Walking foot question
 

Hi all,
I am trying to use my walking foot to quilt. I have a Pfaff 1040 and with this foot the needle sits to the left of the center of the foot base. I can't seem to move the needle over to line up with the foot center.

I have attached photos of the foot - the white thread shows where the needle is and a photo of the foot I have.

My question is how do I line up my quilt to get a straight line? If I line it up with the slit in the foot, then it sews to the left. If I line it up to the needle, I can't keep it straight!
Any help is appreciated.

did this foot come with your machine? or a generic one? if it came with it, read your manual and see what that says. someone will pop in here that has the same machine soon. Good luck.

Does your Pfaff have IDT? If it does, you don't need a walking foot. On a lot(but not all)Pfaff's there is a built in walking foot,IDT. Check your manual to see if you Do have the built in walking foot. Look at your machine, is there a black presser foot behind your presser foot? If there is, you don't need a walking foot presser foot. You do need to have presser feet to allow the IDT to work. Call your dealer and ask these questions.

Thanks.. my dealer went out of business. The foot is a generic one and it does work, but not the way I need to line it up. My machine is a hobby machine, nothing fancy...no IDT, etc. The book says nothing and I couldn't find anything online. I took the darn thing off!

well you could put a thickness of post it notes on your machine in front of the foot to help guide your fabric under the foot and get your 1/4 inch stitch/seam. try it and see if that works. Good luck. walking feet do help.

I'm surprised that you can't move the needle to the center of the foot. Can you move the needle when that foot isn't attached?

I tried using post it notes but couldn't see where it was! And the foot does not move anymore toward the center without the foot. I tried every button and combination. It lines up perfectly without the foot. I am trying all your suggestions and appreciate any help.

well give up on that foot since it's not one for your machine. try using a bit longer stitch length when sewing on your quilt layers. this will help the layers from being shifted. go slow and Good luck.

Try setting your machine to a zig zag & that may move the needle over, and hopefully you can set the zig zag length to zero and the machine will sew a straight line? (someone suggested this to me when I had a little machine that the needle wouldn't center on)

If your machine is "electronic" and has a boot up when you turn it on, it might just need to be re-booted. Turn it off and wait a beat, then turn it back on (some advise unplugging but I never saw a difference, but can't hurt) then see if the needle automatically centers.