As promised, this blog is a continuation of last week’s blog about sewing machine feet. Since the holiday season is right around the corner, and some of you lucky quilters will receive a new sewing machine for Christmas, I thought it might be a good idea to look at the “standard feet” which come with most machines. However, there also are some specialty feet you may want to have Santa drop in your Christmas stocking as an added bonus.
Even Feed Foot/Walking Foot — These are the same foot. And I know I mentioned in the first blog this was a “standard” foot which comes with most machines. However, I seriously love this foot and use mine several times a week. If your machine doesn’t come with one, I would ask for one. This foot evenly feeds the top and bottom fabric together over the feed dogs. It’s perfect for matching stripes and plaids, sewing anything on the bias, and for sewing “fluid” fabrics such as silks, satins, homespuns, and Minky. I love it for sewing binding strips together and for attaching the binding to the quilt.
Adjustable Binding Foot – The full name of this little jewel is Universal Adjustable Tape/Bias Binding foot. You can use the dials and adjust the foot to suit various with of bindings. This is a very specialized foot and all it does is put bindings around the cut edge of the fabric. This foot assures the binding is always neat and professional-looking, without any hand sewing (flipping the binding to the back of the quilt and whip stitching it down). If you prefer sewing your quilt binding down entirely by machine, you may want this foot in your Christmas stocking.
Patchwork/Quarter Inch Foot – This foot was also mentioned in the first blog. If you are given a sewing machine not specifically geared towards quilters, this foot may not be included in the “standard” feet which comes with the machine. If you’re a quilter, you definitely want this in your Christmas stocking. It takes the guess work out of perfect ¼-inch seam allowances. Or if you use French Seams in garment construction, this foot is handy for you to have, too.
Additional Quilting Feet – Usually a traditional darning foot comes with nearly any machine:
However, there are lots of other quilting feet you may want – especially if you want to do thread painting or quilt on your domestic machine. There’s the Open-Toe Quilting foot:
Which allows you to see your quilting a bit better. I like this foot for quilting around applique shapes. I can clearly see the outer edge of my applique, so I don’t quilt over it.
There’s the “Spoon” Quilting Foot or more accurately the Clear Glide Quilting Foot. This is also used to quilt along the edges of applique. Some quilters prefer this foot over the Open Toe Quilting Foot.
And finally, there’s the Ruler Foot. Do not try ruler quilting without one of these feet especially made for use with ruler work. Some machines’ darning feet look exactly like a Ruler Foot. However, compare the difference:
The Ruler Foot is a bit taller and thicker than a darning foot. It won’t allow a quilting ruler to slip under it and the needle to clip it.
If quilting on your domestic machine is definitely in your future, I recommend the Open-Toe Foot, Ruler Foot, and Walking Foot. You’ll get a great deal of use out of all of them.
Roller Foot – This foot is for use with denim, velvet, and leather. While the “standard” quilt may not use any of these fabrics, art quilts might. If you’re an art quilt fan, you may want to eventually add a Roller Foot to your collection.
Adjustable Blind Hem Foot – If you’re a quilter who still does alterations or some garment construction, this foot ensures your blind hem is neat and gives your garment that tailored finished without having to painstakingly hem it by hand. However, if you love the look of hand stitched applique, but hate the time it takes, try your hand at hand applique by machine. This type of applique is different than raw edge. The edges of the applique pieces are turned under and glued in place. Then the pieces are glued to the background fabric and are machine sewn down with the blind hem stitch with monofilament thread. If done correctly, no one will know you didn’t sew all those thousands of pieces by hand and will marvel at your ability to do it so quickly.
Super Slim Zipper Foot – This foot is much slimmer than the standard zipper foot included with most machines. The slim zipper foot makes sewing in zippers easier, faster, and more accurate. It is also great for sewing on snap tape, pipings, and other trims. It can get super-close to zipper feet or the piping cord while still holding your fabric down, eliminating the broken needles you may experience with the standard zipper foot. Most quilters eventually delve into bag making (quilting seems to be the gateway drug into bag construction). If you’re one of these folks who make bags, you definitely may want a Super Slim Zipper Foot.
Button Foot – This is not the same thing as a Buttonhole Foot. You use this foot to actually sew on buttons. You can use this foot to sew buttons on garments (of course), however, if you’re an art quilter or a quilter who may use buttons on applique quilts, you may want this foot – especially if you find sewing on buttons as tedious as I do.
Gathering Foot – I admit, this is a foot I used a lot when I sewed for my daughter when she was young. This foot lightly gathers fabric and attaches it to the edge of the flat fabric quickly and easily. As a quilter, if you make pillows and use ruffles to finish them, you may want this foot. I have a gathering foot, but in the Zone of Truth, I haven’t used it since I began exclusively quilting.
Narrow Hem Foot – This foot creates a rolled hem on lightweight fabric (which is super tedious if you have to do it by hand). If garment construction as well as quilting is on your project list, you may want to eventually invest in this foot.
Clear Zigzag Foot — Hands down, this is a great foot to have. The clear zigzag foot can be used for a lot of stitches – from the straight stitch to zigzag to satin stitches to decorative stitches. It allows for a great deal of accuracy at the beginning of sewing seams, especially on heavy fabrics. It’s also a very convenient foot to have when doing applique, embroidery, cutwork, and monogramming. Being clear, it allows for maximum visibility and control especially when working with intricate designs or using delicate laces.
In addition to the “fancy feet” listed above, you also may want to include a Low Shank Snap-On adaptor if your machine happens to be one of the high-shank models. Most domestic sewing machines are low-shank – that means your feet snap on or clip on. When purchasing your new machine, it’s always a good idea to know ahead of time if it’s a high or low shank. If it’s a high shank, you may want to add the low-shank adaptor to your Christmas list so you can use many of the generic feet available. If you have a “fancy” embroidery machine, chances are it’s a high shank.
Now onto all those buttons and knobs…
First of all, let me emphasize every sewing machine brand is a bit different. And every sewing machine comes with a manual, which you should read through. That said, the fancier the sewing machine, the more options are available, and the thicker the manual is. If you’re like me (especially if you have sewn for a while and tend to keep the same brand of machine), you breeze through the front part, thread the machine according to the diagram, and keep moving. If I encounter a problem, I pull the manual back out, hit the troubleshooting section, solve my problem, and then shelve the manual again. It would take a dire lack of reading material in my house to make me read every word on every page of my Continental M7 manual.
What I want to do with this last section of this blog is to briefly go over the basic knobs and dials and do my best to troubleshoot each one.
- Bobbin Winder – Used to wind thread onto the bobbin. Usually it’s on the top of your machine. It’s important to make sure the thread is threaded onto the bobbin correctly before beginning the winding process – and this information is found in your manual. If the thread isn’t correctly inserted, it will wind beneath the bobbin itself, leaving you with a lovely bird’s nest which must be cut off. Make sure the bobbin is seated firmly in place before beginning the winding process.
- Spool Pin – Holds your spool as you’re sewing. Most machines have the options of both vertical and horizontal spool pins.
- Stitch Width Adjustment Dial – This primarily works with the zigzag stitch and the blanket stitch. On the newer, computerized machines, you may not have a dial, but a screen for making adjustments. This dial adjusts how wide your needle travels when moving from stitch to stitch.
- Tension Adjuster – This is a pretty important knob or dial. When you thread your machine, you pass it through the tension discs. Usually the tension is factory set but depending on the weight of the fabric and thread, some adjustments may need to be made so the tension remains correct (the bobbin thread shouldn’t “pop” up to the top fabric and neither should the top thread show on the bottom fabric). One of the first steps I take when having tension issues is to re-thread my machine, making sure I have the presser foot raised. If you thread the machine with the presser foot down, the tension discs close, so the thread can’t pass through them. If you re-thread your machine and are still having tension issues, then you need to play with the tension numbers. Be sure to check with your manual for instructions on the best way to adjust the tension.
- Thread Guide – The thread guide is the system which feeds the thread through the machine and maintains proper tension while sewing. Personally, if I have any issues with my machine, the first step I take is to re-thread it, making sure I follow the thread guide. Most of the time my issues have something to do with the way I thread it.
- Take-Up Lever – This is the metal hook attached to your thread guide which pulls thread from your spool through the machine. You hook your thread into the take-up lever as part of the threading process. It’s important to make sure the thread is completely seated in the hook before sewing. Otherwise it will slip out and you’ll have tension issues and lots of birds’ nests.
- Thread Regulator – This is the first part of the thread system. Sometimes the regulator has only one opening. Sometimes there’s more than one. Be sure to read your manual to know which opening to use (right, left, or both). It depends on several factors and your machine’s manual can instruct you about which one (or both) to use.
- Automatic Threader – This is a feature I have a love-hate relationship with. It grabs the thread and pulls it through the eye of the needle. I simply find it faster not to use this feature on my machine, however as I’m getting older, my eyes are appreciating it more. When you take the time to learn how to use this correctly, it’s a wonderful feature. I simply have not taken the time yet…but that time is coming.
- Needle Clamp and Screw – This clamp holds your needle in place with a screw. When the time comes and you need to change your needle, place a piece of paper over your feed dogs (this keeps the old needle from accidentally falling into the feed dogs – something you don’t want to happen
ask me why I know this). Use a screwdriver to loosen the screw, replace the old needle with a new one, then use the screwdriver to tighten the screw on the needle clamp. It’s important to use a screwdriver. This ensures the screw has tightened the clamp to the point the new needle won’t slip out. - Backstitch/Reverse Button/Knotting Off Button – Being able to sew in reverse or having your machine tie off your threads is important. You need this for paper piecing and Y-seams for sure. With some machines, the reverse stitch is activated by a lever, and with others it’s a button. Newer machines may give you the option of a knot or a reverse stitch.
- Stitch Selector – On some machines the stitch selector is a dial and on some computerized machines the stitch selection appears on a screen. Nowadays even the most basic machines have a dozen or more stitches and computerized ones can have hundreds. If your machine is one of those which has too many stitches to memorize, the manual will come in handy. The manual usually has a chart somewhere in it that lists all the stitches. My M7 actually has an app for your phone or iPad which lists all the stitches, and the feet needed for each. It comes in handy.
- Stitch Length Adjustment Knob – This is a knob you need to get familiar with as a quilter. This knob (or on-screen button) adjusts the length of stitches by changing how much fabric the feed dogs pull through the machine for each stitch. This knob is often used in conjunction with the stitch width adjustment dial to create the perfect zigzag or blanket stitch for your machine applique stitches. If you quilt on your domestic machine, the stitch length is often used at “0” to begin quilting (to lock your thread) before the feed dogs are dropped for free motion quilting… which brings us to…
- Feed dogs/Feed Dog Up and Down Button – Most quilters are quite familiar with the feed dogs – they’re the metal pieces which sit under the needle that work to guide the fabric through the machine. Somewhere on the machine there should be a button, knob, or lever which allows you to drop the feed dogs below the needle plate so you can free motion quilt or thread paint. After your free motion or thread painting project is complete, be sure to clean the feed dogs with a soft brush to get the lint out.
- Needle Up/Down Button – Not all sewing machines have this wonderful knob\button, but in my opinion, it should become standard on all machines. When the “needle down” is activated, the sewing machine needle will stop in the down position, allowing you to safely lift the presser foot lever and reposition the fabric without it shifting. This is great for turning corners, Y-seams, and paper piecing. All sewists really need this feature.
I hope the last two blogs have achieved three goals. First, if a bright, shiny, new sewing machine will be under your tree this year, you’re aware of the very basic sewing machine feet you need. Second, to make you aware of some specialty feet which may make your sewing and/or quilting life easier. And third, I wanted to supply just a bit of a review on all the knobs, buttons, and levers on your machine. Sometimes if you don’t use them regularly or take them for granted because you use them so much, you forget what all they’re capable of doing.
Until Next Week, From My Studio to Yours,
Love and Stitches,
Sherri and Felix
