Improving my foot pedal, Part 2

A couple weeks ago I told you how I tried to improve my sewing machine’s foot pedal by adding some self-adhesive, rubbery feet. Unfortunately, this didn’t last very long. I must put a lot of hard, forward pressure on my foot pedal because the rubbery feet all slid off.

I realized I needed to find another solution. I googled other possiblities.

One person said they used one of those honeycomb silicon hotpads/trivets. I pulled out mine and gave it a try. Although both the trivet and the foot pedal started out parallel to the floor boards, it wasn’t long before they were both skewed to one side. Not a good solution for me.

I noticed on the Steady Betty website that they sell “Pedal Betty” in various sizes. Basically, they are mats made of the same foamy material that is used for the pressing surface. Since I had a piece of that foam left over from my custom pressing table, I decided to try it out. I sewed two layers together so the foam was on each side, put it on the floor, and put my pedal on top. While it definitely worked better than the silicon trivet, it is still not the perfect solution for me. It is, however, a vast improvement over just placing my pedal on the bare floor. I did like the cushiony feeling under my heel, but the foot pedal still didn’t stay in place. I must somehow push the pedal as I’m removing my foot. Weird.

I kept thinking. I need something that would grip the floor better. I searched Ebay for non-slip pads and stumbled over those sticky pads that you put on the dashboard of your car to hold cell phones and other small things. I got two for $2.72 so I could test out my idea. I figured if they didn’t work for my foot pedal, I could always use them for their intended purpose. At first I just put the sticky pad under my pedal. It worked pretty good for quite a long time. Eventually, as lint began to build up, the pedal moved slightly but the pad stayed gripped to the floor. I ended up using duct tape to keep the sticky pad on my foot pedal. This little non-slip pad has been the best solution for me so far. The nice thing is that when lint builds up, I just squirt the pad with the spray bottle that I keep by my iron, and the lint comes right off with my finger and the sticky-ness doesn’t go away. But, don’t use a kleenex or piece of fabric to wipe away the lint because that just adds more lint.