How necessaryis a walking foot?

[Jeff Jeff]

How necessary is a walking foot for sewing heavy materials like 500d-100d cordura, nylon webbing, junior ballistics, etc? I’ve never tried sewing anything heavy (or very light like 1.1 nylon) before. Would a presser foot or rolling foot work? Are there any special tips or techniques for sewing heavy material without one?

[DAN-Y]

My personal experience says: Absolutely necessary.

[Kattt]

Yeah I think you should get one. What machine do you have? Is it hard for you to find one?

[Jeff Jeff]

It’s a 1970-something Elna SU 62c. I found a universal foot at a shop in town for $60. I found some universal ones online for $20, but I am not sure if they would work or not.

[Kattt]

I may have one for you. Let me check when I get home.

 

[bjc]

Jeff,

My wife who is a professional with this stuff says no, you do not need a walking foot. She too has a 1973 Elna and says use a 90 or 100 universal or denim/jeans needle and you should be fine with a presser foot.  She has made pretty much any piece of camping equipment  and clothing you can think of. The only time she would use a walking foot would be to sandwich insulation in a garment or sleeping bag.  If you do choose to purchase the walking foot she also says to avoid the universal ones, they are not good for your machine.  She also says please don’t ask how she knows that!

[Paul E]

Made a backpack and a tent and other assorted items and never used a walking foot. I sew 500d cordura, 20d, 30d and 40d silnylon as well as webbing on a domestic janome machine.

Put it like this, I dont feel any need to buy one and I am not an advanced sewer. Ymmv.

Paul

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve done a lot of sewing without walking foot, but maybe I don’t know what I’m missing

Does it allow you to sew faster?  If I was commercial every minute I could save would be dollars, but as amateur, I don’t care that much if it takes longer

[Jordo _99]

Summary: You don’t need it. These specialized foot attachments are just to make specific tasks easier. If you pin the materials to hold them in place, you’ll be fine.

 

I own a Singer 301A (1950s era) and it came with a walking foot and I don’t even use it anymore…it’s more hassle to switch out the presser foot than it the time it saves me. Actually, I don’t even switch out for a zipper foot half the time so I guess it could just be laziness. I should mention that I will swap in a binder foot anytime I can use it though…figuring that out saves so much time.

[Sam C]

You absolutely do not need a walking foot for 330D to 1000D Cordura.  The only time you “need” a walking foot is when sewing slippery fabrics (1.1 0z./ydsq SilPoly, for example) or sandwiching multiple layers of materials.  Even then, you can get away without.  A walking foot seems most useful when attempting to align patterns, so unless you want to perfectly align ripstop grids between seams, you don’t need one.

[Aubrey J]

I was told at a local sewing machine shop you do need one if you intend to sew through very thick material (I showed the shop my ZPacks Arc Blast as an example: the multiple layers of webbing in the corners and the sewn through sections on the shoulder straps where they made daisy chains for the sternum strap).

I’m kinda glad to find all of this input here that it might not be needed. Has anyone without a walking foot done tasks like the above?

I know its possible to make a backpack strap without sewing through if you feed the foam into the top and then sew it shut, but that might be a wonky way to do it too, I’m a rookie fwiw.

[Nick Smolinske]

I’ve done plenty of really thick stuff without a walking foot. Just go a bit slower and use a thicker needle. If the machine has trouble feeding the thick stuff through, try increasing the stitch length to compensate, and/or push the material a bit to get it through (be careful though, you can break needles that way).

The heaviest material I’ve ever sewn without a walking foot was a canyoneering pack made from 1000d cordura and 14oz vinyl coated polyester. It definitely got a little bogged down on the vinyl but it worked.

[Ito Jakuchu]

So, I was in a studio once and the guys their had new windows placed between two walls. Roughly 4×4 metres (≈13x13ft) of, obviously, quite thick glass.

Instead of window frames or even a minimal set up to trap the glass, they glued it to the walls. Was very cool looking, because you basically didn’t see anything detailing wise.

So I was wondering if there are people making soft goods solely using tapes or glues to connect the different sections of fabric?

Just curious.

[Paul McLaughlin]

Based on my experience of sewing anything and everything from .67 argon up to 1000d cordura, including sewing 2″ wide seatbelt webbing onto a hipbelt that was, outside to in: 4oz oxford, 1000d cordura, blue-foam, 1″ thick reticulated fiber, leno mesh – I’d say that anything you would want to take backpacking can be sewed without a walking foot. I expect it would have made some of the crazy sewing stunts I have pulled over the years considerably easier, but you can go without it.

[Sam C]

I know its possible to make a backpack strap without sewing through if you feed the foam into the top and then sew it shut, but that might be a wonky way to do it too, I’m a rookie fwiw.

 

I just hand crank through this sort of thing.  Slower, sure, but gets the job done.  You can also sew it by hand with a needle and thread or use one of those hand-held punch/awl sewing things.  You can also try adjusting the lower tension and/or pulling on the leads to help get things started.  The real problem I find is not being able to sew through the layers but simply getting the layers to fit between the dogs and foot.  If it does fit, it’ll likely screw up your tension, so that’ll need to be reset.  It’ll also be a good idea to change the needle afterwards; it’ll be toast.

As for ZPacks, I’m pretty sure they use something a little more substantial than your basic home sewing machine.

 

[Sam C]

So I was wondering if there are people making soft goods solely using tapes or glues to connect the different sections of fabric?

I hear this is the direction the big outdoor gear manufacturers are going, in particular with tents. Welded seams they are called; or something like that.  I’ve played around with it a little with some of that wonder tape, bonding tape, etc. you can find at a local sewing/fabric shop (the tape that you iron between fabrics to set).  Works okay, but requires a lot of pressure to create a solid seal/seam.

 

[Aubrey J]

As for ZPacks, I’m pretty sure they use something a little more substantial than your basic home sewing machine.

I do wonder what they use. But, it does look like a lot of table-top home sewing machines – http://d.pr/i/tMmA/4SLIcxWI

[Ryan Smith]

Zpacks isn’t sewing anything too robust. Probably using commercial style medium duty needle feed machines.

[Ito Jakuchu]

Me:

So I was wondering if there are people making soft goods solely using tapes or glues to connect the different sections of fabric?

Sam C:

I hear this is the direction the big outdoor gear manufacturers are going, in particular with tents. Welded seams they are called; or something like that. I’ve played around with it a little with some of that wonder tape, bonding tape, etc. you can find at a local sewing/fabric shop (the tape that you iron between fabrics to set). Works okay, but requires a lot of pressure to create a solid seal/seam.

Sam,
yes like you say it is used in tents/tarps, and also trail running brands like Raidlight use it for their vest packs. I’ve seen it in garments too, but heard from people I know at Puma how they do it required specialised equipment.
Especially in the Raidlight vest packs I have seen it was super nice because it was almost like there was no joint/seem. Very light, no chaffing, and looked like a solid and well, seamless, joining of parts.

I was just wondering if people use do that by themselves. I will try to experiment a bit with a couple of tapes like you did. But seems a bit difficult as a DIY technique.
Many thanks for the reply.

[Ken Thompson]

Sorry for the drift OP.

Ito, have you seen this?

[Ito Jakuchu]

Interesting – thank you!

[Author]

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