Zigzaggers and Blind Hemmers

Before we talk about my favorite Singer zigzagger shown above, let's talk about how a machine with a built in zigzag feature works:  the needle opening is an oval wide enough to accommodate the stitch, and the NEEDLE MOVES BACK AND FORTH with each stitch creating the zigzag.

Zigzag needle plate with oval hole for needle

If you have a straight stitch  only machine you will notice that the needle opening is a small round hole just a little bigger than the largest needle you might use.  If you want a zigzag or any other stitch with width, you will need a special purpose attachment for this.

Straight stitch needle plate with small round needle hole

These work differently from the zigzag machines though.  As they stitch in a straight line, which is all they are capable of doing, the attachment MOVES THE FABRIC BACK AND FORTH, creating the zigzag stitch.

How well does this work?  Depends on the particular attachment (discussed below) and on your standards of perfection.  My own opinion is that a well-functioning zigzag attachment works perfectly well for utility stitches (on the inside of a garment) but if you want decorative stitches (that will show on the outside of a garment) you are better off with a machine designed for that task.  I'm sure there are sewing persons out there who have take the time to master the attachments to get good results and if you are one of these superior beings, please use the comments section below to chime in.  And feel free to reveal your secrets!

Types of Attachments

First, all of them attach the same way.  They attach with a presser foot screw (and some come with their own screw) and have an arm that fits over the screw that attaches the needle.  This means that as the needle goes up and down the arm of the attachment goes up and down also.  This powers the attachment to do its movements that create the zigzag stitch.

 

 

The simplest ones are small and only do one thing.  "Chadwick" is one brand of simple zigzagger and I have found several at thrift shops over the years,and some unbranded ones that appear identical.  Some have worked brilliantly some have worked adequately. One I tested recently did not work at all.  General assessment:  meh.

 

Singer also made a simple zigzaggers and (remembering what a Not-Expert I am) judging by the graphics on the boxes they appear to be pretty old.  Just don't ask me to define the term "pretty old".  As usual, if you know more then share your knowledge below.

 

 

 

From the style of the graphics on the box above I assume this to be the earliest one I have. Very similar to the Chadwick.

I also have what appears to be some slightly more advanced models in two different styles of box

and another of the same model in a different box below.

The box says "301" but it sure doesn't look like a slant shank attachment point to me.  I'll have to check this out later.  You can never take for granted that the object in the box matches the description on the outside of the box!

 

 

 

Greist made a zigzagger that also had cams to make additional decorative stitches.

 

 

 

Those are some tiny cams!  Why are tiny things so appealing?  I suspect it is hardwired into our brains.

 

 

 The Sew Old/Sew New blog reviewed the Chadwick Decorative zigzagger and you can read all about it here.

 

 So far I have only talked about zigging and zagging but there is another useful and similar attachment:  the blind stitch or blind hem attachment. It is a very close relative of the zigzagger.

 

 

The blind hemmer is just a special function zigzagger and works the same way.  But instead of zigging and zagging on EVERY stitch, a blind hemmer takes several straight stitches, then one zigzag, then several more straight, etc, etc.  

 

 

The Singer blind hemmer in appearance is almost identical to the Singer zigzagger.  That's because it IS almost identical to the zigzagger. 

Kenmore made a blind hem attachment too.

 

If you know the trick of folding the hem properly the straight stitches fall on the turned up hem portion while that occasional zigzag catches the main portion of the garment.

 

And I just love the little card that shows the hem turned up!  There are directions in the manual on how to do it for real with the attachment.

 Now for the Big Bad Girl of vintage zigzaggers:  the Singer Automatic Zigzagger

The larger Singer zigzagger with removable cams is probably the one most people are familiar with.  They came in both a short shank (fitting the 66, 99, 201, 221 Featherweight, and 15s and most postwar Japanese straight stitchers) and a slant shank model for the 301s and 404s.  I may have left out a model or two but you get the general drift.

The designs shown on the border are made by the cams that came with it

 

There is a good Wikipedia article about zigzaggers that includes a helpful chart of all the Singer cams and the stitch patterns they make.

The scallop design also functions as a blind hem stitch.

 

 

The manual is available in pdf form online.

There are three other cams sets for the Singer zigzagger and Barbara has ALL OF THEM.  I told her that if her she-shed is ever broken into and only her cams were missing, she will know who to suspect.

I recently learned from Barbara (and this is confirmed in the Wikipedia article) that the second set produced was originally made in red but when that proved confusing the color was switched to white.  

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While writing this post I reached a moment where I felt like a fraud.  I'm writing about things that I have little experience with and about which I know very little of the history.  So let's take a moment to examine the fundamental underlying questions:

WHY AM I HERE?

and the equally important

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

I'm here because I am in bleeping lockdown (self-imposed) during a global pandemic that is bound to get worse and I don't envision going shopping or having lunch with my friends or traveling any time in the next couple of YEARS.  I sincerely hope I am wrong, but my good buddy Art and I have correctly predicted every moment of this so far--most recently the uptick in cases in Europe as soon as they began relaxing their restrictions.  We saw that coming back in the spring.  (Both of us have Ph.D.s in geography from a department with a strong medical geography program.  Which we absorbed by osmosis and hanging out with our medical geographer colleagues and going to their current research lectures.  Neither one of us is a medical geographer.  End of disclaimer).

I'm here because I absolutely love vintage sewing machines and all the associated toys and goodies and have accumulated a fair number of them from scouring the local thrift stores at least a couple of times a week over a period of ten years.  Right up until the moment I removed myself from the world because of the pandemic.

I'm here because I learned to love writing while writing the dissertation for the Ph.D.  And although yes, I AM writing a novel, I have been writing it for 30 years and have maybe 50 pages written and I'm 71 years old and there is zero possibility of finishing it or getting it published.  And that's fine with me, I do it for fun and only on odd occasions.  And no, I am not going to say anything else about it because there are no sewing machines in it.  Sewing and needlework and textiles, yes, sewing machines, no.

I'm here because I also loved teaching and I love accumulating information and sharing it.

YOU'RE HERE because you also love vintage sewing machines.

And you're here for all the photos.

And maybe even for the jokes.  Some of you tell me you come for the jokes.

But if you are here for expert knowledge, you have come to the wrong place.  I do keep telling you.  

So I'm going to set aside the feelings of being a fraud and just enjoy my life in lockdown as best I can.  You folks help, you know!  I feel like I am talking to friends when I write these posts.

Presser Feet Play Date

Obviously not a presser foot.

Just some eye candy before the main event.  This is from Barbara's collection.

 

I've had many pairs of these over the years, most of them absolute crap, some even with plastic handles painted silver.  These are all steel and made by Fuller Brush.  Best ones I have ever seen.
 

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A post more than a year in the making!  Actually a year and half.  Why has it taken so long?  Because I did something colossally stupid.  And because I felt that it needed to be organized in some way.  There needed to be a narrative thread.  I decided to settle for semi-organized.  And a lot of other things took precedence.

This started out as a play date with Barbara, and if you find the idea of spending an afternoon looking at presser feet to be fun, well, that means you are one of our tribe.  And actually it was TWO afternoons a year apart because I lost half the photos, a really dumb rookie mistake for someone who has been working with computers since 1973.  And so Barbara and I got back together and did it all again, only better the second time.  The second time we wrote post-it notes and took photographs of them along with the feet.

 Below, also not a presser foot.  You find some unusual things in the drawers of old sewing machines.

 

Front view of "also not a presser foot".  Reveal of what it is at the end of the post.

Barbra knew what most of them were but she wanted me to identify others.  Some were easy but keep in mind something that I keep reminding my faithful readers:  I AM NOT AN EXPERT.  I am an obsessed person with a blog.  Not the same thing AT ALL.  So tell me in the comments if I got something wrong.

What I am hoping to do here is to post a lot of pictures, explain what I understand, and rely upon YOU to add your own explanations in the comments section below.  Then I will edit the post to add your comments in with the photos.  

EDIT:  This worked out exactly as I hoped and we got some terrifically helpful comments.  I have left my original opinions in,  even when they turned out to be wrong!  Just to hammer home the point that I am NOT AN EXPERT, lol.

This is in no way an exhaustive discussion of presser feet.  Others have done that.  But because both Barbara and I have very eclectic collections* you may see some oddball things here that you won't see anywhere else.  And because this has already taken such a ridiculously long time that Barbara has given up asking me when this post would be up, I haven't spent a single moment researching any of the feet we didn't understand. 

*eclectic collections, meaning that we buy random vintage sewing machine stuff whenever we see it in thrift shops, often without knowing how old it is, what it goes to, or how it works. 

Straight Stitch Feet

#3 is a snap-on foot that needs its own shank.  #2, 3 and 4 have the standard 1/8" finger on the right and 1/4" finger on the left.  It's #1 that it is bit of a mystery here.  Both fingers are 1/8", and the left hand one is extra long.  Why?  Did it have a special purpose?  If you know, please tell us in the comments section below.

Edit, from an anonymous poster:

" Regarding the straight stitch #1 foot: I've seen those only as custom modified feet used for detailed sewing such as a bluff patch pocket."

 

This one is Barbara's and I wish it were mine.  1/4" on both sides, perfect for piecing quilt blocks.  I have zigzag feet that have 1/4" on the right, and I have used those on a straight stitch machine to piece.  But you would get more control with the narrow opening of a straight stitch foot.

And yes, I do know I could probably find and buy a modern one, but what a new presser foot would cost retail would fund a week's worth of thrift store shopping.  If I weren't in lockdown, that is.

ZigZag Foot

Above, a fairly standard zigzag foot.  I like the fact that it's clear (the more visibility the better) and I like the slot leading to the opening in the foot.  With that slot you can easily get your thread in the right position and moved toward the back.  

EDT:  Phyllis wrote:  "The plastic zigzag foot is an Elna SU/C/Blue Top buttonhole foot. Note the buttonhole design on the right side."

Yep, it's easy to see the buttonhole icon!

Embroidery or Hopping Foot

Used for embroidery, mending or free motion quilting.  The long arm rides up on top of the needle holder clamp and as the needle rises and falls the whole thing hops up and down.  So there is pressure on the fabric as the needle enters the fabric, and then the foot lifts up off of the work so that it is not dragging as you move the fabric under the needle.

Edge joining foot

I don't have any experience with this one, but here's my best explanation:  the rail underneath the foot allows you to push two pieces of fabric together and use a zigzag or some other stitch with width to connect them.  Obviously you wouldn't want to connect raw edges this way, right?  If you use one please do tell us what you use it for in the comments below.

EDIT:  acoelke wrote:  " I use the edge joining foot for joining 2 pieces of quilt batting together. I push the 2 pieces of batting together, sew with a wide zig-zag (prefer the 3 stitch zig zag) and run the blade down between the pieces. I also like to use it to stitch in the ditch. I also use it for top stitching quilt binding down. I run the blade along the edge and move the needle to the right so I stitch near the edge."

Ribbon Foot

Barbara and I believe that you could feed a ribbon or some other very flat trim through this and the foot would hold it in place while you stitched it down.  Do you have any experience with one of these?  Tell us what you use it for in the comments below.

Shirring foot

I have used this foot successfully in the past, but recently as I have been selling sewing machines I have tested them again and had no luck.  The foot puts additional pressure on the fabric that creates a small gathering effect when it works. 

All of the ones I have are for straight stitch machines (the small round hole) so I was interested to see that Barbara had one with a wider oval opening obviously for a zigzag stitch.

Clear What-Is-It?

 

This one has us stumped.  The screw on the side obviously allows you to move the right toe of the foot from side to side?  But why would you want or need to? 

It reminds me of an overcast foot that has a similar screw to adjust a needle on the right hand side that the stitches fall over, preventing tunneling.  But there is no needle on this one.

EDIT:  acoelke wrote: "The clear whats-it foot is an adjustable blind hemming foot. I had one with my Singer Futura from the 1980's."

Zipper Feet

Also easy to identify, the adjustable zipper feet shown above, wide on the left and narrow on the right.  Obviously.  Anytime you need to get really close to something bulky, like a zipper or some piping or (insert bulky thing here) you need an adjustable zipper foot.  I'm always on the lookout for these because I include one with every machine I sell.  For a straight stitch machine the straight stitch foot and this one will handle 99% of all your presser foot needs.

I'm afraid the photo above does not make it clear, but these sometimes come apart.  If you have all the pieces it is an easy matter to put them back together again.   But on the one shown on the bottom the screw is missing.

 

 

Invisible zippers take a special foot and I believe this is one of them.  Although I originally misidentified it when Barbara was here.  NOT an expert.

This is the antique version, which technically you could not call a zipper foot because these were invented before zippers were in common use.  (And I lied when I said I didn't do any research because I looked this up: the 1920s.)  But piping was in use all along.  These came in sets with left and right feet and these, which are different sizes, are obviously from different sets.

Feet that have cords going through them

Barbara and I have questions about these.  

#1.  Fat bottomed  cord foot  (Later identified as a welting/piping foot)

We wondered the following:  Are the photos above of a cording foot?  you can clearly run a cord in the groove?  Or, as I suspect, a foot for sewing down piping?  If so, only small piping.  Notice that the needle hole is off to one side?  OR is it for sewing down zippers?

And while I was working on this blog post I happened to run across this very foot for sale at Central Michigan Sewing Supply.   And all my questions were answered.  It is a welting/piping foot and is available in five different sizes to accommodate different cord thicknesses.

The vintage parts supplier I used for years retired a while ago and I haven't tried anyone else yet.  Although I have no experience yet with Central Michigan Sewing Supply I have heard good things about them from the vintage sewing community and I will be ordering from them soon.

#2.  Long toe clamp foot

The photos above show a foot that can have a thick thread.  

And we also have a snap-on one.   Why do they have that long toe?

#3.  One or Two Holes

These are interesting.  The one on the left looks like a Singer special purpose foot, which claims to do many things.  I'm not disputing the claims, it's just that I have no experience with them. The one on the right obviously could be used with twin needle sewing.

#3.  Groovy cord feet

 

 You can run several threads or very tiny cords under here and zigzag or decorative stitch over them.

EDIT:  Shirley wrote:  "The groovy cord feet is to be used with a twin needle. You put a thin cord under the fabric right under a grove, and now you sew. The spool thread will form a zigzag, holding the cord in place and making the fabric form a nice “hill”, and when you do the second, third, fourth or fifth row, the grooves will align them nicely. There is a German tutorial on YouTube, it’s called a Biesenfüsse
https://youtu.be/Gzxk-FHb1eU

 Buttonhole Feet

You're going to see some overlap between these and the cord feet, but we could clearly identify these as feet designed for making buttonholes.

One characteristic of buttonhole feet is the ability to measure the length of the buttonhole.  The one above is a common type with modern machines.  

In the case of buttonhole feet I DO happen to know what the hole  on the front edge is for.  It is just the right size to insert an old sewing machine needle.  Or a new one if you don't have an old one sitting around.  The zigzag satin stitches go over the needle and it gives some volume to the buttonhole stitches.  And obviously this could also apply to the one I have labeled "long toe clamp foot" above.

And I assume the hole on the top is to feed through a thick thread to provide some substance inside the satin stitches of the buttonhole.  I see this technique referred to in vintage sewing machine instructional books.

The text on the purple note says it all.  All that we could figure out about it, that is.

And finally, a snap on foot. 

 Feet for Decorative Stitches

Before showing you the feet for decorative stitches, let's revisit the basic zigzag foot.

The difference between a zigzag foot and a decorative stitch foot is impossible to see from the top side.  You have to turn it over.

In the photo above you can see that there is a SMALL indentation to allow the zigzag stitches to ride under the foot.  And we're talking about just a normal zigzag, not a dense satin stitch.

The photo below, and the other photos in this section, show a much LARGER indentation to allow room for dense stitches like satin stitches or other dense decorative stitches.

Vintage Singer Presser Feet

The feet above were commonly included with vintage Singer sewing machines.  From left to right:  narrow hemmer, binder, adjustable hemmer, edge stitcher, and another adjustable hemmer.  No idea why there are two of them in the photo.

Two different narrow hemmers.  Fantastic on those fine, delicate fabrics of long ago.  Pretty worthless on anything as thick or thicker than quilting cottons. 

Binders of this type also work on very thin fabrics 15/16" wide.  I have tried it and did not enjoy the experience.  If you work with the type of fabrics for heirloom sewing you may have a better experience.  Or maybe you are just a better seamster than I am.

That's my new favorite gender-neutral word for what we do, btw.  I really dislike sewist.  I use sew-er in conversation but when you write it down without the hyphen it looks like where things go when you flush.  Down to the sewer.

The narrow hemmer makes (drum roll.....) a narrow hem, but this thing allows you to make the deep hems you might put on the bottom of a skirt.  And you can adjust the depth, hence the name of adjustable hemmer.  One of many presser feet I have never tried.

This is the Singer edge stitcher.  See all those slots in there?  They are for feeding ribbons or other decorative trims through and you can thread more than one ribbon or trim at the same time and get them lined up perfectly.  Another cool thing I have never had a need for, although I have tested one and it was fun.

Ruffler

The ruffler was also standard equipment with vintage sewing machines.  It makes tiny pleats and is a lot of fun to play with.  I've been including one with each machine I sell so regular readers have seen a lot of this one lately.

Seam guides

Vintage seam guide.  You screw it down to the base of the machine and curved part forms a rail against which you guide the fabric.  It's adjustable.  They rail part varies in size and length by era and by manufacturer.  I hate them all.  They move around on me and also can scratch the bed of the machine.

The two photos above show a modern Singer seam guide.  Keep in mind that "modern" to me means post-1965.  I like them marginally better than the older ones because the plastic thing protects the bed.  But they still move on me and I still hate them.

This one is truly modern and I liked it enough to pay the full retail price for it from Nova Montgomery.  Nova's Sew Straight Guide, and as usual no one pays me to tell you about it.  You get a plastic adjustable seam guide, a little allen wrench and TWO screws.  It's the TWO screws that do the job.  It does not move around.  Duh.  How hard was that to figure out?  Apparently too hard for Singer.

I used to do much more quilting and had a machine dedicated to piecing with one of these on it more or less permanently.  It's not what I use now however.  And not because I keep misplacing the little allen wrench because I have a nice set of allen wrenches. 

Here's another one I don't use, although it works very well:  a magnetic seam guide.  There were several versions made, including by Singer.  The magnet is strong enough that it doesn't move around.  I was always afraid that these would scratch the bed of the machine.

So what do I use now?

A very short stack of Post-It notes, just a bit taller than the layers of fabric being sewn.  Post-It isn't paying me either.

I use a ruler or seam gauge to measure the seam allowance and line it up.  Cheap, simple, easy to place and to remove and never scratches the bed or leaves a residue.  If you bump into it repeatedly it might give up and move, but all you have to do is pull off the bottom note and you have a fresh one ready to be stuck down again.  The fact that they go on and off so easily is a real plus if you are sewing a project where you only want a guide in place from time to time. 

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There are many sites that show lots of presser feet and if I had wanted to spend another year and a half on this post I would have investigated them.   But here's a good one.

Photo gallery of presser feet from singersewinginfo.co.uk

 

Barbara and I also have some books that come in handy, although they only cover a fraction of the feet available.  

Above, Sewing Machine Accessory Bible.  I am not an Amazon affiliate and I get no kick-back from them.  Not that I would object to this, nor do I object when other bloggers do it.  And I'm not refraining out of some ethical stance.  No, indeed, although I would never mention anything I didn't support.  It's just that I would need to have about a thousand times the readership I do have in order for Amazon to be interested in me.  

So if each one of you recruit ten friends, and each one of them recruits ten, and each one of them recruits ten....see where I'm going with this?

The Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook.  

Oh, wait!  This post was only about presser feet!  Where are the attachments?

Barbara did bring them over too, and we did take photos of them.  And sometime in the NEXT year and a half I might get around to writing about them, 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Not a presser foot

Did you know or guess what this is?

A part from a pretty much vanished technology.  So younger readers might be at a disadvantage here.

It's a margin key from a manual typewriter.  I started typing in high school on the old Royal my dad had when he was in high school in the late 1930's.  Went to business college for six months in 1968 and learned to type quickly, accurately (and using the correct fingers, lol) and to take Gregg shorthand.  And we learned on both manual and electric typewriters because both were in wide use in businesses then.

A couple years ago I found this once-top-of-the-line Remington  for $15 in a thrift shop.  I thought my sewing machine restoration skills would carry over to typewriter restoration.  Took it home and found that it was still working perfectly!  

I've only done a little research on it, so don't hold me to this, but it looks like a 1948 model.  Just a year older than I am.  And holding up better than me!  

If you made it this far, I'm astonished and assume that the pandemic has severely curtailed your real life experiences.  But thanks for visiting and I hope you had fun!