I’ve ran into problems using my Singer #86294 Darning Foot to do my embroidery on my center block. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas as to why it’s not working well on my machine.
First of all, I don’t think that the foot was designed for use on the Singer 27. I believe that it was designed to be used in conjunction with a needle plate cover like was common with the models 15, 66, 99, and others. But, I haven’t found any reference to a feed dog cover plate for the models 27, 28, 127, or 128. The cover plate “hump” above the feed dog effectively reduces the distance between the needle and the needle plate, allowing the darning foot to make contact sooner and release contact later than without the cover plate.
Secondly, the fabric needs to be stiffened, and since they didn’t have the cool stabilizers that are available today, I would assume that starch was used to stiffen fabrics back in the day. I would like to use the techniques that were used during the time period of the darning foot to learn how to use it, so I’m going to put that portion of my project on hold for now.
I have a couple of cover plates somewhere, both for a 15 and for a 66 that I have heads that I can treadle, so I will dig them out later to give the darning foot a go on a different machine, and on heavily starched muslin. But for these 9-patch blocks and this project, I’ll write on my center block.
It’s ok though.....I’m still having fun!
CD in Oklahoma