Re-purposing Feet

Let's talk about top stitching. It really helps finish off a garment and give it that professional look. If you're like me, you sweat over top stitching. You go really slow so you can keep everything lined up nicely. A few months ago, someone mentioned that they use an edge foot (or something like that, but that's what I remembered later when I was sewing) and it made things so much faster. So when I was working on top stitching later that week, I thought, "I bet something in that bag of feet that came with my machine is an edge foot!"

Did I LOOK at my book? Nope. I looked at my feet. The first one I picked up was my G foot. I have a Brother CS6000i machine. So this is the foot I found...

 I took one look at it and thought it would be perfect for staying next to that hem and top stitching... So I snapped it on and tried it out. This is now how I use it! I know, I know, I know... (Or more like I know NOW!) it's an overcasting foot! If I didn't have a serger, I might know that! But since I have a serger, I've never needed to know how to 'serge' the edges using my sewing machine. So this is how I use the G foot.

But sometimes, I need to top stitch fabrics that aren't always flat on both sides like the above piece. Ruffles are NOT flat. I was using my  foot for ruffles and it was going slower than it was when I was using my regular foot. The ruffles or gathers would bunch up and I would have to stop and straighten them out. So I went back to my little bag of sewing feet. Did I look at my book? Nope. I used my eyes. This is what I came up with.

This is the R Brother foot. It's a blind stitch foot. I can't find one on Amazon to link over here, but it came with my machine. Check your bag of goodies! Anyway, the blade sits in the ditch and keeps my nice ruffles from bunching up like it did on the end of that overcasting foot. This is what it looks like when I top stitch with gathers. This was the bodice of a full twirl top (Lazy Susan by Brownie Goose).

You can barely see the blade here, but it makes top stitching SO much faster and keeps my machine nicely in line. I like taking the stress out of my top stitching! I still sweat over it, but not nearly as much!