Pieces Stretching while sewing

When sewing 2 pieces together (with the grain not bias), I've noticed the top piece often times gets lengthened a bit during the process. I assume it is due to a slightly uneven feed through the machine. I really hate trying to get an accurate 1/4 in with my walking foot. Any other advise/ideas to help prevent this??

TIA!!

Reply to
Charlotte
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You might have to pin the edge that you are stitching. Especially if your machine does not have an adjustment for increase/decrease of the pressure foot tension. I know that pinning is a lot of hassle to some people, and it does slow down the assembly process, but it does solve those issues.

John

Reply to
John

Do you pin?

My other thought is to decrease the pressure foot pressure.

marcella

Reply to
Marcella Peek

Try loosening the pressure foot pressure a bit. The pressure should be enough to evenly feed the fabric, but not harder than that. The reason the top piece seems to "stretch" is that the pressure foot pushes down and "holds" the fabric, while the feed dogs "pull" the underneath piece of fabric. If the pressure is too hard the top piece sort of "sticks" against the pressure foot a bit and doesn't feed evenly. Loosening the pressure just a tad evens this out.

Interesting thing to think about: Back in the early '70's machines started being made with "automatic" pressure on the foot. It was supposed to "self adjust" to the thickness of the fabric. That is also about the time that evenfeed/walking foot attachments started to appear on the market. And because of the complexity of the foot they were fairly pricey, and still are. Before that time all machines had the mechanism to adjust the pressure foot pressure, and it was used. Wonder if there is a connection??

Pati, be> When sewing 2 pieces together (with the grain not bias), I've noticed the

Reply to
Pati C.

Aha! I see something Charlotte said that you may have missed. She wrote ' I really hate trying to get an accurate 1/4 in with my walking foot.' Charlotte, there are two ways (at least) to make getting an accurate ¼" seam with a clumsy foot a little easier. If your SM permits, set your needle position over to the right just one little position and see if that improves your accuracy. Another help would be to put a skinny black dot or line on the toe of your presser foot to show and remind you where your edge and foot need to line up. It is Your sewing machine foot and you can mark on it if you want to. Furthermore - some fabrics are prone to come out of sync because of their nature. If you are stitching one that is soft or mushy to one that is inflexible such as a gorgeous batik, the situation is a little harder to control. Pins are your friends. Use them but do not stitch over them if you have a Bernina. Berninas do not like banging their needle points on pins. HTH, Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Hi Charlotte, There are two more things to try. Start sewing with the two pieces of fabric butting against the needle. This will help keep the bottom piece from shifting forward. I also starch my fabric so it isn't as stretchy when I work with it. Once I started doing these two things, my problems of shifting fabrics came to an end and my piecing improved 100%.

Reply to
Lisa Caryl

The top piece probably isn't stretching (unless you've got the presser foot pressure down to killer-tight). What's actually happening in most instances is that the under fabric is being fed slightly faster than the upper fabric by the feed dogs -- essentially they're "easing" the lower fabric to the upper. For really tiny pieces, there's not much to do, but for a straight stretch of fabric, try stopping after an inch or so in the needle down position, lifting the fabric you're feeding up, and then sewing again. If you've got registration marks along the two strips, you can really do a good job at controlling this.

There's a method that ready-to-wear sewers use for fabric handling -- you can see it in Margaret Islander's videotapes

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there's an old Threads magazine article by Jeffrey Diduch that shows how it's done. It's a combination of how you hold the fabric andhow you position your hands. It looks horribly klutzy when you see it atfirst, but it's actually quite comfortable and works very well. Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

Thanks everyone.

I used to pin all the time. Lately, however, when sewing 2 squares or a square on the end of a rectangle etc. I have just been lining the two up and run them through the machine without any pins. This is when I'm noticing the different lengths after piecing. I assume that when I pinned they were fine 'cause I've only noticed this recently when I stopped pinning.

Polly, I've also had problems with some of the misc. fabrics I've inherited. They are different fibers, weights, finishes etc. I've just learned that it is apart of it with them, but pinning and the walking foot greatly reduce it, and my projects with them are not meant to be perfect. The ones I've had issues with lately are quilting cottons and seem to be the same weight.

Nope, not cinched down on the pressure Kay. Don't think I can adjust it myself (bernina 145). I do as you suggested on the longer pieces, but these are smaller squares, that are causing the current problems.

I'll try butting them up against the needle to start Lisa. I have done this occasionally if my machine was already set to stop with it down (not often), but don't know if I had problems then or not. I'll be more observant and see how it does.

I guess if that doesn't work I'll have to go back to pinning like John, Polly and Marcella suggested (sorry Lisa that sounds like less hassle to me than starching but thanks for the suggestion) or work with my walking foot to get better acquainted with it and get my seams accurate. I does have a mark on it but it is in an odd spot (at least to me) to try to watch and keep the edge lined up. Perhaps I'll have to decide on a different needle position and make my own 1/4 mark.

I guess I need to stop trying to speed up the process. Again thanks everyone for the advise.

Reply to
Charlotte

Reply to
Taria

I try to clean my bobbin area frequently (should do it every time I change a bobbin, but that doesn't always happen). I also try to clean my feed dogs out frequently, although that is not quiet as often depending on what fabrics/threads I'm working with.

Thanks for the suggestion Taria.

Reply to
Charlotte

Check out the hint for getting an accurate 1/4" at

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Reply to
Susan Torrens

I've had this problem before. I held the bottom piece just a bit and it evened out.

Have you checked your foot pressure? That can make a difference too.

Happy quilting!

Lenore

Reply to
Lenore L

Something else you might want to check is the smoothness of the underside of the presserfoot. If there are any rough spots or sticky residue under there, it could be the culprit! Also, if you are sewing two pieces together that are cut on opposing directions of grain (lenghtwise is less stretchy than crosswise) use the stretchier one as the bottom piece. The natural "easing' of the feed dogs should take up the stretch. Mickie

Reply to
Mickie Swall

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