Thanks for all your suggestions.
@JMiller- When I take the presser foot off completely, the needle is aligned perfectly with the hole in the needle plate. The needle absolutely sits further to the left than I would expect (in my limited experience). Hopefully that's all I need to do-- order a proper presser foot!
@DonnaMiller- it is a Japanese machine, but there are no JA numbers and I haven't found an identifiable manual for it. Miriam on another thread suggested a generic Deluxe Zig Zag manual should be good enough to get the job done. Thanks for the link!
@elnan and Littleredrocker, I had no idea this was a zipper foot. Not for regular sewing, check! I have a bunch of different feet for my Morse machine (Singer 15 clone), but I have not advanced to the point where I'm learning about using them yet.
