobbins go into. We have 4 bobbin cases for top loading machines:
- Regular bobbin case with RED marking.
This is the bobbin case you will find in most of our sewing machines. It is what is more than likely IN the machine when you purchased it from your dealer. It does not matter what top loading Janome machine model you have, you will have a bobbin case with a red marking like in the pic above. This bobbin case is for virtually all your regular sewing. This bobbin case is included with the sewing machine. - Bobbin case with BLUE marking.
This bobbin case is not included with any of our Janome top loading bobbin sewing machine models and will need to be purchased from your dealer as an accessory. It is also known as the QUILTER’s or LOW TENSION bobbin case. This bobbin case is for QUILTING: free motion quilting AND hand look quilting stitch on many of our machine models. This bobbin case has a LOWER tension than the red one in #1 above and reduces or avoids “eye-lashes” or “loopie-loo’s” on the back of your free motion quilting. These are caused when the bobbin tension is too high and so the needle thread gets pulled a little to the back of the quilt and forms little loops or eyelashes which none of us like very much. Of course, to try to fix this you could increase the needle thread tension a little but we often don’t want to do that as delicate threads such a invisible thread can sometimes break if the thread tension is increased. Nor do we obviously want to see bobbin thread on the top of the quilt either! So Janome to the rescue: the Blue dot bobbin case comes factory pre-set with the correct bobbin tension for all free motion quilting projects. We also use this bobbin case for Janome ACUFIL quilting-in-the-hoop projects where you don’t want a build up of thread on the back of your embroidered quilt. The results when using this blue dot bobbin case for stitching hand look quilting will be much easier to achieve and will look just like hand quilting when you use this bobbin case. - YELLOW dot bobbin case.
This bobbin case is included with most of our embroidery machines. This bobbin case is for EMBROIDERY – that is when you are using the hoop and embroidery mode (not decorative stitching in sewing mode). Our yellow dot bobbin case especially for embroidery is simply wonderful! I use the handy-dandy one-step needle plate converter lever to pop the needle plate off to exchange the regular red dot bobbin case for the new yellow dot one. It is set with a higher than normal tension to ensure no bobbin thread shows on the top of the embroidery. This is also a factory pre-setting to make your life easy – Janome thinks of everything! The rule of thumb: use this bobbin case for ALL embroidery projects except for Acufil quilting. As it has a higher than normal tension, it does pull the top embroidery thread to the back a little which is what you want for an embroidery but not for the back of a quilt. You may be OK not to use this bobbin case when using JANOME pre-wound bobbins as they are wound quite tightly. But do a test as see if you are OK before using the red marking bobbin case in this instance. Actually, I just find it easier to use my yellow dot bobbin case for all embroidery (EXCEPT Acufil when I always use the blue dot bobbin case) and then I don’t forget and get tied up in a knot trying to remember what is for what. - Bobbin case with yellow marking.
NOT to be confused with the Yellow dot bobbin case in #3 above! You can certainly be forgiven for getting confused here. It should have been green or purple and then we would have had more rainbow colours to enjoy! However, it is not. You do not need to know about this bobbin case unless you own the Janome Skyline S7. You may have noticed that the bobbin case that comes with your machine does not have a red marking as in #1 above. It has a yellow marking instead (not a dot, but a small marking like the red one). This is because the Skyline S7 has a different tension stepping motor system and needs its own unique bobbin case. So Skyline S7 owners have their own special bobbin case. If you need to replace your bobbin case over time or if you damage it accidentally with a nasty thread jam, please ensure you get this yellow mark bobbin case part # 858570308. The one in #1 above won’t do.
I hope that has “demystified” some of the confusion about our various Janome bobbin cases and what they are to be used for. Feel free to ask your local Janome dealer or send us a comment if you have further queries.
If you have specific questions, dont hesitate to ask as your question may well become another that we say “GLAD YOU ASKED THAT……”
Janome Life 