Machine Foot making Imprint on Leather

[SonderingSusan]

Hey Everyone !

 

I was wondering has this happened t anyone else? Im sewing some top stitching on a bag, but after coming back to the stitching the next day, I've noticed the imprint of the sewing machine foot is still on the leather. It appears to have marked the leather. I was wondering what other people do when using a leather like this ?

 

I was thinking of taking the sewing machine foot to a jeweler and smoothing off the bottum of it . Could this work? Any / all advice welcomed and appreciated. Any other solution out there also ?

 

Thanks everyone !

 

Best,

S

Edited September 13, 2016 by SonderingSusan

[TinkerTailor]

Gonna need some more details, like what sewing machine are you using, what kind of leather, and best of all pictures of the marks. Some leathers are impossible to prevent marks of some kind. Some machine types chew up the leather pretty good, and may not feed well without the teeth. There is lots of info on here about feet marking leather. Solutions will vary by machine type and model.

[SonderingSusan]

Hi there @TinkerTailor

My machine is a Cylinder Arm Highlead. It has a slightly thicker arm than the standard cylinder arm you might see. I am using a quite thick leather , it has a "corrected finish " on it. I don't know how to describe the leather in thickness only to say it is about 0.6 millimetre in thickness. 

Im gone form my studio but can post a pic of the marks tomorrow. They are faint tracks sort of, that didn't fade away.

I would love to see all the info about feet marking if you knew where i should look ? i did a search and could only find on post with reference to this problem. 

 

Thanks for your time and help with this ! It is greatly appreciated !

S

 

[JLSleather]

.6mm is pretty thin stuff ... like what us boys over here would call 1 ounce leather.  Are you sure you didn't mean 1.6mm or even 6mm?

What to do with the feet (or TO the feet) will depend on what type you currently have.

 

[SonderingSusan]

 

@JLSleather

yea sorry i meant 6mm ! have a foot that is in two parts , One minute i will try post a picture of the foot.

Edited September 13, 2016 by SonderingSusan

[SonderingSusan]

Hey again @JLSleather, below is a link to a  picture .

https://postimg.org/image/6us91cosd/

 

Above is a link to a photo of the two part foot i am using for top stitching.

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by SonderingSusan

[JLSleather]

okay, 6mm makes more sense... so what them 'merican fellas calling 1/4", or 16 oz.

Yeah, you gonna wanna git them teeth off the leather.  You could grind them off, and then buff the foot smooth -- this has been done, but keep in mind that you're altering the length of the foot like that... and results wouldn't be ideal.

Better perhaps to contact the dealer - or a repair shop -- and get a set of feet to fut which are smooth.  Those feet really arent for leather, though they probably do just fine with fabric, canvas, etc.

http://www.highlead.co.uk/contact-HIGHLEAD.htm

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by JLSleather

[TinkerTailor]

If it is a cylinder arm highlead, it is a clone of another machine,. Many of the dealers advertising on this site sell various feet designed specifically for leather, and made to fit these clones. What model is the machine? Once you find out what it was cloned from, you are home free.

[MADMAX22]

Those are your standard singer 111w feet that are used by about a ton of sewing machines. You can easily find smooth bottom feet for your machine on any number of sites. 

Also once you get the smooth feet adjust the pressure foot pressure down to just what is required  which will help. It seems every time I get a "new" old machine the pressure is always maxed out for some reason. 

[CrossleyLeathercraft]

I use a bit of craft glue on the bottom of my singer foot to fill in the teeth so they don't leave an impression, but still enough grip to pull the leather through, it's not an ideal fix but it does the job for me!

[SonderingSusan]

Hey @TinkerTailor, @MADMAX22 and @JLSleather

I have got smooth bottomed feet for my machine. I have adjusted  the foot so that it only lifts the minimal amount when i sew ( this is what the manufacturers told me to do ) The marks in my leather are now WORSE. Any help , advice on this ! Attached is a picture of the marks. Also , using a different smooth bottomed foot the marks are pretty much the same!  

https://postimg.org/image/v3hhy9bof/

 

Thanks everyone for any input you can offer !

S

[TinkerTailor]

Its not about how high the foot lifts, as long as it clears the material you are ok. What can happen if it is too high is it won't come down far enough to put pressure on the leather when sewing thinner stuff. In actual fact, the drag marks on the leather may indicate it is too low. Hard to tell without seeing machine in action

The real  issue is pressure on the foot which is a different adjustment. Most machines have some kind of adjuster right above the needel to add or take tension away from the spring holding it down. This adjustment should be in the manual, can't remember if you have one or not... You basically want to back the pressure off until the material is lifting up with the needle, and the foot can't hold it down, or it starts to skip stitches, then add just enough pressure to keep this from happening. It also looks like the face of the feed dog may not be sitting level with the world, as evidenced by the fact that only one edge is marking the leather (if that is indeed the bottom of the stitch in the pic). It could also be that one edge of the dog is sharp, and needs a little filing and buffing. These issues are commonplace with asian made parts, which is basically all that is available new these days. A set of cheap diamond needle files and some emery cloth and/or emery cord are great tools to have around if you are getting into doing work on these old machines. Emery cord is basically string with abrasive embedded in it and is great for smoothing burrs in thread guides and needle plates, available from good sewing shops.