ginnie6

yes I'm just getting to the point where I can keep stitches halfway the same on a straight line! lol! But I am enjoying it!

sunnyhope

what do u do if the machine only has the normal foot it comes with?
could someone post photos of the differrent kinds of feet so i undertand,lol

also i have on old janome machine but it doesnt say anymore on it than janome nr:731089069 so i have no idea what that fits that machine at all, i cant find the old instruction either since the machine is more than 10 y old :roll:

Prism99

Most machines will take "generic" feet. These are feet that aren't specific to a machine, but rather will fit a whole category of machines. Some of the basic categories of feet are short shank, long shank, slant shank (most Singers fit into those categories, plus many other brands), clip-on feet (a category of Singer machines), Bernina (in a category of their own!). You can take a foot that fits your machine in to a dealership that sells your brand of machine and from that they can tell you what will fit your machine.

The number is probably a serial number. You need to look for a model number or a name somewhere on the machine; that would help. You can also Google websites with pictures of older machines to see if you can spot yours in there somewhere. Once you have a model number, you can usually find a manual online somewhere or on eBay.

A darning foot is necessary for free-motion quilting with the feed dogs dropped. This is because it "jumps" between each stitch, allowing you to move the fabric yourself (since the feed dogs aren't doing it).

sunnyhope

silly ? but what are the feed dogs :oops: :oops: and how do the darnig foot look like

Prism99

If you look at your machine, the feed dogs are the two rows of "teeth" underneath the presser foot that feed the fabric. Without them, or if you drop the feed dogs so they are underneath the surface of the machine bed, the fabric does not move by itself. If you don't move the fabric, the machine will sew in the same spot over and over.

The bottom of a darning foot is usually shaped like a small doughnut -- a small circle with a small hole in the middle. Often it is made of plastic, but it can also be metal. If you examine a darning foot, you will find that there is a spring encased in it somewhere so that you can move the foot part up and down on the shaft. This is what provides the "hopping" action as you sew. With every stitch, the foot "hops" to release pressure on the fabric, allowing you to move the fabric in any direction you want. (Feed dogs, in contrast, move the fabric only forwards and backwards.)

sunnyhope

i m not sure i can do anything with the feed dogs, how do u lower them normally then?

Prism99

It depends on the machine. On my Bernina 1230, there is a knob on the right side of the machine that lowers and raises the feed dogs. On many older machines, including Singers, the knob may be in front of the machine's pillar. Some machines have a lever inside the bobbin case door. The very old Singers didn't have a way of lowering the feed dogs; they came with a feed dog cover. The feed dogs would still move, but underneath the cover so the fabric on top was free to slide.