Let’s revisit one of the popular feet: Janome Border Guide Foot

One aspect of my job which I dearly love is to travel around to the various Janome dealerships to give presentations (when safe to do so) on all things Janome and to connect with you all on social media, namely the Janome HQ Instagram Live presentations each Wednesday at 1pm Eastern. Or, as I simply put it, “to share the Janome love.” It’s such a joy for me to meet so many Janome fans as I love to hear their feedback, suggestions, and especially their responses as I show samples of things I’ve made using the various Janome machines, attachments, and presser feet. Let’s hope we can start doing that again soon!!

One presser foot which always creates excitement is the Janome Border Guide foot.

Though this optional specialty presser foot has been around for a few years, I find it’s one of those little hidden gems which many sewists don’t know about it. I’m happy to help share the virtues of this foot and help it become more widely known as I LOVE it and use it every chance I get. Available for both 9mm and 7mm machines, be sure to check with your Janome dealer to purchase the correct size for your machine.

You’ll see in the above photo that the Janome Border Guide foot (FB) looks like the standard Janome Satin Stitch foot (F), but has flanges, or, I call them “wings”, on either side. There’s also some special markings on the front of the foot and on the “wings”, which is the key to why this presser foot works so well when stitching multiple rows of decorative stitches, as in my sewing machine cover pictured below.

I personally never cover my sewing machines; I suppose since they’re pretty-much in constant use, but I made a sewing machine cover as one of the samples which I take along to show at presentations, and show occasionally in my online classes from The Janome Sewing and Learning Centre. I turned to our friends at Sew4Home. for some inspiration as there is a TON of fabulous FREE patterns; tips, tricks and techniques to find on their website, such as a tutorial on how to make the Piping for the sewing machine cover, made even easier by using the Janome Piping foot, of course.

The parallel rows of decorative stitching were quick and easy to do; with minimal marking of the fabric, I might add, as I used the red guidelines marked on the Janome Border Guide foot to keep everything straight and uniform.

Below is a quick sample I did to test out the thread, fabric, needle and decorative stitches I’m thinking of using for another project.

ALWAYS take the time to experiment before you begin your “good” project. There’s so many variables involved, so you definitely want to do some testing first to ensure you achieve the results you desire. For example, since I’m using some dense decorative stitches, I want to also audition some choices of stabilizer to adequately support those stitches. Of course, my stabilizer of choice is from Madeira, and frequently turn to the Madeira Stabilizer Starter Pack as it has 12 different stabilizers from which to choose, and a very handy reference manual which explains when to use each type. 

The spacing between the red guidelines of the 9mm Janome Border Guide foot is approximately 3/8″ or 10mm, so it’s perfect for the nice wide 9mm decorative stitches of my Janome MC 15000 Quiltmaker, for example. However, as I mentioned previously, there is also a 7mm Janome Border Guide foot to use with Janome 7mm machines, so the spacing between those guidelines is spaced accordingly.

The stitching is in straight, even rows, as noted by my seam ripper pointing to the edge of the leaf in the photo below. The outer red guideline of the foot is perfectly in-line with the outer tip of the leaf. SEW good!

With so many of our Janome machines offering such a vast array of enticing decorative stitches, I thought the Sew4home sewing machine cover with rows of decorative stitches was a terrific project to test some out, especially when using the Janome Border Guide foot to help produce such terrific results!

I demoed the Border Guide Foot as part of the “A to Z with Janome” Instagram Live series @janomehq, so you can review all those presentations on IGTV on Instagram, OR view them on the Janome HQ You Tube channel. Click HERE to see that presentation. As a head’s up, since Instagram does not allow for landscape/horizontal orientation, when viewed on a different platform like You tube, the video is tall and skinny and does not fill the screen. When viewed on an IPAD or smartphone through Instagram, it’s no problem, but, realizing not everyone has an Instagram account, I load all these presentations to the Janome HQ You Tube channel in order to share more the of the Janome Love! 

Happy Sewing!