Have you ever pinned something so perfectly only to end up with extra fabric on the top layer when sewing? This is because when using a standard presser foot, your fabrics are being fed through the machine at very slightly different rates. The feed dog is pulling in the bottom layer, while your foot is stretching out the top layer.
The Walking Foot (aka Even Feed or Duel Feed foot) is the solution for that. Although it does not come standard with your machine, a Walking Foot can be purchased for most domestic sewing machines and is an amazing and handy sewing tool.
The Walking Foot has a second set of feed dogs that allows your fabric to be fed though evenly. Great for sewing multiple layers such as a quilts, matching plaids, sewing though thick or napped fabrics such as velvet, and sticky fabrics… this means LEATHER!!!
Leather, of course, is a favorite amongst the staff here at The Make Den. So much so that we have an industrial walking foot machine for those heavy duty leather projects. But majority of the time we still use our domestic walking foot attachment on our Janome 625E.
With your domestic walking foot, you can sew through more layers of thicker fabric than you would be able to manage with a standard presser foot, but it is still a domestic machine. Be careful when sewing through multiple layers of leather, get a thin hyde, such as lambskin, and try not to exceed 3 or 4 layers.
If you want to learn more about sewing with leather, we will be offering a Leather Fundamentals class beginning in February!