Date: 11/23/09 10:06 PM

I have a walking foot, tried to use it tonight, but I feel stupid, What is it for?

Date: 11/23/09 11:21 PM

I just got a walking foot recently, I love it! I'm about as inexperienced as you can get, quilting-wise, but I've put binding on two different projects now. One with the walking foot, one without. My gosh, what a difference it made! The feet on the foot "walk" the top fabric at the same pace that the feed dogs are moving your bottom fabric through. When you've got backing, batting, a quilt top, and binding that's important because it's easy for all those layers to get out of whack otherwise (or maybe I just stink at this quilting thing!). It can be used for straight-line quilting too. In fact, I think some people even use their walking foot for piecing. Haven't tried that yet, as I'm also very enamoured of my new 1/4" foot. Basically, it helps move all the fabric through at the same pace.

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... but what do I know?

Reply to CharDa
Date: 11/24/09 8:01 AM

Leigh explained it quite well. In other words, anytime the top layer of fabric shifts from the bottom layer(s) the fabrics will end up being fed through the machine at different rates and when you get to the end of your seam, especially on long pieces, the fabric at the end is different lengths. The walking foot helps keep the fabrics fed at the same rate thus feeding the fabrics evenly.

I've heard it works well on slippery fabrics too. Lining material comes to my mind as when I've lined skirts. Don't shy away from using it.

And there's never such a thing as a dumb question on this board. We love helping each other. I've asked questions I thought were dumb here too, and everyone has kindly responsed. That's how we learn.

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Carol - * I always have more time to sew *
Singer Touch & Sew 600, Bernina 1008, Janome Platinum Jem 760, Babylock Ellageo, Viking Mega Quilter, Janome MC6600P, Babylock Evolve Serger, Janome FM 725