Walking Foot for Singer 201, 15-91, 66, 99, 221 Featherweight & MORE!
First, let's discuss the differences between a standard presser foot and the walking foot and how these differences affect the feed of the fabric.
The Standard Presser Foot:
The feed dogs push along the bottom layer of fabric. The presser foot pushes down on the top layer, which due to friction, is moved along with the bottom layer. However, as the top layer of fabric moves, it faces some resistance from the bottom of the presser foot which remains completely stationary. This resistance can result in shifting and stretch of the top layer of fabric.
The Walking Foot attachment::
A walking foot doesn't feed the fabric. Rather, a portion of the bottom of the foot moves along with the top layer of fabric as it is being fed by the feed dogs below. This greatly reduces the resistance and friction between the top layer of fabric and the bottom of the presser foot.
Bottom line- a walking foot can help provide more even feeding with much less shifting or stretching of the fabric layers. This is great for matching plaid, checkered and other geometric patterns, quilting layers of batting & material, and long seams like drapery, etc... Please note that a walking foot attachment doesn't improve piercing power in any way.
Even though I'm not a big time quilter, I do sew up an occasional simple quilting project, and the more I use my straight stitch walking foot, the more I like it! Yes, there are original, vintage, metal walking feet, but they are not commonly found, and they are VERY expensive on the open market (costing hundreds of dollars).
| All of the other, new, low shank walking feet available are designed to be used with all low shank machines, specifically- they can be used with zigzag capable machines. Why is this a problem? Look at the photo to the right. The yellow indicates the location of the standard, low shank walking foot part that is supposed to ride on the feed dogs of the sewing machine. The red indicates the actual location of the narrower feed dogs on a straight stitch sewing machine. As you can see, things are NOT in correct allignment with this standard low shank walking foot on a straight stitch machine.The foot is too wide for the feed dogs. |
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In contrast, look how well the straight stitch walking foot lines up with the narrower feed dogs on the straight stitch machine. You can purchase these directly from Sew-classic.com.  |
I was recently using this straight stitch walking foot on a project for my daughter's birthday present. It also comes with a guide which was really handy for making evenly spaced rows of quilting for my project (see below).
THE PROJECT: For her birthday (19th) I purchased a cute little point and shoot camera that she can tuck into her purse. This needed something to protect it, so I made a quilted case to fit and coordinate with the camera using scraps from my stash. The straight stitch walking foot worked so well, that it prompted me to write about it here on my blog. I also used my favorite 1/4 inch foot on this project- I'll write some more about that another day.
Anyhow, here are some qucik shots of the case I made and the camera that it matches. My daughter was just thrilled with both of them!
click on photos to to open window with larger view
Categories: Accessories,Projects
Tags: Singer low shank walking foot
The bag for your daughter's new camera is beautiful. The colors coordinate so nicely. I hope she loves it. She is lucky to have such a clever mother!!
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