My walking foot

No, this is nothing about either of my feet... the ones attached at the ends of my legs. They have, however, done their share of walking, considering that for many years I walked about 2½ miles along our road nearly every day, for the exercise. Then one winter the relentless cold and wind got to be too much, so I ordered a NordicTrack ski machine, and I've rarely walked along the road since. I do still use the NordicTrack 5 or 6 days a week, believe it or not, and I will soon have completed 27 years of regular exercise! Whew!!

But, back to the real subject, which is my walking foot! This is another of my favorite sewing tools. Have you heard of one before? As of a couple of years ago, I hadn't. But when I did, I thought it could be a very helpful thing to have, and believe me, it is! They're not cheap, especially one for an old sewing machine like mine, but I think I did get a pretty good deal on eBay. It cost me $37.50, but I'd seen one elsewhere for over $60.00!

I use it a lot. It's particularly useful for sewing on several layers of fabrics or on slippery fabrics. Its purpose is to feed the fabrics at the same rate from the top and the bottom, so that they end up even at the end of your line of stitching. It's very helpful for sewing bags, where there usually are numerous layers of fabrics and interfacing to sew together, and I think quilters also use them a lot.

This is what mine looks like:

I guess I should've wiped the lint off before I took the pics (over a year ago!), but it just looks very realistic this way. ;) And it looks even worse than that right now. But it gets a lot of use, and I don't know how I ever got along without one before!

A blogger I follow made a video demonstrating her walking foot. If you're interested in seeing it in action, take a look here.