I have two of a name brand machine, a reliable, well known brand. And I have two of the same model patchwork foot, one for each machine. One machine is older, possibly 8-10 years, the other machine is new, just over a year. One patchwork foot was bought when I purchased the older machine, the other was bought after I purchased the newer machine.
I’ve been working on a lot of little blocks lately, and all have been a smidge undersized. Not enough to be earth shattering, nor to stress about, but still, not quite right. Today I decided to make the sample block for The Splendid Sampler that starts this weekend. And it was almost 1/8″ undersized when I was done. Now that, for me, was unacceptable and no way to start a new quilt.
So Mike and I talked about it as needle setting didn’t adjust the difference. He suggested I coat the inside of the guide on the foot with either nail polish or something similar to make up the difference required (about 2 threads worth). Then I remembered I had another one of the same foot with the old machine.
Now I had assumed that I had the old foot with the old machine, and the new foot with the new machine. But on retrieving the foot with the old machine, I discovered differently. Looking at the two feet, old to new, you can see a difference in the thickness of the guide on the side of the foot and a slight difference in the size of the foot itself. Not much, but a difference. So before I “adjusted” the foot that was on the machine, I switched feet around and re-pieced the block. I used new fabrics, but all the same stitch length, cutting technique, everything, exactly the same. And when it was done it was a perfect 6-1/2″ unfinished!!!!!!
Sometimes it’s the little things that make me smile!
And after:
It doesn’t look like it would matter, except when you consider that there will be so many sewn together, and that 1/8 inch in that span will considerably change the size! Good job Judy! Learned a good lesson from this post! Thank you. xo