Benefits of Sideways Stitch?
 

Hi - I am looking at getting a new machine and tried out a Brother that does a sideways stitch. I'd love to hear what you think this feature is good for, particularly when used in quilt making.
Thank you!

i like my directional stitch on my brother i have a zigzag and straight stitch that go in all directions..........love it for putting patches on, so easy i strat left to right then down -right to left then up and done...... just pin the patch in place don't even have to move the garment/project around.

I've had a lot of fun with mine doing machine decorative stitching on crazy quilt blocks. I have a Babylock and it really surprised me that it goes forward, backwards and side to side LOL!!

I dot have a machine with sideways stitch, but I have many times wished it did. Pockets, patches, quilting around squares.

I am way behind. This is the first I have heard of a machine sewing sideways.

Same here! :)

I did a session this past week for Brother's Innovis Dream machine and completed the survey. My quilt guild benefits from it and the shop hopes to sell a few out of the sessions. Anyway, our educator for the machine talked about the sideways stitch being helpful when you do totes or purses and you want to put that X on the square near the handle. You could stitch straight, then sideways and then even diagonally without twisting and turning your piece or raising the presser foot.

Which machine do you have????

It was the craziest thing - I was so surprised when they showed it to me. I am looking at Janome and Brother and am still undecided. But this was a feature on the Brother. I tried the VQ2400/3000 units, and the "higher level" machines like them have it too.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. I've yet to make any kind of bag, but they are something I'd like to try eventually, and so far don't do much in the way of garments either. Not sure it is a feature that would sway me one way or the other, but sounds like it would be useful in certain situations.

its a feature underutilized because most don't know what its for still don't and i have had the feature forever

Sideways stitch like a zigzag?

No, it actually sews in all directions..instead of just forward and reverse!

I know my machine does that but I've never used it because I didn't know of any application for it. I have a Babylock Ellegante. I think I'll give it a try next time I make a strap for a bag. Wonder how it would work for quilting!

Same here. Now I wonder if any of my machines can do it. How long has this been out?

Pfaff has had directional stitches for years. You could design with other stitches, including fancy and directional stitching. Now even that is probably automatic. My 1475 had directional stitching - that was over 20 years ago. 2170 has it, too.

Me too. I've learned something new today. Sounds like fun, but I'm still not convinced the few applications would make a difference in whether I purchased a machine with this feature or one with out.

I don't have a modern Brother sewing machine, but I have seen where you can sew a diagonal stitch on regular machine. but have forgotten where I saw this and also forgotten the settings. This was demo on mitering corners.

I've had a number of Pfaff machines over the last 20 years, and they all had side to side stitching. I have never used it. Always figured I would try it out someday, but just never have. I have loved all my Pfaff machines.

My Brother Innovis 650Q has the sideways sewing feature, but what sold me on it is the needle threader and the ability to sew four alphabets in many different sizes. To be honest I have not found a use for the sideways sewing yet.

I'm so glad that this was brought up. I have a quilt that I want to quilt squares on, and I just checked my Brother Innovis 4000D and it does it, so I won't have to try to FMQ the squares, I can just do them without turning the quilt. I hope it works well--I tried it on some scraps and it seems to do it.

I have that feature and have never used it.

With a sideways stitch does the dog feed also move in that direction? Seems like it would have to.

I've never used a machine that can stitch sideways but now I'm going to have to go find one and try it out!

I don't know if I'd use that a lot for quilting but it seems like it'd be super handy for some of the other things y'all have mentioned - patches, bag straps, etc.

Used to be done by stepper motor. The Viking 1+ could do some sideways stitches and you could hear and see the motor going. 1+ had some large designs on cards. Same with the older Pfaffs, you could hear and see it.

Yes, the feed dogs move sideways. Machine makes some very interesting noises too! It's a pretty small increment, so some times it would move 2-3 times before making the next stitch.

I was doing decorative stitches that are programed into the machine, so it was neat to be able to do them wider than the needle opening in the foot. I had to go slow as for most of them, I was moving over a seam (along the edge for a crazy quilt). But overall, it worked very nice. I would change the speed setting so I could hold the foot all the way down and get a consistent slow speed with no effort on my part.

I have the Babylock Destiny.

I'm pretty sure my older Pfaff does this too, as it has 9mm built in stitches, I assumed I'd need the hoop for them, so never even tried using one. I bought that machine used and never figured out much more than basic stitching. DH has it now.

That would be very handy for me. My husband crawls on his hands and knees whenever he works in the landscaping, which is often. I just put new knees in his pants every couple of months. I don't mind doing that, but it sure would be easier if I could go sideways inside those pant legs.

Patching pant legs seems like a really good use of this feature. I find them so hard to do.

The wonderful things I learn on QB...never heard of the sideways stitch. Going to have to watch for it...sounds great. Thanks for posting information about it. I will be following this thread to learn more.

I agree!!! I love this post because I just learned something my machine can do....to think I never used it before, but you can bet I will now.

I wanted this stitch so I bought a used Bernina 1630, which was TOL maybe 20 (???) years ago, just prior to the 180, which had the embroidery module we know today.. The machine can sew small figures, teddy bears, trees, approx. 1 1/2" wide. And it was also possible to buy "Keys" with additional wide designs.

The TOL Pfaff, 14??, had a similar feature, sideways stitching, with cute designs built in. It also came with a "tray" that enabled the user to design additional wide stitches. I remember when Pfaff was one of the best sewing machine companies....before it was bought by SVP....oh...the "good old days".....

I think you might be talking about the Pfaff 1475CD--I still have this machine, barely used. It has the Creative Designer that connects to machine to transfer design after you have drawn it on gridded cards. It has many decorative stitches but no designs built in (that I would consider"designs") but deco stitches of leaves, flowers, etc. It has the IDT foot also. I loved everything about my machine but the buttonholes--they never stitched out the same size! I still have it 'under cover'.

Same here! what is a sideways stitch??

your machine can sew to left, to right, forward, reverse, diagonally. Very helpful when item is difficult to turn--like for patches? and such.

When it was demonstrated to me, the sideways stitch was for machine quilting. You are using a quilting foot and you just decide which direction the fabric moves, and it just keeps doing the pattern until you stop. (Ex. You can enlarge a simple letter C, and if you move the fabric right you have ocean waves quilted across your fabric with minimal shoulder strain. An enlarged question mark can be used along a seam to get a feather effect, etc.) A real wonder tool for those of us with arthritis. Fire that puppy up and play. See what it can do. Have a ball. Don’t forget the glass of wine to for medicinal purposes of course, got keep your shoulders good and relaxed you know.......

I have a Bernina 1630 circa 1994 that has this feature. It can sew in 16 directions like the directions of the compass. I have used it in mending, but never thought of the other ideas presented here. Now I'll have to try it!

Me too! Does a sideways stitch go left to right instead of forwards and backwards?

I also have a Bernina 1630 with directional stitching that is over 20 yrs old - I absoutely love this machine!!! Does so many wonderful things!!

I have seen pants with a pocket on the knees to hold a kneepad, and I always said I was going to add that to a pair of jeans by ripping out a side-seam and redesigning the jeans. As for sideways stitching, isn't that what you do with a darning foot for thead painting?

When I patch pant legs, I undo the inner seam so they are flat. There isn't any of that double stitching on the inside seam like there is on the outside seam, so its easy to sew up again.

Someone at a Janome LQS said that on the Janome if you use the sideways stitches it is hard on the machine. Anyone know anything about that? If so, would that apply to other machines as well; I imagine it's the same mechanism.