I know some people who cover their feed dogs with a playing card, if it doesn't drop down and they don't have the cover plate anymore. My old machine does have the drop feed dogs, but I never had a darning foot, I used a regular foot and it worked fine. I have a darning foot with my new machine, it works better, but the other way worked fine too, I just couldn't see what I was doing quite as well as I can now.