Shirring

Last summer I made a shirred top and gave it to my sister... So I know how to do it, but today not so much. I am going to blame it on my new machine. Last summer I used my Singer, this time around I used my Brother. Hm. Not sure what happened but after 6 inches of shirring I got nothing.  I even steamed, sprayed with water and threw it in the dryer.  The only way it would work was to pull the threads and that made them break. Yuck.

Any advice? Could it have been my tension?  Thats the only thing I think I did different. I don't remember if my old machine let me really play with tension, but with this machine I adjusted from a 4 to a 3.