Can your walking foot wear out?
 

Hi ....I have a Bernina and when I sew with the walking foot ...just recently...it lags...it doesn't flow through, it sews for a few stitches then stops and sews in the same spot. I checked both top and bottom thread which seemed ok but it still happened. I was doing a stitch in the ditch quilting on a baby quilt and it kept sort of getting caught but there was no thread to get caught on. I can't tell if it is the top or bottom that is lagging (or both) so I thought maybe the walking foot is shot. My friend gave it to me..it is an old walking foot because I had gotten an old Bernina. I had to stop (darn, I was almost finished and wanted to give it to a friend at work tomorrow). I put my regular sewing foot on to sew on some scrap fabric and batting to test it and that was fine.

I will bring it into the Bernina dealer but was wondering if it could be the walking foot is done.

Thanks so much!

I have a Bernina too. Not sure if your foot is worn out, or if there is possibly an adjustment that could be made to the foot? Are you getting this happening when going over seams? Or just flat quilting? Sometimes I have had it do that when stitching over the seams, but then fine when doing the rest of the quilting.

I don't use mine a lot, mostly quilt free motion, so I don't think my foot is worn out.
Hopefully the Bernina dealer will be able to help!

Hi Patchsamkin...it happens flat quilting and when I was stitching in the seams.

Thanks for your reply!

My Bernina WF broke because it got bent. Yes parts do wear out and sometimes need replacing in the foot. But, this is rare. The parts are available through your dealer, so it can be fixed. I wasn't happy that my $150 foot was ruined. Not happy at all! It could have been repaired and parts ordered, but it wasn't going to be cheap so I bought a new one. Now, at least I have one for spare parts if the other one ever gets damaged:<

I have had to oil my walking foot - it was getting sluggish and the bar that makes the foot hop up would not flip up and down smoothly. Could you try oiling it? (And then sew over some white flannel a BUNCH of times to make sure you don't get any staining!)

Alison

not likely but not all Bernina Feet fit all Bernina machines. So you need to make sure it is the correct foot for your machine. They changed a few years ago.

I had a new Bernina walking foot that got ruined when it caught on a safety pin in a quilt while I was quilting. There was a spring inside that got pulled out of shape. Dealership was less than helpful, so I simply ended up buying another walking foot (from another source). I would imagine a spring could wear out also.

Yes, they can wear out. Hope your dealer can help you out. They are a nice foot to have.

Hi, the walking foot on my basic Brother died last November -- the front "frame" section that sits on the fabric just reared up in the air and wouldn't go down. Repair shop couldn't rejiggle it so I bought a new one ($50) and my problems started! Unlike my previous foot this one would slow down and not feed the fabric smoothly so that I ended up with knots underneath and lots of very very small stitches -- too small to ever unpick. After 2-3 weeks at repair shop and ($150) general service it was pronounced OK but when I tried to sew the same problem happened. Repairman finely declared that the problem was the older, thicker Coats thread I was using with an 80 needle, so used a 90 needle and it seemed to sew OK. Have decided to avoid the issue completely by only using a finer Gutterman thread as much as possible-- hard to do when I have a drawer full of inherited thread in every colour. I will never take a working walking foot for granted again!

I had a similar problem with the walking foot for my Janome machine. I emailed Janome and they advised me to oil the foot in several places and it has been working like a charm ever since.

Try emailing Bernina with the model no before taking it in for service. You may be able to do it yourself and save $$$$. More money for fabric. Good luck with it.