What Is the EZ Set™ Stitch Length Plate?

The feed regulator lever of the EZ Set Stitch Length Plate is a spring-loaded lever, enabling you to quickly and easily switch back and forth between forward and reverse. Simply hold the lever down to sew in reverse. When you want to sew in forward again, release the lever — allowing it to pop up to its normal position at the top of the plate — and continue sewing. Restrict the overall stitch length by moving the lever stops up and down. This is a much faster and more convenient system than those found on other heavy-duty sewing machines.

The EZ Set Stitch Length Plate allows you to sew up to 6mm stitches in forward and reverse. Its easy stitch length adjustment consists of simply loosening the two thumbscrews located to the right of the lever. Once those screws are loosened all you have to do is slide them up or down to your desired stitch length (the top screw controls the forward stitch and the bottom screw restricts the reverse stitch length), and then retighten the thumbscrews to lock in your new stitch length setting. In seconds you can set a new stitch length and continue sewing. The stitch length lever moves freely between the two posts but not beyond them, ensuring that you achieve a precise and consistent stitch length every time.

With the EZ Set Stitch Length Plate, it’s possible to exactly match the length of your backstitch to the length of your forward stitch, though it is a manual process that requires a bit of trial and sewing confirmation. Once set, moving the lever from forward to reverse is consistently repeatable — you can switch from forward to reverse again and again and the length of your stitches will remain precise and consistent. Having an equal forward and reverse stitch length is important in leatherwork. When sewing leather, you create permanent holes in the hide, so having an equal stitch length will produce fewer holes when sewing in reverse and will result in neat, attractive stitching on your leather projects. A spring-loaded lever that automatically returns to its forward position is also ideal for easier and more convenient bar tacking.

Prior to the EZ Set Stitch Length Plate, early models of the Ultrafeed — and some other current sewing machine brands — had a basic lever that moved up and down with friction and stayed where placed along the path. Often, such assemblies lose their ability to hold a position over time, and they’re also hard to set accurately. The lever was not spring-loaded; instead, it had a thumbscrew that you would loosen to move the lever up and down and tighten at your desired stitch length location along the path. Setting the stitch length this way — without the two repositionable, independent lever stops that the EZ Set system has — did not hold well and the stitch length was never equal in forward and reverse. If a customer found the lever hard to adjust, they would oil it in order to make it slide along the path more easily. This lubrication, along with lever vibration during operation, frequently resulted in the lever slipping its set position. We knew we could fix these issues, and with some hard work and ingenuity, we designed the much-improved EZ Set Stitch Length Plate. Watch this brief video comparing our earlier friction lever with the improved EZ Set Stitch Length Plate:

We didn’t want to overlook customers who purchased Ultrafeed machines prior to this enhancement, therefore all older Ultrafeed machines (pre-2015) can be easily retrofitted to accommodate this innovative part. In fact, we have a detailed instructional video showing you how to retrofit your older Ultrafeed with the EZ Set Stitch Length Plate; the video can be found on the part’s product page (item #105511). This pivotal improvement allows for better control of forward and reverse operation, and because this technology is patented by Sailrite, no other sewing machine on the market has this unique feature.

Are you an Ultrafeed or Leatherwork owner? What do you think of the EZ Set Stitch Length Plate? We’d love to hear your opinion on this improved feature that we’ve added to newer Ultrafeed machines and made standard on the Leatherwork Sewing Machine. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Footnote:

We updated this blog in February 2021 to include mention of the Leatherwork Sewing Machine.