Stoppax Embroidery & Darning Foot, (Vintage Original) The Singer Featherweight Shop

This little embroidery & darning attachment is one of those rare gems that might be stashed away in one of your vintage sewing accessory boxes.  Somewhat funny-shaped with a coiled wire, but ingenious in design and function.  It works very well with the Singer Featherweight 221 or 222K or any other low shank vintage Sewing Machine.  What’s nice about this attachment is that you can go from straight stitching to free-motion embroidery & darning just by flipping the upper wire. 

With the right instruction, feed-dogs covered or lowered, and the appropriate embroidery/darning attachment, Machine Embroidery can range from the ‘Practical’ (darning) to the ‘Artistic’ (embroidery)!

You can start out simple – everything, as you know, takes practice. But, before you can start at all, you will certainly need this Embroidery/Darning Attachment to help you.  Stephanie Yu-Falkenstein was very helpful in providing some of the photographs as well as creating this short video, under the video tab,  to demonstrate how she used the Stoppax Darner on her Singer Featherweight.

Take note of the following before you begin:

#1 ~ Attach a feed dog cover plate or put your feed dogs in neutral (raising the stitch regulator so that it sticks straight out or parallel to the floor will cause your feed dogs to neither go forward or backward and stitch in a stationary position).  Beginners usually find it easier to just cover the feed dogs.

#2 ~ Make sure the coil isn’t screwed down too tightly.  To raise the inner coil, turn the upper wire and it will “unscrew”.  You don’t want it down too far, but just enough so that with each up and down motion of the needle bar the presser bar is raised ever so slightly to allow you to move freely between each stitch.  If too much of the inner coil is hidden then it will take more pressure of the needle bar to raise the upper wire, which aids in the presser bar lifting.

#3 ~ Attach the wire over your presser foot using your regular thumb screw.  

#4 ~ Using a small quilt sandwich, begin practicing your free-motion work.  Yes, you can most certainly do free-motion work on your Featherweight, however, for long projects or quilts, be sure to give your motor a cool-down rest, staggering your sewing times.  For example, I made a baby quilt and I quilted it in quarter time allotments allowing my motor to completely cool in between.

#5 ~ Having a tube of motor lubricant is wise, too, because as the motor heats up it will wick the grease, lubricating the appropriate parts inside the motor.

Red-Work, Blue-Work, Green-Work, or what-ever-color suits your fancy are going to have an entirely different meaning with the ability to embroider it on your machine. Remember the old-fashioned Friendship quilts?  Take your finished quilt squares to a bridal shower and have all in the wedding party sign them in pencil or water-erasable fabric ink. Then follow their signature with your Embroidery Attachment – what a unique gift to present the bride. Or even as a baby gift, you could use a vintage iron on transfer with the darling prints and patterns from yesteryear and embroider a Nursery-Rhyme Quilt. 

Really and truly, with a little practice, you’ll be able to follow a signature in no time at all.

Instructions for use will be included.

LOW SHANK:  fits the Singer Featherweight 221 & 222K and all low, vertical shank Sewing Machines (i.e. 15, 27, 28, 66, 99, 185, 127, 128, 192, 201, etc.).

Embroidery Plate & Hoop are not included, but you can order them here.