Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Walking Foot Wonders



We all love tools that make quilting/sewing easier.  An immensely helpful tool, that is sometimes overlooked, is the walking foot attachment for the sewing machine. ( It also may be called the even feed foot/attachment).

Walking foot attachment
 This is what it looks like.

 It attaches to the sewing machine in place of the regular  foot.  Notice the little slots in the foot, and the "grippers" above them.  These will grip the fabric thru the slots and move it along, at the same time as the feed dogs below the fabric do likewise.

"grippers" in down position- will grip the fabric thru slot in the foot


What is so wonderful about this?  When the fabric is pulled along from both the top and the bottom it means there is no shifting between layers.  No shifting between fabric layers means more precise piecing and quilting.  Gone is the frustration of uneven seams.  No more bunching of the top fabric while quilting layers.  Added to this is the ease of sewing; it's as if the fabric moves along by itself without needing much guidance.

So now you may be thinking, "that's great for seams and straight line quilting but what about curves?".
The walking foot is also great on gentle curves.  So the possibilities for quilting designs is not limited to straight lines only.
This baptist fan quilting was done using a walking foot.

Why not give this little wonder a try yourself?  You'll be impressed with how it makes your sewing/quilting easier!  

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