Can I FM quilt with vintage Kenmore 158.480?
 

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I was wondering if anyone has used a Kenmore 158.480 to do FM quilting. I can drop the feed dogs but I can't find a quilting/darning foot for it online. I love this machine, It sews great. Would love to do more than just stitch in the ditch with it. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank-you

I've noticed some of the newer machines don't use a spring action quilting foot but rather one that floats across the quilt. You could try using your regular foot and adjust the presser foot pressure so the quilt sandwich can be moved freely. Years ago my aunt did free motion embroidery on a treadle machine and no foot. It sounded kind of scary to me.

Alternatively, one of the generic feet might work. I've bought walking and free motion feet for my featherweight and 15-91 clone. You just need to know if your machine is low shank or high shank.

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Thank-you for the suggestion quiltsRfun. My Kenmore is from the 1950's. It has a low shank.

You might have trouble with all the layers feeding thru evenly, creating small puckers. that's what happened to my daughter when she quilted without a walking foot. or quilting foot. live and learn, tho. try quilting on a play piece with a practice 'sandwich' to see how it works for you.

You won't find feet specific to your machine unless you happen to find a used set on Ebay, etc... Low shank generic feet are easy to find. This site has several different quilting/darning/hopping feet, you might want to get a couple different ones to find out which one your machine will play nice with.
http://shop.sew-classic.com/Low-Shank-Feet_c5.htm

I free motion with few different machines and each one likes things its own way. Some I drop the feed dogs and set the stitch length to zero, some I don't. Different machines like different darning feet, heck I even have one clone that I leave the feed dogs up, leave the straight stitch foot on it and just lower the presser foot pressure so I can move the quilt around under the foot.

Cari