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The recipient of the baby quilt is due to arrive soon, so last weekend I decided to hunt for a darning foot for my sewing machine so I could finish up my first quilt project.
I’m not familiar with many sewing machine shops in the area, and I’m positive there are none that carry my specific machine (an ancient, er, vintage Necchi). So, before I left home, I did some research on the internet, took some measurements on my machine, and figured out exactly what I needed - a straight, low shank darning foot. I then headed to the shop where I’ve taken my machine to be serviced before… a shop that just happens to be next to an Ann Taylor Loft, a Nordstrom Rack, and across from a mall. Convenient, eh?
When I got to the shop, I asked the woman for “a straight, low shank darning foot.” She insisted that in order to find a foot that fit my machine properly, I’d need to bring it in to the shop. Oh, no I don’t! I asked to see all the feet that they carried in the store, and she dumped an entire bucket of unlabeled feet out onto the countertop. She had pretty much every type of sewing machine foot I’ve ever seen, and a few that I haven’t. I dug through the pile, pulled out the three darning feet that she had, and asked for a tape measure. I’m pretty sure she thought I was nuts. I started measuring the feet, and found one that fit my requirements. It was straight (the foot was directly below the screw hole), and it was a low shank foot (a half inch from the screw hole to the bottom of the foot- high shank feet have a 1 inch measurement). Perfect! But, she still didn’t want to sell it to me, because she wasn’t sure it would fit my machine and the store didn’t take returns on feet. I had to spend fifteen minutes explaining everything I knew about sewing machine feet in order to convince her that it was going to work. At that point, she practically offered me a job in the store! I guess if this lawyer thing doesn’t work out, I’ve got something to fall back on. I’d totally make an awesome sewing machine foot salesperson. Ha!
I got home and put the foot on my machine… and it was perfect!
I attempted some free motion quilting on one of my class squares. Not terrible for my first attempt. Not great either.
I definitely need more practice before I try this on the real quilt.
And here’s a question for the quilters out there… the quilt filling: for a baby quilt would you use cotton or polyester batting? I was leaning towards cotton, but at the quilt shop they said that polyester batting can be better for babies because it won’t hold allergens. Thoughts?
