OCA Sewing Tip: Top stitching with Teflon Presser Feet

I bought a Teflon presser foot for a photoshoot for my upcoming book, Sewing with Oilcloth, that's due out in August. So, when I was making a laminated cotton apron the other day, I was pleased to have this on hand. I've always just made due with my roller foot,  but let me tell you this bad boy was worth all $48 of the precious dollars that it cost me (Bernina presser feet always cost a fortune, but not every company has such high prices for specialty feet).

Top stitching a pocket onto my laminated cotton apron was a totally breeze once I switched feet. Laminated Cotton has a tendency to get caught up under a normal presser foot or a roller foot--because of this I've ended up with little pinches and tiny pleats in my past attempts at top stitching (not pretty, not acceptable!). If you don't have a fancy Teflon Foot and don't want to invest in one, try out the tape trick, it helps a lot!!!

Happy sewing,
Kelly

OCA sewing tip #2: Presser Foot

When sewing with oilcloth it is as important to have the right presser foot. Oilcloth has tendency to crawl and to not want to stay put, this results in puckers at every pin. Using a roller foot or a teflon foot will help remedy this. When you use one of these handy presser feet you take some of the friction away and have less puckers in your seams.


My roller foot (number 51) is made for the Bernina machine it is a bit costly around $60.00. Suzanne, a Modern June stitcher and future blogger here on OCA, purchased the Bernina Teflon foot, the cost was around 26.00. But don't get upset just yet, I have another stitcher that uses a Kenmore machine and she lucked out, she found a roller foot at Joannes that fits her machine, the cost...$5.00! Now that is a steal!

Suzanne has used both the Bernina feet and likes them equally. She did say that it would be more convenient to use the roller foot because teflon feet are not to touch the feed dogs. She says she would have to think less!

Get creative and make something cool today!

OCA Sewing Tip #6: Presser Foot Trick

Back in October of 2008 I had this to say about using a proper pressure foot:

When sewing with oilcloth it is important to have the right presser foot. Oilcloth has tendency to crawl and to not want to stay put, this results in puckers at every pin. Using a roller foot or a teflon foot will help remedy this. When you use one of these handy presser feet you take some of the friction away and have less puckers in your seams.

These pressure feet can be costly, and I could see why someone might be worried about the cost if this was their first oilcloth project. So, the other day I was thrilled to get the following tip from another Oilcloth Addict!

One of our readers had recently read on a sewing forum that you could use painters tape on the bottom of a regular pressure foot. This really works! I don't have a proper foot for my industrial, so there are just some projects I can't do on that machine, for example, topstitching.

I didn't have any painters tape, so I used plain old masking tape! Place the tape on bottom of your favorite pressure foot and then just cut it away using a sharp exacto knife. Now your good to go.

Thanks so much for that no cost solution! If you have a good tip, please contact me at Kelly@modernjune.com.

BTW, I am still working on this weeks tutorial, I made something really fun but when I was done with it I came up with a better way to do it! So back to the back yard drawing board!!! Intrigued yet?

Non-Stick Presser Foot

While doing some research, code for dreaming and drooling while visiting the Bernina website, I found a little video on working with non-stick feet.  I'm sure you can find non-stitch pressure feet for every sewing machine brands, I just happen to be Bernina girl! While I haven't used these yet, I hear they are great when sewing on oilcloth.  For other tips concerning pressure feet check out Tip #2 and Tip #6!