You can't drop the feed dogs on a featherweight. The only way is to cover them. The regular short shank buttonholer came with a plate to cover the feed dogs so the buttonholer would work. This same plate would let you experiment with FM on a Featherweight. I haven't tried it on my machine so I'm not sure what the result would be like but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Let us know how you make out.