Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Summerset, Lisa Laree, Emily, Christine, Mamafitz, Toni, Claire, Nancy W. and SunnyQ for talking back to my Friday Confession last week! I confessed that I don't use all of the feet that came with my sewing machine.

As you might expect, there were a variety of responses – including many like me, who only use a few basic feet, to some who have expanded their repertoire to include several of the more “exotic” feet, to a couple who are on friendly terms with almost every foot available for their machines!

Some favorite feet were called out, including the straight stitch foot, the edgestitch foot, and the one quarter inch (or quilting) foot.

At the same time, not everyone thinks that all of the specialized feet are really worthwhile. Mamafitz, for example, prefers to hem by hand over using the blind hem foot and is not crazy about some of the other specialized feet either.

I also got some specific recommendations on expanding my repertoire:

Lisa Laree recommended that I try the straight stitch foot and throat plate, and she reported that it should reduce the tendency of some fabrics to be sucked down under the throat plate. This advice is very timely, as Ana’s lightweight knit pajama fabric has been doing just that – if her machine came with the throat plate, we’ll try this next week. Thanks! :)

Nancy W. suggested that I start by learning how to use my blind stitch foot. In addition to doing hems, she says it is also great for edging and understitching. You all are my witnesses – I promise to practice using it on some scraps of fabric and post a picture of my efforts here! :)

Oh, BTW, my machine is a Kenmore – nothing fancy, but a pretty good little workhorse… ;)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond to my confession! I really love reading about your sewing lives and I almost* always learn something useful! :)

(*It depends on the nature of my confession, of course…)