Quick Tips: How To Use Self Leveling Presser Foot
Nicki LaFoille
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Learn how to use the self leveling presser foot. The self leveling presser foot can go by many names, but it has a black button on one side, which can be pushed in to lock the foot in a horizontal position. This helps the foot climb over bulky areas, eliminating the need for a hump jumper, or other tools that level out the presser foot. This also helps maintain thread tension and proper stitch length when sewing up onto a thick portion of a seam, such as when a hem crosses over a side seam.
When sewing a seam that approaches a bulky portion, when the toe of the foot begins to tilt upward, stop with the needle down in the fabric. Lift the presser foot and push the black button in, then lower the presser foot while still holding the black button in. This will lock the presser foot in a horizontal position, which helps the foot navigate the disparity from a thinner portion of the seam up to a thicker portion of the seam. After a few stitches, the button will automatically pop back out.
For more tips on sewing machine feet, check out:
How to Use a Buttonhole Foot
How to Use a Rolled Hem Foot
Common Sewing Machine Feet and When to Use Them
You've probably seen a press your feet that have this black button on the side and it can either be on the left side or the right side. And these feet can be called different things as well. Zigzag foot or an all purpose foot or AJ foot. And some variations of those feet don't have the button, but some do. And when they have this button, they become a self leveling presser foot.
And that is great for when you are sewing over seams that have a portion that have a lot of bulk such as a seam like this one where you are going to be crossing over another seam. So in this denim side scene, you get, you're, you're going from three layers of denim up onto nine layers of denim. So the presser foot is going up and when it meets this portion that has all this bulk, the toe of the foot is going to go up and it might have a hard time climbing up over that bulky area. So you can get poor stitch, um even this, so you can get stitches that are skipped or um very short and then very long stitches and your tension can also get thrown out of whack. So that's what the self leveling presser foot is meant to help with.
So when you use this foot, we're going to be sewing up to this bulky area. And as we come up onto this bulky portion, you can see the toe of the foot starting to tilt upward. So stop with the needle down in the fabric, lift the presser foot and over here on the side, you're going to push that button in until it locks in and still holding on to that button. Still pressing that in, lower the pressure foot back down. And you can see how that has locked that presser foot into a horizontal position.
So that toe is no longer tilted way up. And then when we go to continue sewing, that button will pop back out automatically after a few stitches. And our seam is it nice? And even even across that bulky portion?
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