I love my sewing machine and more importantly I LOVE how using different feet makes life easier! So for my second 'sewing machine foot' tutorial I have decided to take a different approach. After a long winded buttonhole foot tutorial, which I felt was maybe too wordy for people to enjoy, I decided to think about my favourite tutorials and why they worked. One of my favourite tutorials ever is the butterfly dress by Kelly at Sewing in No Mans Land. Why........? It's basically a set of photographs with the instructions on each photograph, simples (as the meerkats would say). Kelly is an amazing photographer, so I can't by any means say that this will work as well, but I'm going to give it a go and welcome any feedback.
This is what my bias binding foot looks like, you'll get a closer look as we go through the tutorial. These are about £13 for my Janome and I'm sure will be a similar price for other brands. The basic theory seems to be a channel through which you can feed the fabric and binding.
I hope this was easier to follow than my earlier buttonhole post - feel free to comment. I'll leave you with my top 3 reasons why, for me, it's worth every penny of the £13!
1. I sew quite a few aprons for selling at craft fairs and now instead of pinning the binding (20 mins) and then sewing it removing the pins as I go along (20 mins), I can simply feed it through and be done in 15 mins!
2. The finish is so much more professional than my previous attempts - though you do have to focus when sewing round corners.
3. With the typical double fold binding the idea is you sew the back fold first then re-sew (which I never did). The binding foot eliminates a step from the process and always seems to ensure that the folded portion of the tape is enclosed within the stitches.
Happy sewing! Next foot to feature will be the rolled hem foot which is coming very useful for all those summer dresses right now! I'm also really interested to try the freehand embroidery foot and ruffler foot which the kind Janome salespeople threw in with my new machine (after a small amount of bartering on my part)!
Keri
This is what my bias binding foot looks like, you'll get a closer look as we go through the tutorial. These are about £13 for my Janome and I'm sure will be a similar price for other brands. The basic theory seems to be a channel through which you can feed the fabric and binding.
1. I sew quite a few aprons for selling at craft fairs and now instead of pinning the binding (20 mins) and then sewing it removing the pins as I go along (20 mins), I can simply feed it through and be done in 15 mins!
2. The finish is so much more professional than my previous attempts - though you do have to focus when sewing round corners.
3. With the typical double fold binding the idea is you sew the back fold first then re-sew (which I never did). The binding foot eliminates a step from the process and always seems to ensure that the folded portion of the tape is enclosed within the stitches.
Happy sewing! Next foot to feature will be the rolled hem foot which is coming very useful for all those summer dresses right now! I'm also really interested to try the freehand embroidery foot and ruffler foot which the kind Janome salespeople threw in with my new machine (after a small amount of bartering on my part)!
Keri
A genuinely educational and inspirational tutorial - Thank you. I'm off to buy a new machine foot!
ReplyDeleteI've nominated you for an award. Please don't feel obliged to accept. http://redneedlesewing.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-been-so-long.html
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments and the award Caroline. Like you I seem to have been manic lately so I'll be sure to be linking back to you when I make my next post very soon.
ReplyDeleteI've just ordered my binding foot- I hope I can work it!!
ReplyDeleteYou'll be fine I's sure Lisa, they are really easy to use, much easier than some anyhoo! I've been having real fun trying to put together a 'nice tidy' tutorial for the ruffler foot which looks like some kind of instrument of torture!
ReplyDelete