New Sewing Goodies

The presser feet I ordered finally came in the mail today! I’m looking forward to all the things I can do with them.

It all started with the narrow hem foot (or rolled hem foot). I made some alterations to a friend’s bridesmaid dress and needed the foot to shorten the hem of the poly chiffon layer. Unfortunately the foot didn’t make it in time, and it was not the best attempt at hemming a dress I’ve made. But, I was excited to have an excuse to buy the foot, because there are so many uses for it. It’s the perfect foot for finishing off edges of fabrics like silk georgette (of which I still have a few yards in my stash even after making a shrug). It’s wonderful for finishing off the edges of light-weight linens for historically-pieced late-Elizabethan shifts that were seamed using insertion stitches on hemmed edges (of course, historically accurate reproductions would be hand sewn. I don’t want to hand sew them). It works great for things like sheer curtain edges and likely a million other things I haven’t even begun to consider sewing.

Then, since the shop I was buying from had a great shipping deal when you purchase multiple feet, I went ahead and grabbed two others I’ve been wanting: a ¼” piecing foot and an even feed (walking) foot.

When I first started my quilting adventures, I put off buying a piecing foot in favor of using my standard foot because I knew there were some ¼” feet out there that also came with 1⁄8″ guides as well, but my local shop doesn’t carry one. This shop did. So, I’m eager to throw it on and continue piecing the blocks of the quilt I started on this past week.

Although I haven’t finished piecing either of the quilt tops I’m working on, looking ahead I know that I’ll need a walking foot to successfully quilt them. Without it, the backing of the fabric gets pulled by the feed dogs enough to visibly offset that part from the top regardless of how well the layers are pinned. The even feed foot isn’t useful only with quilting though. It is wonderful to use on projects where matching patterns is vital, for instance when sewing plaids or stripes. The foot acts as a second, upper pair of feed dogs to ensure all layers of fabric move through the machine together, making sure that matched patterns stay matched. Having sewn plaids without one before, I am eager to see what a difference it makes. Supposedly it’s great for dealing with vinyls and other fabrics that don’t want to feed correctly using a normal foot.

Now, I’m off to try out the piecing foot! I think I have about all the presser feet I could ever need now, except for a darning foot. I wanted to grab one of them in this order as well, but the shop didn’t carry one for my machine, nor does Joann Fabrics. Oh well, I should probably try quilting with straight lines before I try to start stippling, any way.

What is your favorite presser foot?