I don't know if this makes sense, but my husband is right handed (forced by his father) and is left eye dominant. This made great problems when he hunted and lined up his cross hairs. Aiming a little to the right corrected his problem. Just a suggestion.

Most machine have a 1/4" foot with a flange on the side to run your fabric up to. You still have to be careful because you can push to fabric up and by the time it get to the needle it is larger than your 1/4". Slowing down help especially in the beginning. On my machine, I am able to move the needle over to make any size seam I need.

My MIL was complaining about not being able to sew a straight seam anymore just yesterday...she sews like a bat out of hell, so she probably just needs to slow it down! :lol:

I sew slower and put the foot on edge of fabric, for 1/4 " seam. The needle is ok now since I put a yellow post note in back of needle to thread. Works great.

my sewing machine has a white strip on the shank I agree with you that it makes it easy to thread the needle

The two things that I do to help with seams, use the dual feed feature[even feed foot will work] and watch the edge or marked line. If I worry about what the needle is doing I wander all over the place.

There are 1/4 inch feet that have a guide blade that works wonderfully. I think most manufacturers make them. I wouldn't be without it now. Sure makes sewing a straight line easier.

Yeah, but I just bought a Brother, and the $15.00 foot is NOT 1/4 inch. It is more like 6/16ths's, a BIG difference. Plus, I have NEVER had a problem sewing a straight seam. This machine will NOT give me a straight seam. I've always been able to sew up to a pin, stop with needle down, pull the pin & then continue without any problems. On this machine, even if I stop with needle down, and don't continue until the needle is completely out, it will jog the fabric and give me a crooked seam. This is the SQ9000, which I bought until I could afford a better machine. But after this, I definitely will not even consider another Brother, no matter HOW top of the line. It is SO frustrating to see that ugly crooked line and have to go back and resew every freaking intersection. Arrgh!!

keep your head straight and in the same position when
sewing a straight line. Don't look at the needle, use the side of the foot to guide you.

I'll tell you the same thing I used to tell my students (and I still have to do myself at times).

1. Did you check to see if there is enough pressure on your fabric. There is an adjustment you can make by tightening a screw at the top (well, that's where mine is -- check your manual) that will cause the presser foot of lean harder on your fabric.

2. If you don't have a quarter-inch foot, do this. Take a pad of small post-its and split the pad so that you have about 1/3 or 1/2 of the pad. Adhere that to the plate of your machine at the place where the edge of you fabric will touch -- 1/4 inch away from the needle for a quarter inch seam, 1/2 inch away from the needle for a half inch seam, etc.

3. When you sew -- DO NOT watch the needle go up and down. Keep your eye on the edge of the fabric to be sure that it is against the foot (in the case of a quarter-inch foot) or against the post-it pad.

4. Slow down. Going too slow is almost as bad, but there's no rush. Sew at a medium speed so you can have control of the fabric.

5. Dont worry about crooked seams. As long as they are in the "general area" most of the time, once pressed -- it'll be OK.
No q. police here.