Originally Posted by Buckeye Rose
Ok, I get the idea that it helps to make the fabrics go thru at the same rate. But why if this is a good thing, don't they have them built in? Wouldn't it make sense for fabrics to ALWAYS go thru the same? Why is it just a doodad in your accessories bag?
There are industrials that do that - have walking feet built in. But the industrials are built to do one thing only. And cannot be changed out to do anything else. You would need a different industrial machine to sew every little part of a sewing project. One machine to hem, another to top stitch, another for the buttonholes, another machine for setting in elastic, etc.
Now our home sewing machines have to be simple enough on the pressure bar/needle bar...in order for us to do many, many different things on ONE machine. In other words, so that there's a way to reconfigure that one machine to handle zig zags, satin stitches, buttonholes, seaming, darning, piping, quilting, FMQ, embroidery, light chiffons, heavy fabrics, etc. etc. The way to make a machine so versitile is to use attachments that can be traded on and off, and different feet that can be traded on and off. If the walking foot were perminant...we'd never be able to do zig zagging, embroidery, overcasting, darning, buttonholes, blind hemming, etc., etc.