zigzag stitch troubles

Hi all,

I'm still pretty new at sewing and this really has me stumped. I'm making a superhero cape for my daughter. I've made one other and thought I knew what I was doing. The cape is a cotton batik and I've fused a crown out of cotton fabric and her initials out of cotton and am now trying to reinforce it with some zigzag stitching. But the zigzag isn't working! It is zigzagging on the underneath, but now on the top. On the top it look like a long line of thread with small loose lines that go over the edge of the fabric.

I messed with the tension. It was on 4 and I moved it down to 2 with no difference, so I moved it up to 8 but it is still doing it! So I tried changing my needle. I was using a 12 and now have a 16 in there. Still not working! Any ideas? I really want to finish these capes up so any advice would be much appreciated!!

Thanks,
Emily

Maybe try a different thread but it seems like the stitches are not forming so I would see if there is lint caught somewhere. I would rethread the machine & give it a dusting with a brush to see if that helps. What kind of machine is it? Computerized or not?Check the bobbin case but if stitches are forming on the bottom & not the top I would try a different tension the opposite way of what you have already tried.

Did you get it figured out? I hope so.

Sounds like a tension problem.  I'd also try the suggestion above and re-thread everything including bobbin.  Keep the bigger needle in there, but raise your tension just a tad to no more than 7. If it is still not zigzag-ing correctly, then something else is messed up and you should try to take it in for service.
Tension issues can be maddening.  Hope you get it figured out.

I cleaned out the bobbin cartridge. Didn't see any lint or anything, but it started to work again right after. So I guess that was it. Thanks for the advice everyone!!