Sewing Machine Feet

There are endless types of presser feet for your sewing machine. Every job you want to do will have a particular foot that specialises in that job - embroidery, ruffles, hems, you name it!

This post would be very long indeed if I showed you every foot available, but since this series is about basics, I am just going to talk about the four feet that came with my machine. If I have these feet, chances are you will too.

Firstly, the foot that you use most of the time. It is called many things, most commonly the standard presser foot, or zig zag foot.

I use this foot for the majority of my sewing. Mainly straight stitch and zig zag stitch, but it is also used for a large number of the decorative stitches on my machine. The foot is designed to keep fabric together and flat, and have consistent pressure and contact against the feed dogs. The wide hole between the toes allows for the side to side needle movement required for zig zag stitch.

Second is the zipper foot. Mine is a one sided zipper foot (which I think is rare?)

Lots of people tell me that they are scared of zippers. All you have to do is master using this foot and it will be fine. The foot is designed so that the needle can be as close to the zipper teeth as possible. The toe of the foot keeps the pressure against the fabric and the feed dogs. The needle can be adjusted to move closer to the zipper if required. Below is the zipper foot in action, with the zip concealed between the layers of fabric.

Next are the two scary ones. Well, they were scary for me when I first started using them!

The button hole foot. This foot doesn't just work on its own. Depending on how many steps you require to make your button hole, there are other adjustments to be done. My machine requires me to change the stitch selector dial, change my stitch length, pull down a small lever next to the presser foot, and reset after each button hole is complete. 

When I first started sewing button holes I was SO nervous. It is one of those things that if you muck it up, there is no way to hide it! So what I did (and still do) is do a test run on a scrap of the same fabric you are using. In the early days I would do up to five test button holes until I was confident! I also use a disappearing ink texta to mark where I want my holes to go.

The hole size is determined by the size of the button, which is placed in the back section of the foot while you sew.

Then finally - yep my machine only came with four feet - my rolled hem foot.

I have a confession. I used this foot for the first time because I was writing this post. *sheepish grin* I don't have much need for a rolled hem on the sewing machine as I prefer the rolled hem function on my overlocker. But this one has quite a different looking finish, which you can see in the picture above. It creates a neat and fine hem with a simple straight stitch down the centre.

You feed the edge into the little loop on the foot and it tucks and folds the raw edge under and stitches over the top. Do you use this foot? Tell me what you do with it! I'm interested to know more. I quite like the finish but I'm not sure what projects it would work best with.

My sewing machine manual is my bible when it comes to different feet and their functions. Luckily each different foot, decorative stitches and other functions have step by step diagrams and information about which settings to use in the manual. You Tube is also a great resource for machine feet, there are heaps of videos demonstrating different feet for different machine models.

There are more tips and tricks in my Back to {Sewing} Basics series - have a look!

Do you have a favourite machine foot? Apart from these four, what other feet do you consider essential?