Originally Posted by
Silver Needle
Do you have or can you get a straight stitch sole plate for your machine? You don't mention the brand. A single hole for the needle to go through when straight stitching instead of the ZZ slot made all the difference for me. Just don't forget to switch back to slotted plate before zigzagging. I solved all my problems when we started collecting and sewing on vintage straight stitch only machines.
This is my suggestion,too. I have a single needle plate for my machine, and it not only helps with the 1/4" seam, but in that annoying way it sometimes will pull the fabric in at the beginning of a seam. With the single needle plate, it doesn't do that anymore. But I have had to put a big read mark and use the label maker to make a "single needle plate" tag right on the plate, because I kept forgetting it was on there and broke LOTS of needles when I switched to a decorative or zig zAg stitch .