I have an old Brother sewing machine with no way of dropping the feed dogs. I want to free quilt but i'm not sure how to cover them up so they won't move the fabric. Is there a way without damaging the sewing machine? (I'm getting a brand new machine in a couple of weeks that drops the feed dogs, but this quilt is for a coworker getting married next week and I only have this weekend to finish it.)
Thnks!

I have an old Singer that can drop the feed dogs. I found the info buried in the manual and it wasn't listed in the index. If it is not stated in the manaul, you may have to resort to quilting in the ditch and/or sewing 1/4 from the seams. Maybe someone else will have more input, but I don't know how your can fm with the feed dogs up.
Mary Ellen

If they make a darning/free motion foot shouldn't they make a darning plate for the same machine? A darning plate covers the feed dogs instead of them dropping. I have a cheap brother and the feed dogs do not lower but I have free motioned MANY things in the past I just cover them with the darning plate and attach my darning/free motion foot and go to town!

OR I have read that you can also lower the stitch length to 0 and they won't move, attach your quilting foot and try it that way. I have never done it this way but if I were you I would practice it this way before doing it on your quilt!

I covered my feed dog on my first machine with a playing card. I just taped it in place and made a hole in it for the needle to go through. That worked OK for me at the time.

I have read (but not tried myself) that you can cover it up with a business card, or index card...or playing card as littlehud mentioned.

I would try covering the dogs as others have suggested, but make sure you try it out on a sample sandwich first.

What's the model number of your Brother? (Wow that's a strange question taken out of context isn't it??? :shock: :lol: )

some machines taht don't drop feed dogs come with a plastic cover for them.

If you don't have a darning cover for the machine, you can just tape a 3x5 card over the feed dogs. Turn your wheel, so the needle punches a hole in the card before actually sewing and you should be fine. This will not hurt your machine at all. Every so often, check to make sure the feed dogs haven't chewed through the 3x5 card. If they do, just tape a new card in place.

Do you remember those plastic stencils that we used in school? I bought a $2 one at Michael's, cut it into a few pieces, and put that (with masking tape) over my feed dogs. The stencil is slightly slippery so the fabric moves easily while being strong enough to keep the dogs quiet. Worked perfectly

It's a Brother VX1120.. I no longer have the manual and can't find it for free online. My hubby looked at it to see if he can somehow disconnect the feed dogs but he'd have to remove them. I'm going to try covering them up. THanks for all the advise. :)

There is a free download of the manual for that model at the Brother website. http://www.brother-usa.com/Manuals/Default.aspx Select sewing machines from the drop down list, then select VX1120, then click 'view download'. Down below will be the download link. It's 9MB and I'm on dialup or I would have just read it to see whether you can drop the feed dogs. Sorry.

ok there was supposed to be a darning plate with this sewing machine, but after 10 years and 3 moves, i don't seem to have it. I tried the index card, but with the presser foot down, the material won't budge underneith. is there a trick to it?

You also have to have a darning/free motion foot. which puts pressure on the material as the needle goes down and lets pressure off as the needle goes up allowing you to move the fabric around as you please! If you don't have one of these it would be hard to free motion becaue a regular presser foot puts constint pressure on the quilt!

You might be able to find a set on ebay fairly cheap. I know I got a free motion foot for my brother for like 12 bucks and I already had the darning foot for the machine! try there! if not your local machine store should be able to get you one.