A sewing machine works with the help of some essential components like needle, feed dog, bobbin, thread and presser foot. It is a small component of a sewing machine but without it, a machine can’t sew. Every sewist must know about every parts of the sewing machine. You should know your machine, so that you can small repairs.
Today in this post we will know what a sewing machine is. We will discus about the presser foot and its functions. There are different types presser feet, we will talk about them.
What Is Presser Feet
Presser feet is an attachment present below the needle. It feeds the fabric and also keeps the fabric flat while sewing is going on. It also helps in moving the fabric forward and ensures the stitches are uniform. The presser foot always kept lower down while sewing.
There are so many types of presser foot, and different types presser feet can be used in different fabrics. So, let’s discuss what are the different types of presser feet.
Presser foot is categorized into 3 types, depending on the type of shank. These are:
- Low Shank
- High Shank
- Slant Shank
In a low shank presser foot, the distance from the bottom of the foot to the centre of the thumbscrew is very less.
In high shank presser foot, the distance from the bottom of the foot to the center of the thumbscrew is high like 1.25 inches.
A slant shank foot is little slanted.
There are so many types of specialized presser foot. But the most common used presser feet are all purpose foot and the zipper foot.
- All purpose foot
- Zipper foot
- Invisible zipper foot
- Binding foot
- Buttonhole foot
- Button sewing foot
- Darning foot
- Fringe foot
- Gathering foot
- Narrow hem foot
- Open toe applique foot
- Overedge foot
- Pintuck fot
- Piping foot
- Quarter inch seam foot
- Walking foot
- Roller foot
- Decorative stitch foot
- Straight stitch foot
- Tape attaching foot
All Purpose Foot
These are also standard sewing machine foot. Every sewing machine comes with this foot. This is used in standard and decorative stitches. This is the most used sewing foot. You can do almost all your daily sewing work with this foot.
Zipper Foot
As the name speaks itself that a zipper foot is a foot, that is used to stitch zipper. It can also used to create and insert piping. The zipper foot can be attached both right and left side of the needle according to the need.
A zipper foot sews zipper edges without stitching the zipper coil. The zipper foot is half in size of a standard presser foot.
Invisible zipper foot
Invisible zipper foot is used to stitch concealed closures. The design of an invisible zipper is such that, it can be hidden with a seam. The foot has a needle hole in the center and two grooves underneath to accommodate the zipper coils.
Bias Binding foot
A bias binding foot is used to attach bias binding to the fabric. You can easily attach a bias binding using this specialized foot. Hong Kong seams can also be created using this. This foot also has guide on the front of the foot to feed the binding.
Buttonhole foot
Buttonhole foot is an external attachment for a sewing machine to make clean and perfectly sized buttonholes. It is a specialized presser foot for sewing machines. It keeps the fabric and the needle aligned with each other. So that it can create neat and consistent buttonholes.
Button sewing foot
Button sewing foot is a specialized presser foot used to sew buttons. The foot holds the button in place. Zig zag stitch is used to sew the buttons. The foot has a horse shoe shaped rubber grip which prevents the button from slipping. Apart from button sewing this foot can be used attach ribbons, to tack trims in place and even sew on the hook and eye closures.
Darning foot
It is also called as free motion foot or embroidery foot. This foot is used in free hand embroidery. This foot is used in free-motion sewing and machine quilting, embroidery, monograms. This foot lifts up and down along with the needle. It minimizes skipped stitches and also protects your fingers.
Fringe Foot
The fringe foot, which is also known as looper foot is a special attachment mainly used for decorative stitches. Using this foot, you can add texture and unique 3D effects to your sewing projects. Appliqué, embroidery and other decorative stitches can be created using this feet.
Gathering foot
Gathering foot is a special sewing machine attachment that is used to gather the fabrics while sewing. It is mainly used for decoration like frilling of the fabric. This ruffle can be made using simple zig zag stitches. But if you do this ruffle of fabrics more often then this foot will help you a lot.
Narrow Hem Foot
A narrow hem foot is also called as hemmer foot. It is specialized sewing machine foot used to create narrow hem on light weight fabrics quickly. It has a funnel in the front side, when the fabric will roll into and the needle will sew.
Open Toe Applique Foot
This open toe applique foot is presser foot specially designed for embroidery or decorative type of stitching. It is also known as open toe embroidery foot. You can expand your creativity with this presser foot. It has a wide opening. This helps in clear visibility.
This presser foot is best for satin/blanket stitching.
Overedge foot
Overedge presser foot is also known as ‘overlock’ or ‘overcast’ presser foot. These types of presser feet are used in overlock or sergers to sew the raw edges of the fabric. Overedge foot can be used in finishing raw edges. This can complete bind quilted layers together, sew lettuce hems, sew narrow hems, make pintucks and guide top-stitching.
Pin tuck Foot
Pintuck presser foot is a specialized sewing machine presser foot used for pintuck stitches. Pin tuck stitch is a type of decorative stitch. Its a folded raised stitch on a fabric. It is done in multiple parallel rows.
Pin tuck is essential for sewing as making pin tucks manually will take so much time. To do pin tucks with a pin tuck foot, you have to use a twin needle and then adjusting the needle according to the need.
Piping foot
A piping foot is used to create piping. Piping add a beautiful decorative touch to the garments. Although piping can be created by zipper foot, but using a piping foot makes the thing easier.
The little groove present in the piping foot feed the piping evenly through it. The piping will slip out like it happens in the case of zipper foot.
Quarter inch seam foot
A Quarter inch seam foot is used to create Quarter inch seam on a fabric. Quarter inch seam mean 1/4″ seam. It is the measure of the fabric from edge of the fabric to the furthest side of the stitching thread. It is also called Scant quarter inch seam.
Walking Foot
Walking foot is also called as dual feed or even feed foot. This foot comes with its own set of feed dogs. In this mechanism when the needle moves up and down, the feed dogs also move along with it. Because of this, both the bottom and top layer of fabric move in same rate.
This type of presser foot used in case of multiple layers and heavy fabrics. It is used mostly in quilting, bag making and for heavy and slippery fabrics.
Roller foot
Roller foot has rollers in the foot. It has 4 rollers attached to the foot. The roller foot helps the fabric feed easily under the foot. It acts like a four wheeler. The feed dog holds the fabric under the needle.
This foot can easily walk over heavy seams and uneven surfaces. This roller foot is very good for heavy fabrics, vinyls, leathers and velvets.
Multiline Decorative foot
Multiline decorative foot is a specialized sewing machine foot used for decorative stitches. It can create evenly spaced parallel rows of decorative stitches. The foot have horizontal and vertical guidelines. The vertical guidelines help to evenly space the rows and the horizontal guidelines helps to match the starting points and accurately turn corners at ¼” (6mm) or ½” (12mm) intervals.
Straight stitch foot
A straight stitch foot is the most commonly used foot. It has a small hole in the center for the needle to pass through. It presses the fabric and holds it and the machine sews.
This basic straight stitch foot can be used on every machine. It best suited for light weight fabrics. It sometimes difficult to sew some fabrics like chiffon with a all purpose presser foot or zig zag foot. A straight stitch foot can be used in that case.
Tape attaching foot
A tape attaching foot is a specialized presser foot used to sew and attach elastic tap and ribbon. It is used in overlockers. A elastic tape can be attached in a single step using this presser foot. This foot also holds the fabric while the machine sews.
Verdict
Hope you have got an idea about different types of presser foot for sewing machine. It might have helped you in deciding which type of presser foot you need for your projects.
