Foot vs Knee
 

Got to thinking yesterday about foot petals vs knee bar petals. I myself love my foot petal, even if a have to reposition it each day. How many ladies prefer one over the other?

That is an easy one for me. Gotta have a foot pedal cuz I use my Knee lift all the time on my Bernina to raise my presser foot hands free. Comes in really handy especially when during applique.

I use the start stop button for sewing and knee lift for raising my presser foot. I have never used my foot pedal.

I use a foot pedal. I found recently that giving my other foot a higher place to rest made my body more comfortable.

I also love my knee lift on my Bernina (it was on my list of must haves when I bought the machine 20+ years ago). I haven’t used a knee bar for power since I sewed a bit on my grandmother’s cabinet, which was probably more than 40 years ago.

My machine doesn’t have a stop/start button so I can’t say how I would like using that (although for work like chain piecing or FMQ, where I stop and start a lot, I can’t imagine I would like needing to use my hands to control the speed).

Finally, I recently discovered that my machine behaves better when I don’t use the flywheel to advance the needle with fabric under the foot. I’m much more likely to get a rat’s nest of threads if I use the flywheel. Better to just tap the foot for a single or half stitch.

I have several machines with the knee lift. I tried it once or twice. I prefer to use the foot pedal because I started out many years ago with only that.

I am a barefoot pedal all the way gal. I learned with a knee pedal, and hated it. I found it hard to find a happy medium. My machine has a start stop button which I never use. It just seems too awkward and cumbersome to use. The foot pedal just works well for me.

I prefer the foot pedal to the knee bar control. I also don’t use the knee lifter - old habits I guess.

Foot pedal and knee lift. I learned on machines with the knee pedal, and I could easily get used to doing that again, but I don't want to give up the knee lift. Hmmm...maybe there should be an option to use both knees, for different purposes.

I learned with a foot pedal but all my vintage Singers that I use have the knee bar and I've grown to love it. It feels very natural for me now.

Like so many others,I learned on a school machine with knee power. I now couldn’t imagine giving up the knee lift on my Berninas so there isn’t a question anymore. I have used pedals exclusively for more than 50 years.

I did not like my knee lift when I first got it. But, I found it did totally come in handy when I was doing applique around a wall hanging. I could keep both hands on my project, lift the foot with the knee lifter and turn it, lower it back on down and keep going. I did struggle at first trying to coordinate it and now I love using it even for piecing triangles. I can lift the foot enough to get the fabric under the foot and then lower it and start stitching without having to manually left the foot. OK, on my new Bernina, I can't even manually lift the foot! No foot lever!

When I learned to sew with sewing machines (around 1980) my school had machines with foot pedals and my mother's machine had a knee control. I vastly preferred the foot pedals. With my mother's machine, it was hard to get a slow start. Additionally, the knee control was a bit too high for me, so I had to have only my toes and the ball of my foot on the floor (raising the heel up as far as I could) to get my knee high enough. I know now that I should have created myself a foot rest with boxes or books, but I didn't know that then. I've never used a knee control machine other than my mother's.

I only use a foot pedal anymore. I haven't used a knee pedal in more than 50 years. Someone here mentioned to us here a product that I jumped on to purchase in early 2020. I couldn't wait to get it and it works! My foot pedal has hardly moved in more than a year! The item is "Martelli No Slip Pad for for Machine Foot Pedal". The link is, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I love it right now it is $12.69 with prime. The sight says they have 15 left right now. I find it to work better than anything I have ever tried to grip my pedal to the floor.

I put the loopy side of Velcro on the bottom of my foot. Now it sticks to the carpet and won't slide anywhere. ;)

Foot Pedal!
 

I was a medical transcriptionist for years and years, so I feel like my foot pedal is permanently attached now. No way I could sew without it!

:D

I'm the same. I switched to using my left foot on the foot pedal so I could use my knee on the knee lift when I got my Bernina. I love my knee lift. I have it on the Juki also.

The first sewing machine I learned on was an old Singer that had a knee pedal, so I tend to like that over the foot pedal. I have one machine with a knee pedal, the rest are foot and I really don't like it that much because of the constant chasing it down, even after I've made the modifications to it to keep it in one position.