sheliab12

I saw a tutorial on .cutting the arm that goes over the needle bar on the darning foot to keep it from hoping up and down. the purpose was it would help to see where you were going. Her foot was metal and of course they are plastic now but wondering if anyone else had done this and if it helped

Tartan

I have seen the plastic on the foot being altered for better viewing area and an elastic used between the arm and the foot but never taking off the arm completely. I thought the whole purpose of the hopping motion was to allow the machine to take a good stitch on the down position and to be able to move the sandwich when not in contact with the sandwich.

Weezy Rider

I've got a plastic one modified that way. I cut the arm off. It works just fine on the 1500S.

Freckles48

I followed Leah Day's suggestion on how to modify an embroidery foot and it works extremely well on my Pffaff 360 with the stitch length set at 0 (that was also part of the instructions). I have much more control now. Buy the cheapest foot that will suit your machine.

NanaCsews2

http://www.daystyledesigns.com/freemotionfoot.htm

I leave my darning feet and open toe feet alone and do not alter anything when fmq'ing. Haven't needed to. I have a Babylock and their feet work perfectly for me. So I can't give an opinion about altering them. On my machine, if I set the tension to 0-1.5, lower the feed dogs, adjus the stitch length, use a supreme slider on the machine bed, wear sewing gloves with rubber pads, install a new Schmetz or Organ (on my Babylock Jane) sharp 80/12 needle, use polyester thread (Isacord for me) adjust the presser foot pressure and sew slower while moving the fabric slower for uniform stitches, then my fmq'ing works just fine.

Jingle

I haven't had a problem. I would not alter the foot. If you mess it up you would have to look for another. Not all suggests are good ones. Just my opinion.

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

I modified mine for the 1500S, too. Mine came with a metal ring and a clear plastic circle in the center of it. First I cut off the arm and then I cut the metal ring into a C shape and pulled the clear plastic out. I burnished all the edges of the metal so it is very smooth. I like it MUCH better than the original way.

MartiMorga

Interesting, I had not see this before. I have a lot more practicing to do before this decision has to be made. That said, I think if I was going to do such a thing, I would need the $7 foot to try it on, not my good foot that came with my machine.

DOTTYMO

A friend loves leah day work and had followed her advice and altered hers. I have same machine juki mechanical and haven't altered mine. I don't a like the round foot with the bernina as I prefer the c shape but would not alter a foot so drastically as it must be like that for a very good reason.

carslo

I have broken the little wire arm on 2 spring loaded darning feet for my Viking Sapphire 830 at $50.00 each. So I did some research and found the you tube Leah Day video on how to modify my broken feet or as she said any universal foot and I am now FMQ like a pro.