GUESS WHAT????????

If you can get someone to find a way to drill a keyhole-shaped hole in the sole of your foot pedal (ie. in such a way as not to interfere with its working), then you can hang it from a small screw placed appropriately in your sewing table.

I hope you can picture what I'm saying! This is what I did with my foot pedal and it's *so* much easier to use. Hope you work something out: it must be awful not being able to sew. ;D

Sounds like a plan that will enjoy my newly-learned skills with: Duct tape, bungee cords and SuperGlue. Mr. Esther and I will come supervise. Weren't the Singer sms in our jr hi home ec classes 'knee' operated? I kind of believe they were. Polly

There were a bunch of Singers which could have either a knee control or foot pedal installed. I started out sewing on a treadle machine when I was a child, but then graduated to my mom's Bernina 530 with a knee control.

After a summer working as a sewer in a factory using machines with a knee control for the presser foot, I had a hard time going back to my mom's machine. Every time I wanted to lift the presser foot, I would automatically jab my knee sharply to the right with predictably disastrous results.

--Betsy

Good luck, I know I've seen a bunch of pictures of a foot pedals being used as a knee controls. If I can remember where, I'll let you know.

--Betsy

What great news, Butterfly! What kind of machine do you have? Some pedals can be easily velcroed to the side of a cabinet or a piece of wood. Congratulations on the good news!

When I was recuperating from my hip replacement I was thankful that two of my machines have go/stop buttons that would work in place of the foot pedal. Of course I had to set the speed to VERY slow and it took some getting used to pressing the button to go or stop, but it sure beat not sewing at all.

Now, put the kitchen timer by your machine to make sure you don't go over the limit :)

-Irene

Noted all suggestions and later today will see what will work. My Mom had a knee pedal arm but wasn't allowed to use it--even tho I was taking Home Ec in school (regular foot pedal--1967/8/9). I got to use her 'old Singer' which was fine by me. I learned how to quilt on a Treadle while sitting on my Great Aunt's lap when I was 5. Wasn't allowed to use an electric one until I was in 4-H when I was 9--and then only with supervision. Once the Other Great Aunt said I was ok being left alone--was I allowed to 'go for it". Sure glad I had Great Aunts that came over quite often :) Been sewing/ quilting/doing needlework ever since....glad the Dr realized how much it means to be able to 'do' once again :)

Butterfly

I once had a student arrive to class walking on crutches. It was obvious that she had had little use of her legs since childhood. My first thought was how was she going to use the foot control. She didn't miss a beat. She had been sewing since childhood, too. She placed the foot control on the table to the left of her machine and used her left hand to run the "foot" control while she steered the fabric with her right hand.

Susan

Consider, too, putting the pedal behind you in a chair, so when you lean back you're sewing (works remarkably well), or putting the pedal next to the machine and running it with a hand or forearm. You can also velcro a strap to the pedal and operate it by putting the strap around one leg just above the knee, and depressing the pedal by squeezing the knees together.

If you need a longer term solution than that, there are switches that can be adapted to sewing machines. Bite switches, sip and puff, pneumatic switches, head switches...

Kay