Answer to fabric under the needle question....Back when most of us took Home Ec, our machines were manual, which meant that had to oil them. The fabric absorbed any oil that gravity took down the shaft to the needle area. Now days, it helps cushion our foot and feed dogs while lugging our machines around. (didn't do that years ago too much, since our machines were very heavy)...unless you had a Singer. Funny how we never get out of some habits.
I always leave my foot down and needle down.
Diana

I was taught to leave the foot down with fabric under it, but with my machine now I have no choice. When I turn turn the machine off the foot goes up.

When I decided that I wanted to teach quilting, I took a "Learn Your Machine and Basic Repair" class so I could help my students sew more, rather than fight with their machines. I learned about a lot of different machines, manual and computerized, and as many of you have mentioned, the spring tension was one of the reasons we were told you should leave the foot down when not in use. Also, as many have said, the fabric between the foot and throat plate was to absorb oil. But, with the newer machines, oil leakage is not often a problem and you might think you don't need it there. It was strongly suggested that we continue to leave the foot down with a piece of fabric between them to avoid accidental jarring of the machine which would/could result in the foot being slammed down. The fabric is a nice cushion in case of accidental slamming. The instructor said we should think of it like a rose between two thorns. :-)

We were told to NEVER leave the needle in the down position, especially with the newer, computerized machines. Just watch what happens when you turn on your computerized machine. It resets itself to the default setting, often moving the needle sideways during the adjustment. Over time, this could not only break needles, but skew your shank, screw up your single stitch plate hole, mess with the bobbin case and even effect the machine's timing.

It sounds like with the older, manual machines it's ok to leave the needle down, but you still want to be careful with that. If your foot pedal, accessory box, etc. are stored in the throat area of your machine during transport, they can push up against the needle in the down position and do the exact same things mentioned above.

I know many people have machines in which they can set it to sleep mode while they are away, so they do and leave the needle down. That is a great feature, but we were warned to be careful with that as well, especially when leaving it overnight or for long periods of time. As someone mentioned earlier, you may forget it was in sleep mode and turn the machine off; and when it is turned back on, the needle gets readjusted again. I mentioned this to one of my students recently and she said she has a little note that she places on her machine when it's in sleep mode so she would never have that happen. Well, I would still be concerned because we may not always have control of turning it on and off. I live in an area that frequently experiences electrical outages during storms. When the power comes back on, the machine is set to on so it resets itself again.

Sorry for the long post! I hope it helps some of you and do enjoy this board and these types of discussion. Thanks!

I have a computerized machine and leave the needle and foot up. I just received a Singer 401 with fabric and the foot and needle down through the fabric, so I am doing the same for it.

even the repair service leaves the pressure foot down with fabric under it. that is the way my Mom taught me so 60 years later I'm still doing it that way.

the purpose of the fabric is to keep dust bunnies, pet hair etc. out of the feed dogs. not that anybody has them.

I leave the pressure foot down with a piece of fabric under it....also have needle in down position too. There is a reason for this but I can remember are the explanation.

Thanks for the response. It is very helpful. Thanks to the starter of the thread and all of the others who responded.

Long, but really thorough and helpful! Thanks Joanne!

I know my mechanic leaves the foot down with fabric under it but the needle up. I leave the fooot down but have to admit I don't put the fabric under it.
Thinking about this while reading everyone else's replies I got to thinking:- When the foot is down the tension is on, when it's up the tension is off. Just a thought to ponder.