Friday 13 January 2017

Zipped Bags & Broken Walking Foot

Hello

A belated Happy New Year.

We were having mild weather in the UK so I have been able to work. Normally at this time of the year snow or wet weather stops my gardening business and I quietly hibernate in the house with my quilting.  Not this winter.

I did make some Xmas presents in December, had a production line going making zipped bags with lovely quality fabric, don't you just love the feel of good fabric?



I have been doing a bit of quilting at the weekends, two more babies due, my niece is due any minute and a friends daughter is having a little girl in March.  So baby quilts just about finished BUT 

Ages ago, I sent to America for a walking foot to fit my Singer 221 Featherweight as Singer didn't do an original walking foot for these machines.  Luckily, it also fit my Singer 201 so have been using it on both machines over the last few years.


It is no where near the quality of my Singer attachments but it does the job and has helped me make a lot of quilts. It started to make a clunking noise when I was using it on the 201, this noise came and went.  Then it did the same when I used it on the 221.  The clunking got really bad but I couldn't work out what was causing it, it was very unhappy, then one on the plastic lugs that grip around machine to hold it on, snapped and flew across the room so it was obviously moving sideways for some reason.  Hmm, it still worked as long as I kept tightening the holding screw so managed to finish the quilt.  For the second quilt, decided to use the 201, at the start it was working fine then the clunking noise started and got worse so decided to take it apart (I am well used to dismantling the sewing machines).  Ooo, errr took the screws out and lifted off the white cover.  Whoops, all the internal bits fell out in a heap!  So I had to work out how everything fit back together, the parts were tiny weeny, covered in mucky black stuff, you needed 3 hands to hold levers while you put the cover back on to hold some of it together which is why dear readers, there are no photos.  Every time I let go with one hand, everything fell to bits again.  I did get it together and is appears to be working without making the clunking sound so have cautiously started to quilt with it again.  So to be on the safe side, have ordered another one from the USA, its on its way.

The vintage Singer machines themselves are easy to dismantle but a modern attachment is a nightmare!  In our throwaway society new stuff just isn't designed to be repaired.  Those Singer designers were clever chaps.

Update - The walking foot was working but it kept loosening the screw and more importantly, it kept putting little black marks on the quilt - grrrh its going in the bin!!! 

So, tried the Walking Foot I bought a couple of years ago of an UK Ebay seller for the Singer 201K which I thought wouldn't work when I got it because it didn't match up with the feed dogs.  I can't have tried it and just put it in the drawer.  Dug it out today in desperation, it works wonderfully!  Doh!  I had read somewhere that that they had to match the feed dogs to draw the fabric through, this is not true.  Why I didn't try it out when I got is a mystery to me, stupidity probably.

Cheers
Sharon



6 comments:

  1. How annoying but it seems like you have coaxed it back to life and with another winging its way to you it sounds like a crisis has been diverted! Loving those pouches and looking forward to seeing some beautiful baby gifts xx

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    1. Thanks Josie didn't think that I would get it back together again. X

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  2. Hmmmmm.... wouldn't mind a walking foot for my 201....!

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    1. I got it from https://singer-featherweight.com/ its really for the 221 but it goes on the 201, I do have to guide it through a bit so it doesn't do tiny stitches. I did get one off ebay that was supposed to fit 201 but it was useless. Word of caution, there might be custom duty on it. I have just got a note to say that I have to pay £16 before the Post Office will deliver it, its the first time I've been charged but I got a few extras with this order so will have to see why they are charging it. X

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    2. Lizzie, I gave you duff information without realising it!!! The walking foot I got off Ebay does work, when I got it, it looked wrong as the plastic walking feet bit didn't match the feed dogs so I thought cos I had read it somewhere that they had to match up, that it wouldn't work. Tried it today in desperation and it worked a treat, will update my blog!!1

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  3. Thanks! Will bear this in mind should I ever decide to buy one. I had one on a Janome machine I sold and it was definitely very useful. Could have done with one yesterday while sewing up long seams on a toy bag!

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