Magnetic Seam Guides
 

Hey all

I'm trying different methods to keep my scant quarter accurate and received some magnetic seam guides today in the mail. I plan to put one on my older mechanical machine, but when I got these, I noticed the magnets seem fairly hefty. I have a Brother CS7000i - I know the magnets are supposed to stay away from the computerized area (obviously) but I'm worried about placing one on the bed. There's a lot of things that I've read that says to keep magnets completely away from sewing machines in general, something about how they could potentially cause timing issues. I'm just curious if anyone has used these seam guides and if you had issues with using them.

I use magnetic hoops with my embroidery machine, no problems. I've seen newer sewing machines that have one end that acts like a huge magnet. It's to put your pins, small scissors, etc. on it.

i stack up strips of 1" blue painters tape and stick to the bd of my machine. It's easy to remove and replace as needed.

or use a stack of post-it notes - some even have rounded corners which won't snag the fabric

I use the seam magnets (very strong) on all my machines. I asked a Juki, Brother, Janome, and Bernina tech at Paducah quilt show a few years ago and they told me it would take a much stronger magnet then a seam guild or pin cushion o do any harm.

It would take a very strong magnet - much stronger than what's in the seam guide - to harm your sewing machine. But the other options are good. On my Bernina, I rely on a 1/4" foot that has a guide on the side, plus moving the needle one click to the right. On my Singer 301, I use this tape. It's also good for putting on the bottom of your rulers to keep them from slipping.

Thank you so much ladies for responding, that helped a lot.

I have used the post-it note and the masking tape trick, but it's really a pain to use consistently because I have a top loading bobbin and whenever I need to switch out bobbins, I'd have to take the tape off. The same goes for the 1/4" seam tape from Cluck, Cluck, Sew and regardless if they say it doesn't leave a residual, I always have to wipe down my machine after I pull that off.

I also have one of the seam guides from Singer that is hard plastic and uses double sided tape, but because of how the bed of my machine is, it likes to slide off. Drives me crazy, lol