Older sewing machines designed to sew only a straight stitch can be adapted to sew a zigzag by means of an attachment. The attachment replaces the machine's
presser foot with its own, and draws mechanical power from the machine's needle clamp (which requires the needle clamp to have a side-facing thumbscrew). It creates a zigzag by mechanically moving the fabric side to side as the machine runs. The zigzagger's foot has longitudinal grooves on its underside, facing the material, which confer traction only sideways. This allows the zigzagger to move the material side to side while the machine's
feed dogs are simultaneously moving the material forward or backward in the usual manner.
Singer zigzaggers Singer produced a variety of "Singer Automatic Zigzagger" attachments over the years, including part numbers
160985 and
161102. These zigzaggers are equipped with pop-in cams (called "Stitch Patterns") for making four different zigzag stitches, as well as a bight control for choosing the zigzag width. Four cams are included. There are also sets of additional different cams, four cams per set, sold as "Singer Stitch Patterns for Automatic Zigzagger". All cam sets are Singer part number
161008, and contain the following cams: • The #2 red set is included with the 160985 and 161102 zigzaggers. • Older #2 white sets have red-colored cams.
"YS Star" zigzagger "
YS Star" is a brand of Japanese sewing accessories that once included a zigzagger, model
YS-7. Like the Singer zigzagger, it fits almost any low-shank sewing machine and draws mechanical power via an arm connected to the machine's needle clamp. Its stitch pattern is controlled by small flat rectangular metal templates, seven of which are included. ==Blind stitch==