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Gosh, thank you all for the really thoughtful, detailed replies. I really appreciate your help.

The fabric I bought is from a place near here that sells "closeout" fabrics. I think he buys stuff from mills in NC and then resells it. I suspect much of it is seconds or end runs / remnants or whatnot. Very little of the material is labeled, but this stuff was on a bolt and labeled. I was encouraged by it being polyester since I know that holds up fairly well to sun/UV and rot.

My office chair is failing in other ways, as well -- in the piston/gas cylinder, etc. for example, is failing -- and this project is as much for me to learn as it is to rehab my chair, so if it doesn't last very long, I can always re-do it the right way (another learning experience) or just replace the chair.

I'm also a welder/metalworker/woodworker and I've been messing with sewing machines for close to 20 years (though I just finally found a decent walking foot machine -- an Adler 67-GK373 -- at an affordable price) so I can relate to your comments, Gene.

Again, thank you all very much for your help. I suspect I will be pestering you folks in the future with more newbie questions, but will try to keep it to a minimum.

B.

Hey, all, new guy here, trying to teach myself upholstery (I worked in an upholstery shop during high school but that was 40+ yrs ago)...

Question: For upholstery fabrics, does differential stretch -- where the fabric will stretch more one way than another way -- should such fabrics be avoided for upholstery work?

I'm fixing an office chair that gets a lot of use -- it needs new foam, and fabric is ratty -- and I bought some heavy 100% polyester gabardine to cover it with. It's heavy and looks tough, but I guess it's a twill weave and has more stretch in one direction than in other directions. (In my case, it stretches on one bias a lot, whereas it has almost no stretch on the warp, weft or other bias.)

I'm curious whether, over time, this fabric will "relax" or "permanently stretch" in one direction more than in other directions, leading to looseness in that direction? Is this material going to give me trouble if I cover the seat of my office chair with it?

Another question: Should I orient the "stretchy" axis to be parallel to the length/height of the chair, so at least when it stretches out, it won't be cockeyed or angled?

My hunch is that fabrics that stretch equally in all directions would be better for upholstery but don't know -- maybe it doesn't matter?

Thanks in advance for any clues.

I recently bought an old Adler 67-GK373 and faced the same speed issue (Consew 550 servomotor). What I ended up doing is adding about 12" of aluminum tubing to the throttle lever on the motor, and reducing the motor sheave size from 3.15" down to 2.25" and it helped. Some of the folks on the leather forums apparently use jackshaft arrangements to slow down their machines a lot (and give more punch for leather).