Category Archives: sewing machine

Presser Foot Pressure Adjustment – second post

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Recently I posted a short discussion and a link to a youtube video on the subject of presser foot pressure adjustment.  Following that post, I did some testing on my own machines, with walking feet installed.  As I did the tests, I wrote on the fabric to show the settings used.  You can see the settings in the photos.  After sandwiching batting between two pieces of fabric, you sew a crossways seam at the bottom of the piece.  Then the test stitching is done by stitching from the top down towards the crossways stitching.  If the top fabric is being pushed forward, it will show up as a pleat at the crossways stitching.

First, my old faithful Bernina Artista 180.  I was quite impressed with the results.  The range of adjustment is very good.  The lowest setting (no numbers on the machine, but I labelled it 0) was way too light — the stitching wasn’t very straight and the stitch length was inconsistent.  The best setting seemed to be about 8, or two thirds of the way.  Even the highest pressure setting was pretty good.  You can see these results in the photo below:

Bernina 180 walking foot pressure test

Bernina 180 walking foot pressure test

Second, I put the optional walking foot on my Brother Dreamweaver VQ 3000.   I purchased it because it gives  better visibility than the “Muvit™” foot that comes with the machine.  Frankly, up to this point I had never used the Muvit™ foot because it only came with a closed toe sole plate that I really didn’t like.  Also the Muvit™ foot is quite large (since it contains a motor) and I didn’t like that either.  I have recently changed my mind, but more about that later.

The photo below shows the results with the optional walking foot.  There are four possible pressure settings for this machine – 1 through 4 – and I tried them all.  The lowest setting was just barely tolerable.  The results with the higher settings were quite bad.  I tried various other adjustments — presser foot height, auto fabric sensor on or off — and nothing helped.  Here are the results:

Brother VQ 3000 pressure test with optional walking foot

Brother VQ 3000 pressure test with optional walking foot

After consulting with Quality Sewing about this problem, I went to the shop and tested a machine like mine, but using the Muvit™ foot.  The results were excellent, and the visibility problem that so bothered me initially has been solved with a new open toe sole plate for the Muvit™ foot.  Here is a photo of the Muvit™ foot installed on the machine, so you get the idea.

Brother Muvit foot installed

Brother Muvit foot installed

Here is a photo of the two sole plates for comparison.  The 1/8 and 1/4 inch markings on the open sole plate are very helpful.

Brother Muvit foot sole plate comparison

Brother Muvit foot sole plate comparison

 

And now the test results.  The Muvit™ foot has an adjustment range from -10 to +10.  At   -10, a little puckering is just beginning to show.  All the other settings produce excellent results, so I would be inclined to leave the machine set at the default, which is 0.0.

Brother Muvit foot pressure test results

Brother Muvit foot pressure test results

After conducting this test at Quality Sewing, I purchased the open toe sole plate and came home and quilted a quilt with the Muvit™ foot.  I also put the binding on using the Muvit™.  I am very impressed with the results.  I still wish the foot was a little smaller, but I can now understand why the engineers designed it the way it is.  And I retract all the nasty thoughts I had about it!  Always good to get motivated enough to try new things, especially when your initial emotional reaction was “what kind of idiot did this?”.  Turns out, some very clever (not idiot) engineers did this!

New task lights for sewing

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While at Sew Expo I found some great new lights at the Quality Sewing booth and bought  two new LED light fixtures.  I am really appreciating the extra illumination at my sewing machine.  One of the lights is the little kind that you attach to the left side of your sewing machine and then use the flexible stem to aim the  light directly at the presser foot/needle area.  These have been around for some time but this one is by Naturalight, and I have not seen it before.  So far I like it very much.  I assume you can buy it at any Quality Sewing location in the Puget Sound area, or it is available from Amazon here:
Daylight Naturalight LED Sewing Lamp, White and Silver

The other light – which I am really excited about – is also by the same company.  It is a super bright light bar that puts out the equivalent of over 300 watts.    The light has two strips of LEDs and they can be turned on or off separately if you want more or less light.  The whole thing is also dimmable.  Being a “senior citizen” myself I can’t imagine using anything other than the brightest light, but I guess it’s nice to have flexibility.  The light bar can also be rotated to put the light just where you want it. Again it can be purchased at Quality Sewing, or you can buy it at Amazon: Brand New Naturalight Task Lamp LED XL-White Brand New  .

Here are some photos of this light fixture. The first photo shows the box it came in.   The second photo is with the light turned on. It is a little hard to judge the light from these photos due to the camera exposure, but the fixture provides a very nice even bright light.  I am really pleased with it, and the mini light aimed at my needle lights up the one spot I needed that I can’t get with the task bar.

Naturalight Task Lamp in the box

Naturalight Task Lamp in the box

Naturalight Task Lamp on

Naturalight Task Lamp on

Be sure to check these fixtures out at Quality Sewing if you are local.  They had  special prices on them for Sew Expo (about $30 for the little one and $150 for the big one), even better than the prices on Amazon.  Not sure what the prices will be in the store, but you can always wait for a sale.  Several other configurations of lamps were also available — floor mounted, with magnifying lenses, etc – if these two don’t meet your needs.

Adjusting the presser foot pressure on your sewing machine

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Today I was quilting a good sized quilt using Warm and White Batting and had some problem with the top fabric puckering.  I reduced the presser foot pressure – an easy task with my Brother Dreamweaver, since it is one of the basic settings for the machine that can be adjusted using the touch screen.  This is a topic that has come up a couple of times lately and is an adjustment many of my quilting students aren’t familiar with, so I decided to mention it here.

Note that we are talking about how hard the presser foot pushes down on the fabric.  This is totally separate from thread tension, which is another important adjustment that we talk about more often.

Most higher end and/or older sewing machines have a presser foot pressure adjustment.  Some low end newer machines probably don’t.  On the newest high end machines it is probably computerized and can be set from the touch screen.  On older machines it will be a manual setting.  As always, consult your sewing machine manual or your local dealer.

I found a very nice video by Marguerita McManus on youtube that shows several different machines and where the pressure adjustment is located, and then also shows you how to do a very simple test to determine the proper setting for your quilting.  She shows a couple of examples of different settings needed for different quilting sandwiches, depending upon the batting being used.  I like her examples because you can duplicate her tests quickly with your own fabric, batting, and sewing machine to determine the settings that work best for you.

There are also several other places on the internet where descriptions are given of how to adjust the presser foot pressure, but I think Marguerita’s video gives the best simple explanation for quilters.  Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8qRhWF3CI

You will have to wait through the ad at the beginning before the actual video starts  — so don’t panic and think you have gone to the wrong link.

Hope this is useful for you!

Shirley

 

Brother Dreamweaver sewing machine

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Last spring I purchased a new Brother sewing machine because my dear old Bernina – after 14 years and over 10 million stitches –  is just getting worn out.  I looked at the new Berninas – they are beautiful – but decided on the Brother because it had a couple of features I really liked and seemed a little more cost effective.

My new machine has an 11 1/2 inch space to the right of the needle, making it very useful for free motion quilting.  The other feature I really like is the large touch screen for selecting stitches and settings.  It has all the bells and whistles you would expect from a higher end machine.  I did not get the embroidery version since I have seldom used the embroidery capability on my old Bernina.  Here is a photo of the machine:

Brother Dreamweaver 3000 sewing machine

Brother Dreamweaver 3000 sewing machine

And here is a closeup of the touch screen, which makes selection of stitches, tension, etc. so easy.  It even has tutorials for filling a bobbin, threading the machine, etc.

Dreamweaver touchcreen

Dreamweaver touchcreen

It has a beautiful selection of decorative stitches – here are a couple of pages where I stitched some out so I would have a reference book of all the stitches.

Dreamweaver decorative stitches 1

Dreamweaver decorative stitches 1

Dreamweaver Decorative stitches 2

Dreamweaver Decorative stitches 2

This machine even lets you design your own decorative stitches and save them in the machine, as well as download new stitches through a USB port.  As with the rest of the machine, these features are straightforward and easy to do.  The automatic needle threading works very well, as does the thread cutting feature when I use it (great for piecing with cotton thread and of course would be terrific for garment sewing, not so good for free motion quilting or work with specialty threads such as monofilament ).

And the last feature I especially like is the excellent manual, which has very clear explanations about how to use the machine to accomplish various tasks.  It is really well done.  I took it to the print shop and had it spiral bound, since I know I will use it frequently.

I am still developing my skills with this machine, and generally I like it very much.  It has a couple of negatives compared to my old Bernina, but they are minor.  They mostly have to do with the feet.  Bernina presser feet are really quick to change – no screws required – and I miss that feature, especially when switching from a regular foot to the walking foot and back to a regular foot, which I do frequently.  Of course the extra convenience of the Bernina feet means they are more expensive — always a trade-off!  And I miss the Bernina walking foot, which seems to perform better with less noise.  I am referring here to a “regular” type walking foot that I bought as an add on to the Brother; the Brother comes with a very unique walking foot intended for use with specialty fabrics.  I haven’t even tried that foot out, because the sole is so wide and has such poor visibility that I know I won’t use it for quilting.  The regular walking foot on the Brother works fine; I just don’t like it quite as well as the Bernina one.

As I get better at using some of the special features of the Brother, I will post the results here.  I especially want to do some stitch designs and see what new decorative stitches I can invent!