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55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating for presser-foot fanatics, May 22, 2009
This review is from: The Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook (Paperback)
This is a great little book for those of us who love sewing attachments (in this book it's 98% pressure feet). This is especially true of the pre-computerized machine owners like myself who can't just program in a special effect, and who wonder how to use all those little extra feet that came with the 1980 Sears Kenmore, or whatever. My original machine handbook had very sketchy descriptions for its attachments and barely covered what they were for, without any insight on how to use them. This book does a wonderful job of filling in all those missing details, along with handy little tips on how to expand the original purpose of all those exotic, odd-looking pressure feet. This is a book that will nourish the soul of mechanical gadget junkies like myself.
A caveat is that unless you do a heck of a lot of sewing, and feel compelled to make your own bias binding, etc. you probably won't purchase or use many of the special feet and attachments described. Even so I found this book fascinating reading, and really expanded my ideas of what I can do with my machine as far as creating my own ruffles, pintucks and so forth, should I ever need to.
The only quibbles I have with this book is that it isn't inclusive enough. I still have a couple of mystery pressure feet that weren't described in this book, possibly because for some reason Sears Kenmore isn't even mentioned in the book's long list of sewing machines. Also, I didn't find any discussion at all of why some of the more exotic feet are really necessary, when their function can be performed adequately by a standard zigzag pressure foot. Otherwise this is a great little reference, with nicely detailed photos and descriptions that make the various techniques seem so foolproof. We know it's not really that easy, but it's nice to have a book that gives you a good idea of where to start. Definitely a need-to-have for the serious home sewer.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Sourcebook, June 5, 2009
This review is from: The Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook (Paperback)
Warm photos with clear details make this a must have for vintage sewing machine owners! Close up photographs, clear written instructions help a lot. I like the fact that it works for many different machines, not just Singer models or the 221 Featherweight. Entertaining as well to see what developed in time, and what is unchanged today.
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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sewing Machine Attachments, July 30, 2009
This review is from: The Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook (Paperback)
I got this book in the hopes that it would shed some light on more uses for the 10+ presser feet that came with my modern sewing machine. What I found was this book focuses for the most part on old and VINTAGE presser feet and sewing machines. The first 20 or so pages of the book dealt with buying a used older sewing machine including the feet that may come with it. Then it went through the most popularly found vintage feet and how to use them. Thankfully a few of the feet are still being made and come with modern sewing machines so it was nice to get a better working knowledge of some different ways to use them, for instance using a hemmer foot to do Flatfelling if you don't have a flatfelling foot. There are plenty of full color photo illustrations in this book.
Don't count on being able to find the featured presser feet and being able to fit them on your modern sewing machine. I have two nonworking vintage sewing machines with plenty of old presser feet and none of them fit my machine. So if you are going on a presser foot hunt, be very careful that you get ones that fit your own sewing machine. This book at least helps you determine what to look for in the many types of presser feet that were manufactured.
I would have appreciated knowing prior to purchase that this book was mainly about vintage presser feet as I would have skipped buying it. If you are looking for hints on using all the different feet that come with your modern machine, you are most likely going to have to look elsewhere for many of them.
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