I was talking (well, typing) with Lavender of Thread Square about pintucks the other day and she mentioned wanting to try them but not having the appropriate foot. It got me thinking about whether a pintucking foot was really needed to get the desired affects so I did a little experiment. I made pintucks with a 3,0/75 twin needle using three different feet on a piece of scrap fabric from my latest Sorbetto. Here are my results:
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s possible to make a pintuck using a standard foot! In fact, pintuck (1) was wider than the two that were made using the “proper” feet. I found that by changing the thread tension it was possible to change the width of the pintuck when using a standard foot. Bare in mind that it wasn’t until the tension was set to 3 that the fabric laid flat. I believe this is due to the cotton voile’s weight and with heavier weights you’ll find that the fabric will be more resistant to “tucking”.
I was surprised to find that there wasn’t much of a difference between the shallow groove and the deep groove’s pintuck widths. It would seem that when it comes to pintucks, the only reason to have a variety of feet would be for corded pintucks (to accommodate various cord sizes). Can anyone tell me if this assumption is correct?
It’s worth noting that it’s completely possible to make pintucks without a twin needle, I just find them easier (and frankly funner) with one. If you are using a single needle then a grooved foot isn’t necessary unless you’re using cording. If this is the case then you could also substitute with an invisible zipper foot.
*Edited to Add* I’ve been calling the one of the feet that I used in this experiment a “standard foot (A)” but just to be completely clear it is actually called a “zig-zag foot A” or an “all purpose foot” in the Janome catalog.
