Apr 05 15
I Had to Try It!
If you have followed my blog for awhile, then you’ve probably been waiting for a post about modifying the Janome ruler foot into an open toe foot for ruler work. It’s been on my “to-do” list for months but we just now got around to trying it! I am happy to say that it was very easy to do and works like a charm as an open toe foot. We could have removed more material than we did, but I wanted my first attempt to be conservative. (We’ll be more bold on the NEXT foot we modify, and there will be a NEXT foot!!) With the modification we did, I can actually use all 4 sides of my foot, even running the ruler directly across the opening without causing any distortion of the foot or of the stitched line. This is because I left my opening fairly small, but the next foot we cut into will have a larger opening so we can test the limits of this modification.
To do this, mount the foot on your machine and then using a Sharpie marker, mark where the center of the foot is and how wide you want the opening to be. In my case, I deliberately cut my slit just a tad to the right of center, because I am less likely to have my ruler on that side. Here’s a shot of my pre-marked foot:
Load your Dremel tool with the “Cut-Off Wheel” as shown below:
Mount the ruler toe into a vice to hold it steady during cutting:
And next you start cutting. This cut very, very quickly and did not distort the symmetry of the foot at all (this was one of my worries pre-procedure.) And here it is mounted on my Pfaff:
I can now SEE my needle and pull my thread tails out of the way. I am one happy girl, thanks again to a very nice and talented husband!
ive yet to get a ruler foot. Need to find one for my Juki. Looks like you did well with the modification. Yay!
Thanks for sharing this. I can’t quite tell what it was exactly you did from the photos…did you cut a slit in the center front of the foot? I sew with a Bernina, and understand they are supposed to be coming out with a ruler foot for them, so am anxiously awaiting that!
Love your block!
I love your inventiveness and courage! Good job! Not sure I am ready to cut my own new toe yet, though I think I would like it better open. I will be watching to see the next installment on your experimenting — do you remember the Life cereal commercial, “Let Mikey try it!”? I will “let Patsy try it” and learn from you!
Bravo for you Patsy. I still have to try ruler work. Thanks for sharing all your tips to us.
We are lucky ladies to have handy husbands. I’ve not felt the need to modify the Janome ruler foot, but I’m so glad it worked for you.