Thread: free motion quilting with a Singer Rumina 3400

Hi. I was taking a quilting class and discovered this machine doesn't lower its feed dogs. Does anyone else have this machine and if so how do they machine quilt with it?

On my old Singer, the feeddogs don't lower, but there is a little plastic plate that fits over them so you can quilt. Did you check in your accessories to see if you have something like that?

Yes. I even went to the Singer store and the man said nothing can go over the feed dogs. There must be something I can do. It was an expensive machine.

Wonder if you could put a piece of heavy plastic (like a butter tub lid) over the feeddogs with a cutout for the needle and tape it in place. I don't know if that would hurt them or not.

cut a piece of sheet plastic (about like a 3x5 card) and tape over the feed dogs. Punch a hole for the needle.
the hole should be larger than the needle.

My old kenmore came with what they call a darning plate, look up your machine brand and search for darning plate, I know when I had misplaced mine for a while I was going to order a plastic one. However I don't see why taping a thin plastic like mentioned above wouldnt work.

Originally Posted by bj

On my old Singer, the feeddogs don't lower, but there is a little plastic plate that fits over them so you can quilt. Did you check in your accessories to see if you have something like that?

I had a Singer computerized, I forget what model, that had a plastic thing you put over the feed dogs. I gave the machine to my DIL since I hated it so much. No more Singers for me.

On my new one the feeddogs lower. And I don't know how to do fmq, so it wasn't a problem with the other one. It wasn't until I got the new one that I realized what that plastic plate was for! (O: I like my touch and sew, but I've only ever had Singers, so nothing to compare to. I'm not good enough to justify spending big bucks on a machine. Plus it's strictly for fun for me. I don't do commissioned quilts or quilts that I might sell.

I have heard of using a playing card taped over the feed dogs. I've never tried it though.

I actually prefer leaving the feed dogs up when I free motion. I have more control of the fabric that way, & use a spring loaded foot & it works just fine. So you may want to try that on your machine...