I wanted to use my 401A for quilting and bought a foot. It does not work. Either I have the wrong foot, or I am doing something wrong. According to the manual, I am supposed to raise the throat plate, which i did. But when I drop the lever in back, it presses the foot down too hard on the fabric and does not allow me to move the fabric. In the manual they show a darning foot that looks similar but not the same.

Years and years ago when I had my first 401A I did a lot of embroidery for our children, but i vaguely remember I used a hoop and no presser foot.

Has anyone on this board used this machine for quilting and can give me some suggestions?

Gilla

I've never used that machine but, you probably need to take some of the pressure off the foot. Should be a knob to turn straight up from the needle. You need to lower the foot but, you don't need pressure on the foot. Quilting can be down on about any machine with the right foot, etc.
Hope this helps.

I have a singer 420A. From what I was reading is that you remove any foot from the machine, raise the throat plate and lower the presser foot. Now all of this is for FMQ. Is that what you are trying to do? I have read that you can buy a darning foot, but I have always FMQ doing the process above.

Sheila

Someone posted that most darning feet have an adjustment you can use to shorten the foot. FMQ requires a "hopping" foot, which means there is a spring in the foot. Take your foot off the machine and make sure you can manually push the foot up and down -- means it has a spring in it. Then look for the adjusting mechanism on it. (It's not a screw. Sorry, that's all I know about it.)

Thanks, all. I'll mess with it again after dinner.

Gilla

I use a Model 15 to FMQ on and I use the same foot that I use to sew the 1/4" seams.

All I do is drop the feed dogs (for you raise the plate) and take all of the tension off of the foot and go to town. It puts enough pressure on the fabric to keep it from jumping around and you can move the quilt effortlessly.

Billy

It can be done if you lower the feed dogs and use the darning foot.

Just saw a u tube video.
He just loosened the pressure foot and wrote his name.
I don't think you can lower the feed dogs on this machine.

I bought the machine yesterday for $35.00 but unfortunately there were no original attachments.
Can't wait to get it cleaned up and try it.

I sometimes use my Mom's 401A when I visit her. I don't recall being able to lower the feed dogs. I don't think it has a darning foot. (I do remember being amazed that it came with a quarter-inch foot.) I did think about buying a walking foot for it. I just can't believe that she is using that same machine that she got back in (maybe) 1962.

Thanks for all the wonderful tips. Using my good old Singer 401A, I was able to complete my first stippling efforts on a full-sized quilt to my satisfaction (not prize winning but not too shabby, either.)
Best tip was to tape an index card (with a hole for the needle) over the feed dogs. However, I finished the FMQ without the card, so maybe the card just helped me get used to manipulating the fabric.
I also think switching to a 100/16 needle and using Coats and Clark Dual Duty XP thread helped with breaking thread issues.