Should I Drop Feed Dogs for Free Motion Quilting?

I received a great question about whether to drop feed dogs when free motion quilting from a quilter recently:

“I am interested in learning more about the “not dropping the feed dogs” comment. I purchased a babylock and love it, but I followed the instructions and drop the feed dogs when free motion quilting and it’s really annoying that the tension is so persnickety. If I could avoid that I think I would be in heaven.”

This is a great quilting question and just in case you’re in a hurry – no – you do not HAVE to drop your feed dogs when free motion quilting.

There are lots of options for setting up your sewing machine for this quilting technique. Let’s learn more about this together:

• Why I don’t drop my feed dogs for free motion quilting
• Three ways to set up your machine for free motion quilting
• Where did the “drop your feed dogs” rule come from?
• You have permission to free motion quilt with feed dogs up
• What to do if you feel the feed dogs tugging when free motion quilting
• Why dropping your feed dogs may make your stitches look worse
• Test and Decide What Works Better for You – Feed Dogs Up or Down?

So here’s a lesson I teach in every workshop and class, every book and pattern:

I don’t drop my feed dogs for free motion quilting.

I don’t drop feed dogs when I’m free motion quilting or walking foot quilting. I don’t drop them when I’m piecing. I don’t drop feed dogs when I applique. I don’t drop them here or there. I don’t drop them anywhere! I don’t drop them in a box. I don’t drop them with a fox….

Er… I ran off on a tangent there with Dr. Seuss, but you get my point!

Why I Don’t Drop Feed Dogs When Free Motion Quilting

When I started free motion quilting on my home sewing machine, I dropped my feed dogs loyally. That is what I’d been taught in my first machine quilting class, and that is what I read in countless books on the subject. For free motion quilting the first rule always seems to be to drop those little teeth down inside your sewing machine.

But what happens if you forget? What if you get so excited to quilt your next quilt, you simply forget to drop the feed dogs before getting started?

Will the Quilt Police suddenly ring your front doorbell, demanding you to stop free motion quilting immediately? Will the sky blacken with clouds of quilting doom? Will your quilt sit up and yell at you, “NO! Drop those feed dogs first!“

Nope, none of the above. This is why I don’t drop my feed dogs when free motion quilting – I forgot.

I’d attach my darning foot and begin free motion quilting and after an hour or two of happy quilting, I’d remember that step. Oops! Then after dropping my feed dogs, I noticed something interesting – my stitches looked worse. Hmm…

After a bit of trial and error, I discovered dropping my feed dogs came with an annoying side effect – it messed with the tension of my machine. My thread didn’t feed as well and broke more often when the feed dogs were down. So I stopped dropping them completely and my quilting got better.

Three Ways to Set Up Your Machine for Free Motion Quilting

The only thing you need for free motion quilting on a home sewing machine is a darning foot. This is a presser foot designed NOT to press your fabric hard against your needle plate. A darning foot, or a new option is a ruler quilting foot, will give you extra space between the quilt and the foot base which allows your quilt to move in all directions.

You may feel the feed dogs pull against you – this feels like a subtle tug on the quilt forward in the direction the feed dogs normally move. There are three things you can do if you feel the feed dogs pull like this:

1. Don’t change anything – Ignore the pull and don’t change any settings or functions on your machine. This is allowing your sewing machine to do what it’s designed to do – feed fabric forward. You can ignore the pull of your feed dogs and let this tug help you gain muscles in your arms, wrists and fingers to control your quilt. Nope, this won’t hurt your machine or your quilt, but you may feel more fatigue when free motion quilting for long periods of time.
2. Lower Your Stitch Length – If the feed dogs tugging the back of your quilt gets too annoying, you can limit that movement by setting your machine’s stitch length to 0.0 mm or the lowest setting your sewing machine allows. On the lowest setting, your feed dogs will bounce up and down and no longer actively tug against you.
3. Drop Your Feed Dogs – This is still an option if you really don’t like your feed dogs being engaged when free motion quilting. This remains the most commonly taught step for free motion quilting, but understand it’s optional. Do it if it works for you. Or try #1 or #2 from this list.

Where Did the “Drop Feed Dogs” Rule Come From?

The reason “Drop Your Feed Dogs” became a rule in the first place is due to the origin of free motion quilting – where this technique comes from. Darning feet were originally invented for garment darning – a process of repairing holes in fabric by stitching over the hole in all directions and filling the spot with matching colored thread.

Clothing fabric can be thin and delicate so when using a darning foot, many sewists would cover their feed dogs with a plate or drop them down into the machine. This made sense for garment darning. The feed dogs could snag the fabric and make the hole worse.

But we are not darning clothing – we are free motion quilting!

The old rule, “Drop your feed dogs when free motion quilting” is both outdated and unnecessary.

Leah Day

Because most free motion quilting books mention it, and most teachers teach it, quilter’s have come to believe that unless a machine has the capability of dropping those dogs, it can’t free motion quilt. Sewing machine manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon and started creating sewing machines with built in “free motion” settings which automatically drop the feed dogs for you.

This is unfortunate because, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my stitches don’t look as good when my feed dogs are off. My thread doesn’t feed the same. Making pretty stitches is harder with my feed dogs down. These new sewing machines with these new settings might not be the best choice for free motion quilting.

You Have Permission to Free Motion Quilt with Feed Dogs Up

Even years after writing this post, many quilter’s have been lead to believe if you don’t drop your feed dogs, you cannot quilt your own quilts. I still get emails regularly asking, “Will it hurt my machine to quilt with the feed dogs up?“

Absolutely not! Your sewing machine is designed to stitch with the feed dogs engaged. The only reason to drop your feed dogs is if you’re darning a hole in a wedding dress – garment darning a delicate fabric.

Please understand this is a rule we’ve heard and followed blindly, without stopping to see if it actually applied to our specific machines.

Does your quilt actually feed forward with the feed dogs up? Try it and see. With a darning foot or ruler foot attached and set to the right height over your quilt, the quilt shouldn’t move.

If the quilt does pull forward a bit (and you don’t feel like fighting the tug), set your sewing machine’s stitch length to 0.0 mm or the lowest setting your machine allows. This basically turns the feed dogs off because they’re not feeding anything anywhere. They’re just moving up and down.

If you don’t feel any feeding or pulling forward from the feed dogs, why do anything about them? They’re not hurting anything by being up. Your sewing machine is just working the way it was designed to work. This will result in better looking quilting stitches.

What To Do If You Feel the Feed Dogs Tugging When Free Motion Quilting

If you do feel a slight tug, why not just cover those feed dogs instead? It achieves the exact same purpose, and when covered with a Free Motion Glider, your quilt will glide and move so much easier over the surface of your machine bed.

Personally, I’ve found the only times a machine needs the feed dogs dropped is when the darning foot is badly designed or not adjusted to the right height.

I’ve said it a million times, but I’ll say it again: most darning feet are not well designed. They squish the quilt flat to the surface of the machine bed, making it almost impossible to move the quilt freely in free motion.

Click Here to find an inexpensive darning foot and a video on how to modify it make it great for free motion quilting. Straight out of the package, this foot isn’t great, but with a rubber band and a little elbow grease, it will become a terrific darning foot!

You can also shop for a darning foot and ruler foot right here and check out through my quilt shop website, LeahDay.com:

Why Dropping Your Feed Dogs May Make Your Stitches Look Worse

So the dropping of feed dogs continues, not because the quilt is really getting tugged by the feed dogs, but because the darning foot is squishing the quilt. Ultimately it’s always the feed dogs that get blamed for the quilt not moving smoothly.

But here’s the catch – most machines don’t react positively to dropped feed dogs. Suddenly tension goes finicky, thread nests on the back of the quilt become far more common, and the stress level of the quilter in question soars.

Who can blame you for getting frustrated? Your wonderful machine that has so far been a loyal and trusted friend has just thrown up ugly stitches all over your quilt.

Many quilters try free motion quilting, but throw in the towel after just a few minutes because they can’t achieve a decent looking stitches. Worst still – the blame for the bad stitches is usually put on the machine.

It’s now 2023 and I’m updating this post more than ten years after it was originally written. Within this time, I’ve quilted on more than fifteen different home sewing machines. Not a single one of these machines quilted better with the feed dogs down.

With all of my home sewing machines, I simply attached a darning foot I’d modified to fit nicely, lowered my stitch length to the lowest setting, and began free motion quilting.

My personal opinion is this: if a machine can piece beautifully, it can absolutely free motion quilt beautifully too.

Leah Day

Test and Decide What Works Better for You – Feed Dogs Up or Down?

The process of finding beautiful stitches and being able to free motion quilt confidently is different for every quilter. I hope this post has helped you understand the origin behind the “drop your feed dogs” rule and the importance of testing this setting for yourself.

Seriously, do a test! Free motion quilt with the feed dogs up, then free motion quilt with the feed dogs down. See for yourself which one works better for your home sewing machine.

Blindly following rules will never get you anywhere.

So test! Try modifying your darning foot, try quilting with the feed dogs covered instead of dropped, try quilting with a variety of different threads and needles.

But more than anything else: DON’T GIVE UP! Don’t stop trying just because things don’t work immediately. You really CAN quilt your own quilts in free motion, but only if you take the time to test and find what works and doesn’t work for you.

Whew! That was quite a soapbox for a sunny Sunday afternoon! I’m headed into the studio to get back to free motion quilting, yes, with my feed dogs up.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day