Best FMQ foot for a 301?
 

I want to buy a darning/embroidery foot for my 301. There are a few options I have seen online. Does anyone care to recommend one? I don't have lots of sewing money to spend, so I want to make sure I make the best choice that I can.

Here are some options:

One from sew classic
http://shop.sew-classic.com/Singer-S...F60417-FMD.htm

Amazon, Big foot by Lynn Graves
http://www.amazon.com/Graves-Free-mo...145068&sr=8-18

Singer slant shank from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Singer-Slant-s...145001&sr=8-14

I don't know about the others, but the Big Foot has been my FMQ foot for quite some time, and I love it. Would really prefer an all metal one (since the Big Foot was to replace a cheap FMQ off brand foot that snapped--literally!), but the Big Foot is great. Have you done FMQ before? The BF can be a little intimidating because it makes a lot of noise, but it really helps to time your movement with the quilt top.

Two of the three you have posted do not have an opening for the thread. That would drive me crazy. Here is my favorite. It's gone up since I bought mine, but the shipping is still free. When I took a FMQ class at a Janome dealer, the instructor liked my foot better than any they sold or her personal Bernina one.
http://www.april1930s.com/html/slant...y___darni.html

Thanks for asking. I am interested too to see what others recommend.

I have not! Why does it make so much noise? Is that typical of this type of foot? I ask because my house is tiny, so if I am sewing everyone can hear. I don't want to add to the noise if I can help it.

Is that the same as the one Sew Classic sells? They look very similar to my untrained eye.

It's mostly to do with the fact that it's got such a large circle, and that it's all plastic, so there's a lot of friction and clacking when it comes up and goes down. You know what, I'll record mine this afternoon for you so you can hear what I'm talking about. But I think you will find that any FMQ foot is going to be a little noisier than just regular sewing. There's no incentive to the designers of these feet to have the foot 'ease back' into the highest position while sewing; it's far easier to let it snap back with the help of the spring.

Hope that made sense!

I have the one you linked from Amazon(actually, I have two of them). And it's very noisy too. I've tried removing the first thread guide and cutter to see if it helps with the noise and it doesn't. It works fine. I DON'T like openings in the FMQ feet as they tend to catch on things. I much prefer a closed foot.

It looks the same to me and I've had a year's worth of up close and personal activity with that foot. When I was looking, I don't think sew-classic had this one. It is not quiet, but I live alone and the dogs don't mind.

I have the one from sew classic and I like it fine. I like the grid on it.

I bought the one from sew-classic for my 401A and it will fit my 301.

http://shop.sew-classic.com/Singer-S...F60417-FMD.htm

I haven't done that much FMQ, so I am very glad to get this info as I begin to do more of it. So nice to have the sharing of info that this board has.

you only want the 'slant shank' foot if your machine is a slant shank machine- otherwise it will not work- just like long & short shank feet- they are dependant on the correct machine-
it is always best to get the feet made for your machine- when you use 'knock off's ' you take a chance of damaging your machine.

best looking one i have seen.....bet it works better than the one i have, so i ordered it !!!!!

I'm quite happy with the one from Sew-Classic. It's the same as the one from Aprils 1930's. I like a metal foot myself....Either one of these online vendors are first-rate to purchase from and I've done very well with both of them over the past couple of years. I have no experience with the Big Foot, but have heard it mentioned a lot with good comments. Good luck with your purchase.

Notice the difference in price also between these two online stores. Glad to see this thread today as I was doing my research last night online. I know this question was answered before in the vintage shop but didn't have the energy to search for it. Now.... Which walking foot do I need to find?
Cindy

There isn't a great walking foot available for the 301. The width of the available feed dogs are ALL too large. So, none will work as walking feet should with matching upper feed dogs to the lower...you can find walking feet that will fit. They need to say they've been dremmeled out and tested. Sew Classics sells them and she tests them for fit. HOWEVER, know that even though they "fit" they don't work as walking feet are designed too...there are simply no walking feet on the market with narrow feed dogs. I wish someone would wise up and back engineer a correct walking foot for the 301.

Thanks Candace, that explains why the one site mentioned a Dremel and said the foot had been tested. I love my 301 , but I guess I can keep Bernie the Bernina out for those jobs that need a walking foot. I'm definitely going to try the quilting foot with the grid markings on it.
Cindy

Did a search and this came up. I have a new to me 301 that has a nice stitch until I put the big purple foot on it and then it won't sew! Any suggestions? New needle, threaded correctly, I think the foot is on correctly (the only way it will fit on) and like I said, on a straight stitch it is fine.

Help!!

Are you sure it' s a slant shank foot?

I am guessing it is, because it seems to fit, and the label on the envelope says Big foot slant Shank for Singer. It is just curious to me that it will straight stitch fine, but won't pick up the bobbin thread with this foot on. I have re-cleaned it (not much to find) and am still very much a novice at this, but, am determined!!

You can try increasing the pressure on the pressure foot and going with a larger needle. This sometimes helps. Or at least lessens the number of skipped stitches. HOWEVER, I must tell you that most of my 301's that did this were a hair out of time. The straight stitch was fine, but the minute you start FMQing it would skip because the timing wasn't dead on. And the movements you make with the quilt sandwich while FMQing really test the machine's timing. I've had to retime most of my 301's for this very reason. And after retiming them, the skipped stitching was gone.

Thanks Candace. I have never retimed anything so I'll guess tomorrow I will get busy on trying to figure that out.

I see a diagram on line from sewusa. I think I need a good night's sleep and some measuring tool for the clearances.

Check the timing to make sure it's a hair off before touching it. Alternately, you can try another FMQing foot to see if it likes it better than your purple one.

Make sure your tension is engaging with the foot down. I've had a similar problem with some machines/fabric combo where the foot is not holding the fabric firm enough, and for some reason this interferes with the thread's ability to form a loop the shuttle hook can "grab" so no stitches are formed. Take the foot off all together, lower the presser bar to engage the tension, hold the fabric smooth and firm with your hands, and see if it will take a stitch. This is the way the "old" instructions are for doing darning and such - no foot is used at all, and FMQ is just a modification of darning. But if you don't have the tension on the fabric correct, you can end up with all sorts of issues that appear to be thread tension, but they are not. These types of problems are normal with quilting machines and often the problem is the quilt it stretched too tight, than the other way around.

Thanks Macybaby. Loading up on chocolate right now to get myself into gear to look at it again.

Okay, first I sewed a beautiful straight stitch with the regular foot. Took it off, and tried to get the bobbin thread to pick up on fabric. No go. Moved the tension dial up and down and had no effect. I had smoothed the fabric out with my hands. It was three layers of quilt sandwich. Going to try and figure out of the timing is off.

Also going to try putting more pressure on the presser foot and a bigger needle. I'm using 50 wt. cotton thread top and bottom.

Don't know which thread will get read, if any, so here is my current situation. I got another FMQ foot which works better, but, it is very close to the fabric and even though the feed dogs are down and stitch length set as low as it will go, I have to really pull it through. It moves, but not so flowy as my dinky mechanical Brother which is my go-to machine for FMQ. If I rig the new foot just a bit, to be ever so slightly off the fabric as it goes under the needle, it doesn't make a stitch. The tension is definitely engaged. What's up with that?

Pictures of the issue and feet would be helpful.

Pictures
 

Here is one with presser foot down and one with it up. Feed dogs down. Knob for pressure on presser foot loosened then tightened. 50 wt cotton thread in bobbin and top. New needle. I also removed and cleaned the hand wheel and things much quieter and smoother.

That's probably my least favorite FMQing foot. I'm not a fan of it. I prefer the other one that Sew Classic has. Are you still getting skipped stitches with it and did you check the timing?

This is my second foot. I sent the purple one back because it didn't work, clattered, and I felt like it would break. I don't get skipped stitches when the foot is flat on the fabric, but, there is very little moving around room, some of which for me is necessary on FMQ. This is an improvement on the purple foot which didn't work at all, I think because it was too far off the fabric sandwich. As soon as I wedge even anything under the bar to raise the presser foot, even a tiny smidge, then I get skipped stitches. I have ordered a metal open toe slant shank darning foot from sewing machine 221. When you talk about the Sew Classic one, do you mean the little plastic one that would require removing the last thread guide? I'll give that try if the metal one doesn't work.

With your Presser Bar down, and your Needle Bar up (as shown in your photo), there should be a gap between your foot and your fabric. Your foot needs to be down only while the needle is in the fabric and on its way up to exit the fabric. Once your needle is free of the fabric, your foot should lift off of the fabric.

Since your foot is still down when your needle is up, maybe you can adjust your Lift Arm on your foot by bending the arm down a little where it attaches to the rod on the foot.

CD in Oklahoma

thanks CD. That was my intention, but, as soon as the bottom of the foot doesn't have such good contact on the fabric, is when it starts skipping stitches big time. I am still very "green" at diagnosing and fixing, so the timing issue scares me a bit especially since I can't really see where the needle is in relation to the hook. I do have a good light and have watched a lot of videos. Hoping not to have to go that route. Do you think it is the timing since it will sew a nice straight stitch and will make stitches if the FMQ foot is down tightish?

I don't remove the thread guide as I've not found that necessary, but yes the plastic one that has a square opening.

Can you put on your regular foot and take a picture of it in the raised position? I wonder if your foot height has been messed with. You can release the foot pressure to see if that helps.

You can bend the arm a bit on that FMQing foot, but if you want to return it etc. you couldn't do that after tweaking it. I did tweak mine a bit but still prefer the plastic, square one.

Like I mentioned previously, I've had to reset the timing on many of my 301's for this very reason. Great with a straight stitch, but FMQing makes skips. But that's only after making sure it was out a smidge. I don't recommend you do it if you've not tried every other alternative or can't visually determine if the timing is out.

Regular foot
 

Here is the regular foot with the presser foot raised. I think if I bent the bar on the FMQ foot that would help me move the fabric but then I would get more skipped stitches.

I can't really see the height of the foot from the photo.

My wife uses her Singer 301A for FMQ, but it’s set up right now for piecing and she’s not home yet from the shop. I believe that the foot that she uses is very similar to yours (I peeked in the drawer, and it’s the only one that I found in there), but her lift arm (or actuator arm) is lower than yours. I don’t recall if we “tweaked” it from its original position or not.

And about the lowest thread guide that some folks remove for some hopping feet..... My wife’s foot was clattering for a while, until she broke that thread guide smooth off. She told me when it happened, and I answered “ummm, ok?”. She kept on sewing and it’s been running really nice and quiet ever since! Sometimes these things just work themselves out......

CD in Oklahoma

But a “hopping foot” needs to hop. That’s what it’s for. The only time that a hopping foot is supposed to be down is when the needle is entering, stuck in, and exiting the fabric. The rest of the time it should be off of the fabric going up with the needle, or coming back down with the needle. That is when the fabric can be moved for the next stitch.

Skipped stitches only have to do with the hook missing the loop when both the needle and the foot are down. And in the olden days, they didn’t even use a foot on the machine to darn, which is basically what FMQ is about. They only had a hoop to hold the fabric taught, or used their hands to do the same. Your machine will sew without a foot on it pressed tightly against the fabric. The fabric just needs to be held down while the needle and hook are doing their thing under the fabric.

CD in Oklahoma