GypsyDreamer

My 1953 Singer 301A is pulling the fabric to the left and it appears because the feed dogs are not working together. Anyone know how to adjust them to work better? My husband does all of the maintenance on our featherweights and the 301A. We've been looking around, but haven't found any info on feed dog adjustments. Thanks!

bkay

I don't have a 301, but every Singer sewing machine I've worked on has a set of feed dogs. That is, both sides of the feed dogs are attached to the same piece of metal. So, hypothetically, they can't move at different speeds or independently.

I'm not sure what it could be, but it's unlikely to be the feed dogs.

bkay

Glenn

I think maybe your presser foot is not aligned with the feed dogs. The presser can be adjusted right or left.

Mickey2

All of the above. The feed dogs are made of one solid piece of metal, but they can be slightly out of line. If they are, it's easy enough to notice; they align with the space in the needle plate which is always straight. Fabric feed can misbehave if there's lots of lint packed under the needle plate, a good cleaning often improves odd behavior.

For pulling side ways, I would like Gless suspect the presser foot, but in most cases it is the pice of fabric itself that weighs down on one side more than the other, and drags it out of line. If you test sew two layers of smaller pieces of fabric it might behave differently.

Cari-in-Oly

Another thing to check is the presser foot pressure. A little too much pressure can cause uneven feeding.

Cari