Tuffsew here, your Heavy Duty Sewing Machine supplier. So your passion for sewing plus some newfound free time got you thinking. “I’m going to start a business sewing up some cowhide to make cases for the new iPad.” 

Or “I love animals-so why don’t I make some unique dog collars.” Then I’m going to sell three of these a day on my website. So you went down to the leather shop and picked out the material. You arrived back home, took out your household sewing machine and started your dream-home business.

However you immediately run into a huge problem! You kept bending and breaking the needle and the stitch quality just wasn’t creating what you imagined. Darn! What do you do now? You start asking your friends who also sew…..and they say you need a portable walking foot sewing machine. 

So you do some research online and you figure out the details of the machine your friends told you to look for. The light bulb goes off in your head!
 

 
A sewing machine with a built-in walking foot mechanism helps feed your thick fabric through the sewing zone. This mechanism is a 2 piece foot which appears to actually “walk.” 

The inner side of the walking foot stay put on the fabric, while the outside part of the walking foot helps feed the thick fabric through the sewing zone. There is very little slippage due to the grips on the bottom of the walking foot. 

So not only the feed dogs, but now this special walking foot mechanism has a GRIP to grab your thick material and pull it through with absolutely no slippage. Here is an image of a walking foot in action:
 

 

Two benefits of using portable industrial walking foot sewing machine: you can sew more thicknesses and your materials feed evenly with the highest quality stitches. 

If you are going to be sewing canvas, leather, boating materials, bags, luggage, handbags, camping equipment, etc-look into purchasing an industrial strength built in WF sewing machine. Here is a YouTube video so you can see this walking foot in action: 

 
One more idea we want to touch on is:
It’s important that you understand a household sewing machine with a walking foot attachment is not going to provide the same results as an industrial strength sewing machine with a built-in walking foot. 

Most domestic household sewing machines come with a walking foot attachment-just remember this will not duplicate the motion of a true built-in walking foot thus will not sew as many layers or thicknesses.

Will these household machines sew leather? Do you really need to invest in another machine? The answer is yes these household machines will sew leather, but a minimum amount of layers. 

If you plan on sewing over 1/8″ thickness of the materials listed above-you are going to want to look into an industrial strength built in WF sewing machine. For more details on built in walking foot sewing machines, feel free to browse through our website at http://www.tuffsew.com