There is a way to expand usage of the machine without paying a small fortune for their feet---and it may already be in your household.
Here are pics of my Bernina 910 (mid 80s), my Riccar (late 70s), and my White 4042 (early 2000s) Click to see larger pictures.
Here's how:
You will need a low-shank adapter. They come in a choice of for snap-on or for screw-on feet and are available for old stye (OS) (through the 1630--am almost positive on this model) and for new style (NS). If your feet have red, then they are new style. (approximtely after '98). The adapters are in the range of $18-26.
(Caught my error. The models 1xxx-1630 are still old style, but old old style feet, like the barrel style foot on my Bernina, will not fit them, but feet for these models will fit back through these old machines. I believe some of these models do have red, but are quite different from the models which followed and are considered new style. To make things more complicated Bernina began repeating model numbers. Why, Bernina, why? Did you run out of numerical digits to use?)
Upper pic is the adapter next to the regular sewing foot. Lower pic shows the adapter added in place of the regular foot.
Here is a pic with the ankle from my Riccar attached.
Next are two examples of feet from my Riccar attached to the Riccar ankle. (No pics of the same with the White but they worked also, using the White ankle and the White feet).
This will open more opportunities for your Bernina. It won't add any utility stitches, but just expand sewing techniques without putting out all of that extra money for those Bernina feet.
These machine feet are 4-5 mm. I have a Pfaff also but it is 9 mm and I'm not certain that it would be a good idea to put thse wider feet on the narrower Bernina feed dogs.
Here I've put the very narrow (3mm) foot from an old Singer on and I probably wouldn't use it as it doesn't cover the feed dogs.
Further information:
Just in case you have this White (model 4042) and possibly 4040 is similar, it takes the same bobbins as this Bernina.
6 comments:
Oh nice!!! I love to hear about what sewing machine feet fit which machines and you certainly did a great job here. Your pictures are really helpful!! :)
Why, thank you, catspec. I went through all 40 pages of the Interchangeable Feet and noticed that you contributed quite a bit, but most of it seemed to be about Janomes and Kenmores. (The thread was started in '09)
Well, in the time since my previous post, some things changed: sorry you had to prove that you weren't a robot. They didn't ask about cats wearing glasses, did they? Also, it was so much easier to write a post than it has been in the past. Yay!! I haven't had to prove that I wasn't a robot on others' blogs, but then it's been a few months since I commented anywhere. Hmmm.
Informative post and great pics! I've never thought of "piggy backing" adapters, so to me this is a novel idea. Now you're all set to use whatever foot you want on your machines. Yay! :)
Thank you for commenting. I like the term "piggy backing".
It was really nice of Bernina to make adapters, especially since they are cutting into their own profits by doing that.
Yes, nice of them! My 1008 came with an adapter, but only because it came with snap-on feet that I have since replaced. I don't even know if it's considered a low or high shank? You are so right, those feet are expensive and some of the old-style are hard to find. Several of mine I bought used, and that saved me some money.
The 1008 was manufactured beginning in 1998 so old style feet should fit it. I think the 1008, which is still being sold by Bernina, is a little different than older machines in that an adaptor was provided for you so you can use the feet which came with it, which you mentioned. If the distance between the bottom of the foot and the center of the screw is 1" or more, it is considered high shank. (I thought all Berninas were high shank, but maybe not.)
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