Your lead foot is not the problem, but the speed you move your sandwich around could be, so go slower. If too fast, you put sideways pressure on the needle, which misses the hole and hits the plate - check for scratches there. Do you have another plate with a wider hole for zig-zag, try that also. Are you using a hopping foot. The eyelashing could be a thread tension problem, or even the wadding you are using. Try normal straight sewing - feed dogs up - on a sandwich. Do you still have eyelashing? If so I would look at the tension, top and bottom, if not, a hopping foot should help. Hope this helps some.