Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Eyeballing a quarter inch is still a bit of a black art for me. When I’m using my standard sewing machine foot, it’s easy as the foot is exactly a quarter inch from the outside edge to the central needle position. But when I’m using my ancient Bernina’s walking foot, the measurement is 3/8, not 1/4… as I found out yesterday. Fortunately, I noticed the seam allowance seemed a little wider than usual before I’d stitched too far.

I solved the problem with some painter’s tape, laying it so the left edge was exactly at the quarter inch width from the central needle position (see the picture below). Another solution is to use a small pad of sticky notes so that you get a little ridge and can’t move the fabric so that it has more than a quarter inch seam allowance. But that doesn’t work for my walking foot as the foot would be up on the ridge and thus lopsided.