Using A Vintage Sewing Machine: New Feet for an Old Machine

Before I start into what I think of as specialty attachments next week I thought I would mention some feet I don't have as well as some newer versions of old ones.

So far I've covered the basic attachments that would have been in the box bought with a vintage machine. There were a lot more available though. I would love to show them all to you but I don't own them! Some of these include the Gauge Presser Foot:

Also the braiders: Blind Stitch Braider, Braiding Presser Feet, and Under Braider:

And, of course, the Walking Foot which is often called the penguin because of the way it stands. (Sorry about the blurriness):
There are more than these too. Some of these attachments you can still find, but some of them are more difficult to find and expensive. A few have modern equivalents available for fairly cheap. The Walking Foot is one of these. (I bought mine from Sew-Classic.) Here is a newer version Walking Foot for a straight stitch machine:
A straight stitch machine has less feed dogs than a zig zag machine and needs a Walking Foot that works with them. In the following shot you can see the difference between the straight stitch one on the left and the one for a zig zag machine on the right. The straight stitch one is narrower.

Commonly used for quilting, the foot manages all the layers of the quilt evenly without shifting the top fabric. To attach the foot simply hook the fork arm over the needle clamp. Then sew normally.

The feed dogs pull the fabric along as usual but as the needle clamp moves up and down the Walking Foot "walks" on top of the fabric. Without the pressure of the presser bar there are no tucks and puckers in the fabric. It can also be used to sew on heavy fabrics such as velvet.

I like to be honest with you so I'll tell you-- I don't use my vintage straight stitch machine for straight quilting. I don't think the straight stitch Walking Foot works as well. That's just my opinion. I have a theory--I think because the zig zag machine has more feed dogs it feeds a quilt through better. Now I have heard of others who do all their quilting on a straight stitch machine with no problem; I'm just telling of my experience.
I do piece all of my quilts on my vintage straight stitch machine--I love that narrow presser foot for that. And I use it for free motion quilting. In fact, the whole reason my 15-91 is in that big table and not its original cabinet is to accommodate a quilt top for free motion quilting. For this I use a modern darning/embroidery foot:Most people prefer the plastic or open-toe one for better visibility, but this is the one I have and I don't feel like buying a new one. I'm not going to show you how to use this attachment today--that's for another time.
There are other versions of the darning embroidery foot. Perhaps the oddest attachment is a darning spring. If you have a spring in your attachment box, there's a good chance that's what it it is. The darning foot in the next photo belongs to my Elna but since it's also low shank I've used it on my Singer 15-91.
A few other things I don't have are the darning attachments that look like hoops. Also I don't have a Blind Stitch attachment.

I went out this weekend and saw that quite a few of the feet I've mentioned over the past few weeks are still for sale. Some of them don't quite look like the vintage ones but do the same things. I was surprised at the price of some of them!

I know I haven't given you much today but I needed a break to catch up on things this week and get the next tutorials ready--they're much more time consuming to prepare.