I am amassing a collection of sewing machine feet – some of which are more useful than others 🙂

1/4″ zigzag foot — works for anything, isn’t perfect for anything. I guess if I only had one foot, this would be it. Took me a long time to realize what made it a zigzag foot — the opening for the needle is a wide oval which allows you to adjust the needle position far left or far right (or use the widest zig-zag you’ve got). The *foot* doesn’t do anything ziggy or zaggy – it just has space for the needle to pass through if you’re using a zigzag stitch. Bit of a d’oh moment when I figured that one out.

1/4″ “quilting” foot with guide – I have trouble sewing in a straight line. I know this is a newbie problem, but it doesn’t make for nice looking projects. If I go through the process of chalking out straight lines, it’s better but still not perfect. I actually purchased this foot to get to the “free shipping” level at a sewing parts store and put it into a storage case for about eighteen months. I recently started an Ohio Star quilt for Anya and a Halloween tote … both of which I ended up ripping and resewing quite frequently because of uneven seam allowances. I remembered this foot and tried it out. Perfect straight lines. Corners that meet up! I’ve even used this foot for Anya’s backpack (straight lines on the straps!) and some clothing. For the clothing — 1/2″ seam allowance, I’ve basted a line at 1/4″ and then lined the baste stitching up with the guide for the real seam. Hokey, but it worked. I like this guide so well that I’ve purchased a foot with an adjustable guide. It is scheduled to arrive next week, so I haven’t actually used it. But I’m excited to try it.

Gathering/ruffling foot – Yup, I got the cheapest eBay one I could find and waited a few weeks while it posted from China. One distinct advantage of being a novice is that you aren’t prepared to judge quality – and while it’s possible you won’t have much use for the cheap junk because it is cheap junk … you might also avoid spending a lot of money on something that just isn’t useful. For the 60$’s I was seeing these at … I’d have to be in the bed-skirt business before I even thought about buying one. But for 5$, it was worth a try. I thought I’d get a lot of use out of this when I was making a tutu last year. Didn’t work at all for that – the thin strips of netting didn’t get picked up properly. I basted each strip by hand and gathered them by hand. I still plan to make a tiered corduroy skirt for Anya this Autumn, and I think the foot will work out better for that type of project (gather fabric #1 against fabric #2). Hopefully!

Invisible zipper foot – Another “cheapest eBay had” purchase. Kind of like my 1/4″ foot with a guide, this lets the invisible zipper run along a channel so you know you’ve got a straight line. Total niche item – if you aren’t installing invisible zippers … no need to get one. I bought my foot along with the first invisible zipper I purchased. I like it a lot because the channel keeps my line of stitches straight, but I could see a more experienced machine operator not needing one of these.

Regular zipper/cording foot – I got this in the store at Joann mid-way through making Anya’s backpack. I was able to make my own piping, attach it, and attach the zipper beautifully. I’ll use it again to attach the sleeping bag zipper. Another niche item, but I’ve been getting a lot of use out of it lately because of a few specific projects.

Walking foot – I got this to stitch the quilting on Anya’s Ohio Star quilt. It’s quilting design is just blocks that run along the blocks. I could do something really fancy, but I wanted her to be able to use the quilt before it got cold. I like it for this use – I was able to quilt my simple design quite well (although it’s a little challenging to move the crib-sized quilt along my sewing table … I cannot imagine doing a Queen or Cali-King sized quilt on the little machine.

 

Feet I don’t have:

Teflon foot or Roller foot – Not buying this foot was a bit of ignorance on my part. Anya’s backpack is lined with a laminated cotton fabric. I ordered the fabrics, insulation, and zipper … had everything ready to go, and then wondered if you needed to do anything special with laminated fabrics. Big thing is don’t pin them where you don’t want to see holes. I’d also read that it was difficult to sew laminated fabric without a Teflon foot. Oops! Her first day of preschool was only a couple of weeks away, and I didn’t want to lose a week waiting for a foot to arrive. I could not, however, find a low shank one of these in a reasonable driving radius. Or a snap-on one coupled with a snap-on to low shank adapter. Figured I’d try stitching up her backpack without it, and I didn’t have a problem. Most of the seams are wrong-side of two layers of laminate … which means I was stitching along the cotton side. There were a few places where the plastic part was facing the presser foot and I didn’t have any issues. I still might pick up an adapter so I can attach snap-on feet to my low shank machine

Button hole – I got a little geeky about sewing the button holes on Anya’s Christmas shirt. I own buttonhole gimp, twist, and wax … and sewed each hole by hand. Which was fine for five buttons on a super-special shirt. I’m sure I’d research machine-made button holes if I were doing this more often.

Open toe – used for freehand embroidery. My mom said the guy at the sewing machine store where she picked up her old Kenmore was amazing at freehand embroidery on the machines. I do hand embroidery in a hoop (I love Darice’s spring tension hoops!) and cannot imagine even trying to freehand a design on a machine. Then again, I cannot imaging paying a heap of money for a new snazzy computer controlled embroidering machine either. For now, Anya’s got fairly simple hand-stitched t-shirts.

Rolled hem – I use my serger for rolled hems, so no need for another rolled hem method. Same thing for overlocking feet.

Blind hem – Can’t say I’ve even seen a blind hem. May research them some day, but no pressing need.

 

I’d always been told to just leave the bobbin case tension alone — which seemed odd … why would they have a user-adjustable screw on something you should leave alone? If it is something that needs to be set by a professional … hide it, require an odd tool, whatever. A little flat-head screw right there … but, yeah, randomly turning it certainly didn’t help my stitches.

My husband’s mother used a Kenmore 158.17520 in the 70’s and 80’s, and it was sitting around the house when we needed a sewing machine. His dad let us have it – now I didn’t really know much about sewing machines. I had a compulsory course in practical making-it-in-real-life skills in primary school, and I remember using a sewing machine. But it was all set up and ready to go (maybe we had to thread it … but there were no settings being adjusted). Hadn’t used a sewing machine since. I wasn’t sure how much of my thread snarl was the machine and how much was my ineptitude.

Replacing the bobbin case improved things greatly, but I continued to get inconsistent results from this machine for years. The bobbin thread would be loose, and often snarled. Then I took a class in operating a long-arm quilting machine. There are some quilt projects I can do on the Kenmore (although with the loose bobbin thread & having to rip and re-sew … even that was iffy), but I have designed a computer controlled quilt motif for Anya’s butterfly quilt that creates a sun and rays in the upper right-hand corner of the quilt. And when she’s older, the star quilt is going to have a sunburst that would probably be easily done free-hand, but I know the lines would be straight and spaced properly if I build the design with an algorithm. To use the computer control, I had to know how to use the long-arm. I think I’m going to have an audience when I use my quilting design on their software … seems that there aren’t a lot of computer techies loading up complicated custom designs. But I need to make the quilt first!

Some of the early lessons on the long-arm were basic set-up. How to mount the quilt, how to thread the machine (which, I realized, was a pretty standard sewing machine from a different perspective and attached to a giant computer controlled rail system), and how to set up the bobbin. And the instructor said don’t mess with the bobbin tension. I asked her why — I’d read it online but never heard it from someone I could ask “why?”. We did it already, she said. I know this case is set up for the thread I’m using on this machine. They even drop some nail polish over some of the adjustments to avoid people screwing with the settings. Which begged the question … how did you set the tension?

She showed me that she could hold the bobbin in one hand with the thread between her thumb and index finger, put her other hand 4-5″ under the hand holding the bobbin, and drop the bobbin. It stopped itself just short of her hand. If it plummets and would continue dropping (especially if it will drop all the way to the floor), then your tension is too loose and you need to adjust the screw clock-wise. If it doesn’t budge, your tension is too tight and you need to adjust the screw anti-clockwise.

Now there’s a middle-ground. Generally 4-5″ of drop is good. It could drop 3″ or 8″ and maybe be OK. Depends on the thread being used & the upper tension setting. That’s where you get into trial and error. Sew something — if the bobbin thread is loose, then the tension needs to be tightened. If the bobbin thread pulls up to the other side of the fabric, the tension is too tight. Once you know the right amount of drop for a specific thread, then you have a setting for that thread going forward.

Then she mentioned that this machine needed the bobbin put into the case so the bobbin would spin clockwise as you pull. Wait, the bobbin insertion is directional?? Problem is that I cannot figure out if that’s clockwise as you look at it while it is in the machine or as you look at it out of the machine and are putting in the bobbin. Hopefully the manual indicates which is proper … but I think trial and error will figure it out too. I’ve noticed snarls, taken out the bobbin case to look at it, put it back together a random clockwise/anti-clockwise direction, and had the problem sort itself. Maybe I’m flipping the bobbin in its case?

But even without sorting the spin direction, I am getting consistent stitches with the bobbin tension sorted. WooHoo!!