This week I’m going to be sharing my go-to sewing feet for bag construction, both on my home machine and my industrial.  To start it off, I am re-posting a tutorial from a few years back that I did on the Ribbon-Sequin Foot.  This is a really fun and easy to use foot that would be a great addition to your sewing box!

See you Monday!

After finishing some projects in the studio this week, I began to gather my materials for a challenge I am participating in at Ricochet & Away!  It’s called the Fancy Feet Sewing Challenge and what we are doing is showing unique sewing feet for our machines and how to use them.  For many of these feet, a project or tutorial will follow as well. I have about 10 feet for my new Janome, all low-shank.  I inherited most of these feet from an estate sale and ALL of them have never been used. Until now.  So today I will be showing you the foot I will be sharing:

The Ribbon/Sequin Foot

First off, let me say that I don’t ‘do’ sequins. Not since my high school dance and color guard performance group days.  With that said, you use the foot the same way for ribbon and sequins. Depending on your machine brand and age there are many variations of this type of foot. My foot is a 1/4″ ribbon feed. There are adjustable width ribbon/sequin feet that allow for custom stitching ON the ribbon.  Check out this tutorial HERE  for close ups! In my demonstration, I am going to sew a thin 1/4″ blush colored lace to the front of a zippered pouch.

Step 1:  Attach foot according to package directions and prepare ribbon to be fed.

Take the material you will be using and clip the end at an angle so you have a point. Feed the point of your ribbon into the 1/4″ opening on the bottom front of the foot as seen above. If it doesn’t guide easily through the opening, use something pointy to pull it through. Leave about 2-3 inches in the back.  Your threads also need to be pulled to the back with the ribbon.

     Step 2: Stitch Away & Done!!

I really could stop now it’s that easy, but I won’t!!  Here is a side view of the foot and how the ribbon is pulled through.  Once you are ready to go, take your material and place it under where you want to begin sewing ( a fabric marker/chalk would be good here ). Pull the presser foot lever down and begin.  What is so awesome about this foot is that the ribbon follows the way you guide your foot! If you want a straight line – you have a straight ribbon line. You want to create some curves or other funky pattern? – go for it. For the first row above, I did mine on a slight curve. When you hit the end, backstitch like normal and stop. The ribbon does not bunch.

Here is the start of my second row of stitching. This foot has no problem with overlapping ribbon.  And from what I’ve read and researched, this foot works excellent for sewing in elastic! See this video tutorial.

Here is the finished front of my zippered pouch. I can’t believe how easy it was! No bunching or other issues, just a nice smooth stitch.  And now for my final look:

Can you imagine the types of projects you could do with this foot? Besides thinking up new project ideas for this foot, I’m going to try and find an adjustable one to see how it looks with wider ribbon!