New Sewing Goodies

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The presser feet I ordered finally came in the mail today! I’m looking forward to all the things I can do with them.

It all started with the narrow hem foot (or rolled hem foot). I made some alterations to a friend’s bridesmaid dress and needed the foot to shorten the hem of the poly chiffon layer. Unfortunately the foot didn’t make it in time, and it was not the best attempt at hemming a dress I’ve made. But, I was excited to have an excuse to buy the foot, because there are so many uses for it. It’s the perfect foot for finishing off edges of fabrics like silk georgette (of which I still have a few yards in my stash even after making a shrug). It’s wonderful for finishing off the edges of light-weight linens for historically-pieced late-Elizabethan shifts that were seamed using insertion stitches on hemmed edges (of course, historically accurate reproductions would be hand sewn. I don’t want to hand sew them). It works great for things like sheer curtain edges and likely a million other things I haven’t even begun to consider sewing.

Closeup of rolled hem (narrow hem) foot — Left: The rolled hem foot. The fabric feeds through the curved part in the middle, turning it under for the neat hem. Right: a quick hem sewn with the foot on a scrap of fabric I had laying around. So small and neat!

View of a rolled hem made with the rolled hem foot — Left: The rolled hem foot. The fabric feeds through the curved part in the middle, turning it under for the neat hem. Right: a quick hem sewn with the foot on a scrap of fabric I had laying around. So small and neat!

Then, since the shop I was buying from had a great shipping deal when you purchase multiple feet, I went ahead and grabbed two others I’ve been wanting: a ¼” piecing foot and an even feed (walking) foot.

Closeup of the piecing foot — This piecing foot has a small round opening for the needle, which gives the proper pressure on the fabric. It has ¼” guides on the right and 1⁄8″ guides on the left for use in top-stitching.

When I first started my quilting adventures, I put off buying a piecing foot in favor of using my standard foot because I knew there were some ¼” feet out there that also came with 1⁄8″ guides as well, but my local shop doesn’t carry one. This shop did. So, I’m eager to throw it on and continue piecing the blocks of the quilt I started on this past week.

Closeup of the walking (even feed) foot — The walking foot has a set of feed dogs on top to move all layers of fabric through, rather than just pulling on the bottom one.

Although I haven’t finished piecing either of the quilt tops I’m working on, looking ahead I know that I’ll need a walking foot to successfully quilt them. Without it, the backing of the fabric gets pulled by the feed dogs enough to visibly offset that part from the top regardless of how well the layers are pinned. The even feed foot isn’t useful only with quilting though. It is wonderful to use on projects where matching patterns is vital, for instance when sewing plaids or stripes. The foot acts as a second, upper pair of feed dogs to ensure all layers of fabric move through the machine together, making sure that matched patterns stay matched. Having sewn plaids without one before, I am eager to see what a difference it makes. Supposedly it’s great for dealing with vinyls and other fabrics that don’t want to feed correctly using a normal foot.

Now, I’m off to try out the piecing foot! I think I have about all the presser feet I could ever need now, except for a darning foot. I wanted to grab one of them in this order as well, but the shop didn’t carry one for my machine, nor does Joann Fabrics. Oh well, I should probably try quilting with straight lines before I try to start stippling, any way.

What is your favorite presser foot?

The Part In Which I Begin Again

Posted in News

After my 1976 Singer Touch and Sew super-cool Zig-zag+crazy other stitches-stitching model 750’s gears rotted, resulting in the complete crumbling of the hook gear, I debated spending ~$80 in labor to have the $10 part replaced or sucking it up and purchasing a comparable modern machine. The question is, will I use the new machine enough to justify its cost?

Photo of the Singer Confidence 7470 — This is my machine. Image courtesy Singer® Sewing Co.

Now, 6 years ago, it would have been a no-brainer: I did a lot of sewing. I sewed no fewer than 10 formal dresses for random school dances/my step-sister’s bridesmaids, and also a couple of faux-Faire costumes plus random other costumes/apparel items. (And let me tell you, while working on those bridesmaids dresses they seemed legion, not a mere 6) At the time, my sewing was split between an early-90s Bernina, a mid-70s Singer Touch and Sew (not the one above), and a late-90s Riccar.

But then, college intervened.

And continued for four years.

And then I got desperate my senior year, and bought a teeny-tiny little machine from Target so that I could sew up a corset for my society’s annual Rocky-Horror party. Let me tell you, that $30 machine worked its little heart out over Ridgeline boning, multiple layers, and heavy brocade. I was impressed. When I graduated though, I took it home and gave it to my young nieces.

Then, about a year ago (right after graduation), in exchange for manual labor and organization, a friend allowed me to scavenge things she was giving to Goodwill for my new apt. Buried in her basement included the Touch and Sew tucked away in a nice sewing machine cabinet. And amazingly, despite sitting unused for years and needing a thorough cleaning, it worked! So, I had a sewing machine again.

But, I never could get it quite clean enough … and aside from a few curtains, it pretty much sat tucked away in its cabinet in our living room.

That is, until we decided to reupholster the couch (which was also scavenged from the aforementioned basement). I was super excited! We found some great fabric for $6/yd (and lots of it for our 8-foot long, fluffy couch). So, we started reupholstering. And then, that same night, as I went to sew the first few seams of pieces to staple onto the couch, my needle wouldn’t go all the way down. It was striking metal down by the bobbin. I couldn’t figure why. So, after some troubleshooting from the top, I took the bottom of the machine off, and out fell little pieces of gear. My heart broke.

But, ok, I start Googling and find tons of resources for vintage Singer parts and service instructions. I order the part. It comes. I realize, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I can take the machine apart and get the gear in on my own.

And thus, my quandary. Quotes to fix it are around $80 labor. But, I’m scared that another gear will break. And then another (there are at least 4 big black plastic gears).

So I took a leap. I bought a Singer Confidence 7470 (on a very good sale), which is, as near as I can figure, the 2009 equivalent of my bicentennial-born darling (and perhaps a little better).

And, to motivate myself to use it, I’m going to share my projects. So, feel free to yell when I don’t update for a while. In fact, I encourage it, please!

Perhaps someday I’ll also pull out old pictures of the various things I’ve sewn. Including the crazy Pink-Fushia-Aqua-Orange Plaid “formal” gown my dear friend Rebekah wore to our senior prom.

Maker of various fabric things

Posts categorized: News

New Sewing Goodies

The Part In Which I Begin Again