Friday, March 14, 2008

Fabulous Foot Friday! Braiding Foot

On to a foot that is for embellishment. The Braiding Foot or Couching foot tremendously helps keep your desired embellishment to stay inbetween the zig zag stitching. This is the top of the foot.

This is the bottom of the foot. Notice the groove that guides. You can use many different things to embellish your project with this foot. This one is better with things that are thicker. I use ribbon in the photos but you can use yarn, fabric strips or tubes, or flat trim. There are other feet that work better with thin yarns and threads.


Start with the ribbon (or whatever you choose) through the guide hole and under the presser foot. Select a zigzag stitch that is your desired width. You have some creative license here. You can have your stitches catch the edges, go off the edges or even be decorative down the middle. I chose to have my stitches go just beyond the edge of the ribbon.

As you can see in this last picture the ribbon is completely encased by the stitches. Another great application for this foot is a thread casing for thin elastic. This is an easy way to make an elastic cuff or waistband. Simply zigzag directly over the elastic before sewing up side seams. Make sure that your stitches do not catch the elastic. Once elastic is stitched in place you can pull it up to the desired finished width. Then sew the side seams catching the elastic.


I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about this foot. I am sure that there are many great ways to use it. If you have a favorite way that you use this foot please let me know. I would love to have even more applications for this foot.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

1 comment:

  1. Haha, I wish I'd known about this one awhile back when I was sewing narrow trim onto a Ren Faire costume! But I do have some skinny elastic work I want to do, so I'll have to see if I have one of these in the stash.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I will try to reply back to you if at all possible. Have a great day!