66-1 for piecing, or so I thought...
 

Hi all,

I have a Lotus 1909 Singer 66-1 backclamper that I have used in the past for sewing clothes. Now, with a lot of fabric leftovers, I am eager to learn to quilt, and have always thought a perfect justification for keeping this machine is using it to piece. However, I am having trouble keeping the fabric lined up once the 1/4 inch seam has been sewn. No matter how firmly pinned, the top fabric goes out of alignment (swerving a bit left) at the end of the seam and even appears longer at the end, even though the 2 pieces were perfectly matched up to begin with. This is frustrating, as I rip the seam out and try again. I am thinking it may be a pressure-foot issue - the feed dogs are pulling the bottom fabric at one speed and the top layer is not staying in sync somehow? If someone could give me tips on how to troubleshoot this, I would be grateful. I don't want to give up on this machine.

Thanks, Candace

Do you have a knob on the top left of the machine? If so, it should control the presser foot tension. Turn it to lessen the pressure of the foot.
Another thing to try is to pin very well and then sew to the middle of your piece, stop and then come at it again from the other side to the middle again. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks! I will give this a try. I fiddled with the presser foot tension and I flipped the work over so that the bigger piece was on top. This made it much better, but I will try your "sew to the middle" method too. Thanks for your help!

Check the alignment of your presser foot. If it's twisted and not parallel to the feed doges the fabric can twist. They're easy to adjust if needed.

Joe

How would you adjust the alignment of the pressure foot?

Readers Digest Condensed version:

Check the alignment by sighting along both edges of the presser foot and the edges of the feed dogs. They should be parallel.

If not and everything else is OK: presser foot height and presser foot lift lever slack, then you simply remove the face plate and loosen the presser foot shaft screw just enough so the shaft can be turned, then align the foot and dogs. After that retighten the lock screw.

Different machines vary but this is mostly the same.

The one thing I've seen on 66s and other Singers is someone has messed with the foot height adjustment creating a gap between the needle plate and presser foot when the foot is all the way down, and you just cannot get the proper foot to feed dog pressure. At that point the material will twist and turn no matter how tight you crank down the presser foot tension knob.

Joe