Furniture Upholstering with thin fabrics

[baileyuph]

The upholstery available for furniture work is so thin.  More time required to pattern, cut, and sew and install.  Most is supple as drapery cloth.

It has been more difficult to sew, almost like a lighter weight machine would be better.  I have been using thread size 69, mostly polyester.

Fabric composition is usually poly, of that I have used anyway.

Others finding the thinner material ok to work with and any tips to work with for it seems it isn't going away. 

Fraying on some is worse, could this be a hot knife candidate, said with humor?

Got two couches to redo, one selected the thinner stuff.  It is pretty but one has to work with it.

Doyle

[kodydog]

Just finished 4 dining chairs. The fabric is a 46" wide dress fabric. The customer is a quilter with a nice shop with cutting table and several machines. She knows fabric and knew this was not upholstery weight. Looks good but will never last.



The best advice I can give is make sure to add a fresh layer of dacron to everything. Especially on lighter color fabrics. Not only to smooth out the lumps but also to hide varying colors of padding that may show through the fabric.
Make sure to pick off any loose threads before applying the fabric.

[MinUph]

A liter weight machine will help. I wish I had one of those 111W's. I have always heard they are the nuts for thinner work.

[sofadoc]

Back in the 80's, all the decorators around here were crazy about polished cottons and chintz.

The best machine we had for sewing that stuff was a Singer 16-188.

I think a modern-day version of that machine would be a Juki DU-1181. Top/bottom feed only. Not a triple feed. Those machines seem to be gentler on thin fabrics.

I'm not really seeing an over-abundance of thin fabrics around here. The only cantankerous fabrics that I sew a lot of are the thin micro-suedes. 

[papasage]

with raveling  material i  serge the edges and thin material  i lay it on a  heavier material and  sew or serge the edges together . or you  could  put  thin re may on the back  . ( re may is a  foam with a  clout on back  used in auto  work )