Give your sewing machines the super power of presser foot. Increase your sewing productivity and elevate the finishing of sewn garment by using the right type of presser foot. There is a presser foot for almost every task—from inserting zippers and adding a beautiful hem—to embellishing a garment with embroidery stitches, beads, and appliqué work.

Before we jump into the details, let's understand what a presser foot is. A sewing presser foot is an attachment or accessory used with sewing machines. It holds the fabric flat and feeds it through the machine while stitching. There are different varieties of sewing presser feet and new ones are constantly hitting the market. I am adding some of the most popular ones to make the sewing process fun and more enjoyable.

All purpose sewing presser foot

This is a general purpose foot capable of variety of stitches and functions. This foot is mostly used for your everyday straight and zig zag stitches, but the wide needle hole can also sew applique, joining, smocking, fagoting, elastic, shell tuck, and decorative stitches.

Braiding foot

The Braiding foot is the easiest and fastest way to attach trim, yarn, ribbon, rick rack and even elastic. Trim and elastic 5mm wide or less is most ideal for this foot. Simply insert your trim or elastic through the front opening, pull a few inches past the back of the foot, and start sewing. Adjust the front screw to fit your trim and prevent any mistakes or imperfections.

Fringe foot

The Fringe foot is a good tool for creating 3D flowers, heirloom seam joints, surface texture and custom trims with a simple zig zag stitch. This foot was originally designed and used to mark construction details by creating tailor tacking, so feel free to use it as a great marking tool as well.

5 hole cording foot

This 5-hole cording foot makes attaching decorative cords and threads a snap. This foot eliminates tangling to ensure that cords lie flat and perfectly parallel to each other. The cording foot controls threads so both hands can guide the fabric. Use this foot to create decorative stitching over cording on single and double layers of fabric.

7 hole cording foot

This foot makes embellishment edges, cuffs, collars, etc. with 7 cords. This foot works with zigzag or decorative stitch mode. Stitch over all cords.

Edge joining foot

Foot can be used to line up and sew edgings such as lace to edges of other fabric. Reference marks to increase accuracy.

Centered blade enhances ability to follow the edge of the fabric. Hold fabrics in place while leaving a space to allow open decorative stitches such as open weave stitches.

¼ inch quilting foot with edge

Should be called ‘Piercing foot”. The Quarter inch foot is the essential foot for perfect ¼ inch seams. The guide makes sure your fabric is always lined up.

Straight stitch foot

If you want to reduce puckering on lightweight fabrics and prevent delicate fabrics from ‘jumping’ and shifting, this foot is for you. The small opening on the foot provides support as the needle travels through the fabric, preventing flagging. The center needle position leaves no guesswork.

Open toe embroidery foot

The open width and clear plastic of this foot make it perfect

for projects that require visibility and stability, such as applique, surface embellishments, and stitching around intricate areas with decorative stitches. It even has a larger groove on the underside to accommodate thicker stitches and decorative threads.

Round bead foot

This foot is suitable for embellishing clothing with beads using threads with a diameter of up to 4mm. This foot has a narrow groove and is used to attach small beads or decorative cords. It is handy to attach beads or sequins to neckline, etc.

Zig Zag foot

Zig Zag foot is a general purpose foot capable of variety of stitches and functions. The basic Zig Zag foot is mostly used for your everyday straight and zig zag stitches, but the wide needle hole can also sew applique, joining, smocking, fagoting, elastic, shell tuck, and decorative stitches. A foot made from Teflon that glides over the fabric. Useful for synthetic fabric.

Cording foot

The cording foot makes attaching decorative cords and threads a snap. This foot eliminates tangling to ensure that cords lie flat and perfectly parallel to each other. The cording foot controls threads so both hands can guide the fabric. Use this foot to create decorative stitching over cording on single and double layers of fabric.

Overcast foot

This foot creates a consistent and accurate overcasting stitch for a serged effect using your sewing machine. Thread is locked around the edge of fabric, aligned with the edge, to prevent fabric from raveling.

Stitch guide foot

The stitch guide sewing foot is a unique foot that allows the user to sew with accuracy. The foot is incrementally marked and the user can simply line up the edge of the fabric to any of the red markings to keep a consistent seam.

7 groove pintuck foot

Pintuck feet are designed to create small tucks in your fabric virtually effortlessly. With a pintuck foot plus a twin needle, you can create beautiful, evenly spaced fabric tucks in a snap. Pintuck foot with 7 grooves are the best for very medium-weight fabrics. These handy presser feet make the job of stitching tiny little tucks in your fabrics.

9 groove pintuck foot

Pintuck feet are designed to create small tucks in your fabric virtually effortlessly. With a Pintuck foot plus a twin needle, you can create beautiful, evenly spaced fabric tucks in a snap. Pintuck foot with 9 grooves are best for very lightweight fabrics. These handy presser feet make the job of stitching tiny little tucks in your fabric.

Satin stitch foot

For perfect, pucker-free satin stitches, you need a Satin Stitch Foot. This foot is designed to evenly feed fabric and distribute stitches so your project comes out flawless.

All purpose/ zig-zag foot Jaguar

This foot has guide marks for left, center, right needle position, extra wide sole and zig-zag opening, ¼” opening in front portion of the foot to guide small trim, elastic, or heavy decorative threads.

Double welting foot

The Double Welt Cord Foot is used to make, trim, to cover raw edges in place of braid or trim on your upholstery and home dec projects, or as a decorative touch on pillows, cushions and other home accessories. Create any color of trim when the color you need is not readily available.

Invisible zipper foot

This foot makes inserting invisible zippers very easy. The grooves on the bottom of the foot hold the zipper coils in place to avoid any slipping while sewing. This provides an invisible closure on skirts, dresses, and all garments and can be used on other projects as well.

Roller foot

Roller Foot is effective for preventing fabric (stretchy materials like jerseys and knitted fabrics or hard-to-feed materials like leather or vinyl) from slipping or puckering, because the presser foot rotates to feed the upper layer together with the lower layer without slippage, so the upper layer and lower layer are fed simultaneously.

Blind stitch foot

A great foot for both embellishing and utility use. Adjustable for creating blind hems on a variety of fabrics. While designed for blind stitching, the foot works well for edge stitching, lace, and fabric edge joining.

Applique foot

Applique Sewing Foot is a very convenient foot when doing applique, embroidery, cutwork, and monogramming.

Open toe foot

Use Open Toe Foot to ensure accuracy of stitching when doing applique. With the open toes, it is easier to see your stitches.

Shirring foot

Shirring or Gathering Foot can be used for lightly gathering fabric as well as attaching the gathered edge to a flat (ungathered) fabric, at the same time quickly and easily. The gathering foot will allow the sewer to gently ease or slightly gather fabric for various garment and home decorating applications.

Darning foot (free motion quilting foot)

Clear Quilting Foot – this foot is also called a darning foot and may be used as a free motion foot. The foot raises and lowers with the needle to allow fabric to the moved between stitches and to hold fabric in place while stitches are created.

Darning foot low shank

The Darning and Embroidery Foot is used for repairing holes or torn areas. The Darning and Embroidery Foot is used for creating freehand monograms, freehand embroidery, thread painting, and most free-motion sewing. The foot releases the fabric when the needle is in the up position, allowing you to move the fabric freely.

1/8” round hemmer foot

A narrow hemmer is a foot of any width designed to fold a fabric edge over twice and stitch it down flat, with a straight stitch positioned along the inside fold.

Hemmer foot

Narrow Hem Foot is slightly wider and flatter to form and create a beautiful hem. This foot rolls the fabric while stitching with a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch.

Adjustable bias tape binder foot

Make beautiful edge finishes with your favorite bias tape. Adjustable to fit bias tapes in different widths, from ¼” (6mm) to ¾” (20mm)

Knit foot

Sewing with knit fabric has always been a difficult task. This foot helps greatly with puckering, thread skipping, and thread breaking.

This knit foot has holding teeth that holds the fabric at just the right moment as the needle is going down through the fabric. The foot is designed to work with your machine’s needle bar. As the needle bar goes up, it lifts the lever on the knit foot which pulls up the holding teeth and allows your machine’s feeding system to advance the fabric forward for the next stitch. A wonderful foot to have around for sewing on T-shirts and other knits.

Zipper Foot low shank

The zipper foot is adjustable from left to right so the needle can stitch very close to the zipper. But that isn’t the only use of this versatile foot. Use the Zipper Foot whenever you need a seam very close to the edge of the fabric, like when creating your own cording or applying piping.

Ruffler foot

Ruffles are easy to make with the ruffler foot. Use the foot as a fashion accent on blouses and dresses as a border for sheer curtains, or as a flounce for bedspreads or slip covers. With the ruffler you can make pleated or gathered ruffles, and both together.

Flower stitch embroidery attachment

Achieve a variety of beautiful patterns using the flower stitch attachment. You can use threads with contrasting colours and changing patterns to get beautiful designs. This attachment supports single- and twin-needle stitch. You can create concentric stitch, transposition stitch and combination stitch to create beautiful flower-like patterns on fabric.

Thanks for making it till the end and I hope you enjoyed learning the different presser foot and their uses. There are new ones coming in the market with innovative uses. I will keep this post updated.

Happy sewing everyone!