I knew I wanted a seam guide attachment for my Featherweight, since its original needle plate has no guidemarks. (Yes, I know I can buy another "original" with the marks and I will — just haven't yet.) The FW came with many attachments. Unfortunately, the seam guide wasn't one of them. So I bided my time on Ebay and bought a reasonably priced lot of sewing machine parts which not only included the Singer seam guide but a Greist version too. (And some other weird stuff I have no idea about. One day I'll post pics of those things too.)
This is the Singer seam guide on the Featherweight:
And here is the new resting spot for the Greist seam guide, on my coverstitch machine.
The stack of Post-Its works fine, until it gets accidentally knocked loose. And it does have to be "renewed" every so often by peeling off the old back sheet which has picked up lint and threads, etc. and lost its sticky. Eventually, I could go through tons of these things, which makes the Greist seam guide "greener" both in terms of not wasting sheets of Post-Its and it being rescued from a landfill. Nice side benefits for a nifty old gadget, eh?
Here's a blurry photo of them side-by-side. The main difference is that the Greist version has an ugly brown plastic capped screw which rides permanently in the groove. At some point, I may ask my husband to snip it off so I can sub a prettier silver screw. For now, I'm dealing with it. Brown may be one of my favorite colors — but for clothing, not on sewing machine attachments.
So now you're wondering where to get one, right? Well, the first place to look is Ebay. Search on "seam guide" or "sewing machine attachments" or "sewing machine parts" or even "Singer attachments." Of course, once you have the Singer name involved, especially the "Featherweight" label, the price may go up. These things are plentiful though and come branded by Singer, Greist, Elna, Kenmore and more. So be patient and you should be able to pick one up for under $10. You might even get it with a bunch of other interesting stuff like I did.
I tried to find a current version, but I wasn't having much luck with anything at a reasonable price. I did find this, which looks interesting. I have no idea about the website it's on though.
These are great. I was lucky enough to have one included with an old Singer machine and swapped it around between machines, depending on what one I was using. My latest machine, a Janome 6600P, also has one included in the accessories box. Must be one of those gadgets they have decided to re-invent because they are just so handy!
ReplyDeleteI might have one of these in an old box of sewing machine attachments. Now I wonder where I put that...
ReplyDeleteDeb - long reader first time poster. I got my seam guide from the quilt store below. It is really neat and they are made specifically for the featherweight. When I attached this little gizmo my quilting improved 100%. It was $7. They have one on their website attached to a featherweight. It is under notions.
ReplyDeletewww.houstonstmercantile.com
Houston Street Mercantile
(817) 279-0425
126 N Houston St, Granbury, TX 76048
Hope this helps - Yvette
Where there's a will you will find a way. :) Great solution. Funny, because I bought a "seam guide" for my Bernina overlocker two weeks ago which I too "made work", using some engineering and DH's tools. He doesn't know though. :)
ReplyDeleteI have one of the seam guides shown on the Hearmore site. They are quite versatile and mine is on my cover-stitch machine right now. I had one of the little guides with the brown screw and liked it a lot; I think it is on the Kenmore I gave my daughter-in-law.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a seam guide like yours from my Bernina dealer so that I could mark 1" seam allowances on my older machine that didn't have markings that wide. I don't recall the price, though.
ReplyDeleteI think I have one of those! My husband brought home another treadle machine (3). The first one was full of attachments I had never seen. Most say Greist. One is a ruffler, the rest I am trying to figure out. I found a pdf called how to use greist attachments some look like these. I will have to look again! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! I would not have imagined the Griest would work on your coverstitch machine. Super! If your husband cuts off the brown screw, how will you put in a new screw? BTW I have two of these similar ones with an orange screw, bought in the Netherlands--go figure, it's the national color! I'll have a look if one fits on my Babylock serger, thanks for the idea Deb.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of these seam guides which came with the accessories on older machines. I use them on my new machines, as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea...I don't have a singer (actually I might in my FW case) but I have a big box of attachments with my New Home Treadle and sure enough...a seam guide...the screw doesn't fit my coverpro but I have a screw for the coverpro that fits the slot and works!!
ReplyDeleteDebbie, I just received this book - "The Sewing Machine Attachment Book" by Charlene Phillips. It has some great information on attachments that we see on modern machine but also contains information of attachments that we may not know what are and how to use them.
ReplyDeleteDebbie,
ReplyDeleteHave you ever used wooly nylon in your lower looper of your CS machine?
A friend uses is on neck edges and armholes when she turns them under a little. The underside gets quite distorted but I had never read about using it before.I'm checking into buying a few more gadgets for my Janome CS machine after being inspired by you...yet again! Thanks!