Thread: 1/4 seam

Originally Posted by Tashana

I am working of a patter that requires a scant 1/4" seam, and there is no fudging here, it has to be perfect. It is a twisty Bargello. Since I rarely use the real 1/4" seam I decided to help mysel a little by placing some markers such as 3M tape for holding up hooks. The tape works great BUT to get a SCANT 1/4" I would have to put the tape so close that it would interfere with the regular sewing foot I have. I ordered the 1/4" but they sent me a wrong one! Just my luck. I have two options - one is to move my needle to the rightmost position mark my distance and hope for the best, and the other option is to use regular needle position with a walking foot. I prefer not to use walking foot for piecing. The reason I usually do not use 1/4" is because I always create my own patterns and I just use the width of my regular sewing foot. My seams are always very consistent width. If I did it the same with the pattern, do you think it would distort it? All the seams would be the same size but a tad wider? Please help! Thank you!

I have an older (30 years old) Riccar machine which I used for piecing when my niece used my Janome. Like yours it has limited needle positions and I don't have a quarter inch foot that fits. I also used 3M tape to get a quarter inch seam but I put the tape about a quarter inch in front of the foot. As long a the fabric leads into the needle at the appropriate width it will stitch at that width with the possible exception of the last little bit. I used my seam ripper to steady the last little piece. I was very pleased with the way that this worked. BTW I also starch well.

The other thing I've done is to take a tape measure, lay it out to 1/4 inch and mark the machine with a sharpie. If I want a scant inch I sew on the left edge of the mark and if I want a regular 1/4 inch I sew on the right edge of the mark. Has worked pretty well for me and it gives me a nice mark to guide the whole piece into the feeder dogs.

Originally Posted by Neesie

Since your needle can't be moved in tiny increments, try using a different foot. If you have a foot with a groove in it, like for satin stitch, give that a try. I accidentally found out one particular presser foot will give me a scant 1/4", by moving my 1/4" into its groove, just a bit past a true 1/4".

On my old machine, I would sometimes measure each presser foot, until I found one of the proper width, for whatever seam I wanted, then used the edge of that foot, as a guide.

Excellent suggestion! I will try that right now. Thank you.

Originally Posted by AliKat

Warning if your machine reverts to the center position when turned off:

Whenever I am doing a project that involves moving the needle position I put a note on my machine with the project name and the needle used. I use painter's tape to hold the little post it note ... so it won't fall off and is more visible.

ali

I do the same thing with the little post-it-notes. I also keep a larger index card file that I will write the info on and can also attach fabric pieces or pictures.

Where you might run into a problem not perfecting your scant quarter inch is when piecing and not having the same number of seams on each section of the block. Or having 1 piece with no seams and trying to connect it with a piece with a few seams. It really can make a difference. Anyway, that's where I have problems.

I use a 1/4" foot and move my needle one notch to the right for a scant 1/4"