Using a Viking Pintuck presser foot.

I have a very old Viking sewing machine, and it has served me well over the last 20 years.  She is still going strong.   I have lots of presser feet for my machine, but I recently picked up a 5 groove pintuck presser foot.  The only problem was the store from where I purchased it couldn't give me clear instructions on how to use it.  Great!  So this weekend, I took it out to give it a try.  (Incidentally, I believe Viking has a 3 groove, 5 groove and 9 groove foot).

Here is what my 5 groove looks like:

I was a little nervous about that little piece on the left.  Sorry about the poor quality picture.  I have the suckiest camera on earth.  Is suckiest even a word?  Oh well, I digress.  I had absolutely no idea how to use that little guy.  So I kept playing around with it and realized that the little hump on top is what creates my "tuck".  Duh!!

Here is how I attached it to my machine:

If you look closely, you'll see two holes right beside the feed dogs.  That is where the little hooks on this little piece snap into place.  The little hump fits nicely right in the middle of the presser foot (not shown here).  This picture isn't great either, but it was hard holding the scissors so I could point to the little piece and hold the camera all at the same time.  I thought about doing a video.  Hahaha, I can't imagine how THAT would have turned out.

Here is another view of those little holes.

You also need a twin needle.  You can see mine above.  On the presser foot package, it will tell you what size twin needle you should use.  I believe mine is a 2.0.

You will also need two thread spools.  Like this:

I have an attachment that fits on the front of my machine that is holding the white thread.  I actually went back and changed out that color, since I used white fabric for this tutorial.  You thread both through the machine just like you would a single spool.  Except, each one will be threaded through each needle.  I put my first thread through the needle on the right and the second through the needle on the left.  You can see in the previous picture.

Now attach your presser foot, and you are ready to begin.  I went through several passes before I could get a decent looking tuck.  You should NOT be able to see the thread underneath the pintuck.

 This picture is a bit blurry, but I think you can see the tucks fairly well.  And only the red thread is showing on top of the tuck.  The brown thread underneath should be hidden.  The tuck will fold over that thread keeping it out of sight.

You can also see how you line up previous tucks with the next one.  You simply place the last tuck in any of the grooves of the presser foot.  In this picture, I used the second groove to the right.  You'll also need to play around with your thread tension.  I had to use a tension of 8 to get the tucks the right height.  Otherwise, you'll simply have a flat piece of fabric with two stitch lines like this:

The tighter the tension, the taller the tuck.

And for comparison, here is a baby daygown I did with manual tucks.  That is, where I marked the tuck line, pressed it, sewed it, then pressed it down.

I think I like the look of manual ones better, but I'll still be playing around with the new presser foot, because they are much smaller tucks, and I actually might like them better than these.  We'll see.

I am working on another daygown and plan to use my new presser foot, so I'll have a really nice comparison.  I'm using white this time with hand made baby blue tatting.  Here is a sneak peak.  The tatting will go on both sides of the front placket and around the collar.  I'm excited about this one.

So there you have it.  A tutorial on how to use your new Viking pintuck presser foot.  I hope I explained everything enough and that the pictures are good enough to see what to do.  Please feel free to email me if I've missed something or if I've confused you.

Good luck, and let me know how you fair.

Angela