HOW TO: Free Motion Foot
Sewing is awesome and the household machine has many more powers than to just sew straight lines, simply by changing the foot! These images show a special foot called a Free-Motion embroidery foot that can allow you to create embroidery and sew various lines and shapes in any direction because the presser foot bounces and allows you to freely move the fabric in any direction.
A few things to know!
1) you are controlling the length of each stitch by how far you move the fabric when the foot it up. Move slowly in order to create completed lines.
2) you can drop the feed dogs under the foot as well for more control
3) the tiny bar above the spring sits just above the needle bar which controls the bouncing
4) you still need to put the foot down when you sew in order to engage the sewing tension, although the foot doesn't look like it's down when the needle is up because the needle bar is springing the foot upward.
5) you want to use a stabilizer (typing paper, tear away embroidery paper, or iron on stabilizer) to keep the impact on the weave of the fibers minimal.
*Remember that you can still use a zigzag stitch to create a calligraphy look!
The foot attaches to the stem of the machine, rather than to an adapter which then connects to other basic feet, pictured below.
Draw something on a piece of paper
Begin to stitch, making sure that the presser foot lever is down!
Back stitch the ends of each start and stopping point by going back over it! Instead of trimming threads that may need tucking, turn them to the back with a hand needle to stabilize, and even use a little glue if it's going to get some wear or be exposed.
When you finish your image, tear away the paper!
