Accessorize Your Sewing

Every new machine comes with a little box of gadgets and sewing machine dealers offer so many sewing machine accessories it can be overwhelming. Many sewers tend to stick with the few accessories they know best, such as the typical buttonhole or zipper foot. Taking a few minutes to expand your knowledge of the accessories available will improve your sewing, whether you’re quilting or sewing clothing and home decorations.

Little girls love frills and ruffles on their dresses, but gathering yards of fabric takes time. Gathering threads can break, making the whole process a hassle. A ruffler or ruffle foot has slots for two layers of fabric. The bottom layer remains flat while the top layer is gathered into ruffles as you stitch the layers together. By using the appropriate accessory, adding ruffles is as simple and quick as stitching a straight seam, saving hours of tedious gathering. BERNINA, Brother and Janome all offer versions of this handy accessory designed to work efficiently with your sewing machine.

Stitching through layers of fabric and batting with a standard presser foot can cause the fabric to bunch as you sew, causing unsightly ripples on the quilt you've spent so much time piecing perfectly. Instead of remaining stationary, a walking foot moves up and down, compressing the layers and moving them smoothly through the machine with no distortions. The newest addition of center guides to the walking foot keeps seams exactly in line with the needle for perfect stitch in the ditch quilting. Combining this innovative accessory with a machine cabinet giving you a large flat sewing surface or using an acrylic machine table makes working with large quilts more manageable.

With sewing machine accessories available for routine sewing tasks, like rolling a hem or the intricate work of sewing on beads, there’s no reason not to take advantage of valuable sewing machine tools that can save you time and money. Sew Many Ideas carries several lines of cutting edge sewing machines, along with notions and sewing machine accessories to enhance your sewing, embroidery, or quilting experience.