I guess I didn't word my question correctly. What seemed obvious to me (that I looked up instructions and videos in as many places as possible before submitting my question) was not an assumption shared by others. I guess my question should have been: Have you used the hemmer foot successfully? What tricks or techniques do you use?
I was surprised to see on the Singer web site a recommendation that a narrow, double-folded hem be ironed the entire length of the piece to be hemmed before using the foot. At that point a regular straight-stitch foot would work almost as well, I would think. The fabric I'm working with is a mystery fiber, but its resistance to ironing tells me the polyester content is significant. Attempting to iron a 1/8" hem several feet long (it's for curtains) with this fabric would send me either to the liquor store or the loony bin. I've practiced (quite a bit) with scraps of the fabric and have gotten some flawless stretches of hem (the fabric seems to be the right weight for this technique), after which it misbehaves (I can't see that I'm doing anything differently) and then it's single folded, pleated lengthwise, twisted, sloppy, etc. One video showed the person demonstrating holding the feed fabric sharply to the left, another put slight tension on the fabric by holding it front and back, and so on. I mimicked all these methods as best as I could and results were inconsistent.
Last edited by Manalto; 10-10-2015 at 02:06 PM.