Hand sewing and walking foot

[hardscrabble]

Hello - As I mentioned before, I'm new to bearmaking so I don't presume to give advice but--I'm not sure if any of you use or know of a walking foot attachment for your sewing machine. It is what is used by quilters sewing two pieces of fabric together with batting inbetween. The attachments applies pressure top & bottom to feed thru evenly. I used this attachment for the few faux fur bears that I have attempted - the fur fed through easily.

Do most of you hand sew all your bears or do you do machine sewing? I'm finding it rather difficult to use the machine on the small areas.

[shebob bears]

Yes, I find it tricky sewing by machine on small areas. I much prefer to hand sew unless it is a whopping big bear.

I do use the 'walking foot' for most of my other sewing projects. It guarantees that at the finish of a seam, the top and bottom layers of fabric are perfectly level.

Happy sewing,
Sheila

[baildon bears]

I like to hand sew all my bears now as I feel I have more control and I also find hand sewing relaxing, I have just sat and sewn up a bear to night while watching over the rainbow, I can go into my own little world. Hannah

[kynthia]

i tried sewing on my machine for some of my bears, but i do find that it does not give as much control as with hand sewing. so back it is to hand stitching! :6086:

[SalmonofDoom]

I sew the body and limbs of my bear on the machine because it's relatively quick and the stitches are a lot smaller/tighter than if I'd have hand sewn them. But I always do the head by hand - so much more control and I've had a few disasters with bear heads being ruined by a sewing machine!

~Sammie

[Stavert Bears]

:)This sounds a very interesting attachment. I have to sew most of my bears by machine, but when it comes to the head I nearly always have to sew by hand. Patience is always the 'name of the game', but this could be worth a try..............:6013: :6013:

[Rich1988]

OOoo Elaine, love your new avatar!

Anyway... I sew everything by machine these days apart from head and footpads. Although once I've sewn the head by hand I tend to go over with machine for strength of stitching.

Richard
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