Ellpea

Hello, I would love to begin quilting on my treadle, but understand that Whites do not have walking or darning feet :-(

I've tried making a hopping foot from a paperclip, but the result has been pretty lousy! Does anyone here have a resource or a solution to recommend?

rudy ryan

I have a Franklin 117 from the 1930's that is the same as the White 77. I think this machine has the same head as the Whites from the 1920's. I found that there is a device sold on the internet as a "daring attachment" or a "darning spring". Some are sold under the Domestic brand name. It is a tapered spring that fits around the needle and is held by the needle set screw. I basically acts like one of the free-motion hopping feet. Remember, the feed dogs do not drop on most machines made by White, so I made a feed dog cover out of a 3" by 3" piece of plastic and taped it down. I have never found a walking foot for the machines of this type. The Singer walking feet will not work because the distance between the presser foot shaft and the needle shaft is wider on a White than on a Singer. The exact width of the feed dogs is also not the same.

Candace

I tried a similar darning foot as the one pictured above on my White Rotary and didn't like the results. I re-homed the machine as free motion quilting is a necessity for me.

Rodney

The spring around the needle is the only one I know too. I just looked through a copy of a White Rotary manual. It doesn't mention darning at all and the quilting they show is all straight lines using a quilting guide.
Rodney

miriam

You can buy a needle with a spring on it and see how you like it. I find them hard to see.

Macybaby

I have not encountered any other than the spring shown above, and I have several different styles of them.

I hope to make one some day - at least a hopping type foot, probably not a walking foot unless I can figure out how to modify a Singer one.

Rodney

I'm toying with the idea too. Problem is I already have far more projects than time to complete them in.
Definitely a back burner sort of thing for me. It would only be for fun, not because I actually need it. I have plenty of low shank machines that will already handle those chores.
I wonder if there would be any sort of a market for modified walking and hopping feet? I know the market would be small these days if it existed at all.
Rodney