Joe, 1st photo is a setup of 1 inch binding on a scrap of lawn chair sling material. The second is a photo of the stitch. Notice I started the stitching with the needle centered. Then switched to needle left making a better balance of margins. If I was seriously setting it up, I'd probably adjust the attachment to use needle center stitching. This was a quick setup for demonstration. If I was joining materials the lower material would be entering stitch area from below the attachment's plate.
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Ron,

Thanks, those pics say a lot. How thick can you go with the material that you bind. I'm thinking of quilts.

Joe

The metal is maliable so I assume one can open the throat of the attachment and feed as much material as the SM can handle.

Yes, Sailrite.com has the swinging arm type to fit my machine. It would be a must if one was using the attachment a lot. Mine is time consuming and a little frustrating to get set. Consequently, it doesn't get used much. It's easier to eye ball no more binding than I do.

Or .......... If one has multiple machines one could set one up with the binder and leave it. I think that's what I'd do.

Ron, is your machine a ZZ or SS? And is that a walking foot I see?

Joe

Joe, it's a ZZ, but if I had it to do over, I'd get the SS. However, it was my entry into the world of sewing. If I knew what I know now, I'd have bought a 403 or 15. They will do everything I need. I do some contract marina sewing with the Reliable which can be done with a Vtg Singer. But, it's more impressive to show up with a heavy monster that probably doesn't do as fine a job as a 201. Can one imagine the chuckles I'd get showing up at the marina with a 75-80 year old machine?:cool:

It is a walking foot. So, I can do special jobs such as multi-layered webbing sewing.

Here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8GFjQfc-n0

Thank you again everyone!

I ended up ordering the Sailrite swing-away, 1" binding attachment. Definitely not the cheapest, but with the time and effort it will save me (not to mention what I hope will be a superior result!), it will be well worth it! I can't tell you how many hours I've spent and how many tears I've shed in abject frustration in trying to bind the inner seams of these instrument cases! (Though I do still expect to have a bit of trouble with the concave curves...)

Since I have to do these on every single thing I sell, I decided to go with the swing-away version for just $10 more than the stationary one.

Fingers crossed!!! And Macy- I'll let you know how this works for the cardboard-thick layers of a 3-dimensional case if you'd like! Maybe we can help save your husband some time and suffering!

Of course there is a learning curve. I struggled with mine yesterday, because I was binding a cotton/minky blanket for my son. After an hour of ripping, I suddlendly remember that minky is always the responsable for anything going wrong; I turned the blanket and sewed with the minky up side. Bingo. So anything slippery should go up! It don't really matter because the binding make a perfect nice stitch on each side.

I'm waiting until my husband is home this weekend to look over them and decide what to get. I'm looking at a set for the Bernina - I expect they will fit any machine, but if not, Dh's Bernina can always be used for all binding.