New to Upholstery

[bobbin]

I would not have paid that much money, although it is a very serviceable machine and the table is a nice one. 

[kodydog]

I just paid $400 for a similar Juki. It doesn't have the wrap around table. No new motor and the machine overall shows more ware. Doesn't matter what you paid if you plan to keep it 20 or 30 years. When you start sewing professionally it'll pay for itself.

Good luck in your new venture.

[JuneC]

Did you use a welt foot to make the welting on your cushions?  If you don't have a properly sized foot and welt cord insert, making welt look good is going to be a real challenge.  Also, if you bought your materials at JoAnn's, as far as I know, they don't sell the foam core welting that you'd need - only thing I've seen there is the fiber stuff you'd use on furniture or pillows.

To help with the thread showing, try turning the piece over and sewing from the other side after the first pass.  Two passes on opposite sides can help tighten up the cord.  Eventually you'll get it done in one pass.  

June

[bobbin]

Excellent points from Kody (about the machine) and from June (welt insert and feet). 

I wander between marine work (at my straight job) and interior work (in my own shop) and I have welting insert for both exterior and interior applications.  Interior work frequently calls for larger diameter welting and I have welting feet in a variety of sizes; this allows me to welt a project with minimal frustration. 

Since you're new to the wonderful world of upholstery take your time and add things as you find you need them.  Welting feet can be expensive on first glance, but if you need a certain size the money plunked down will be money well spent.  I would counsel you to add both a right and left zipper foot to your aresenal, too.  Zipper feet allow you get right in close to whatever you need to and they are worth the money.

[Mike8560]

Welt can be done without a welt foot with a little practice  I first made some making due and just got better I wouldn't want to have to change feet now to do differnt things. 
I made this vid with normal feet sewing one handed


http://s782.photobucket.com/albums/yy102/Mike8560/?action=view&current=Sun6Nov.mp4

[bobbin]

Mike, how do you insert the welt into the seam and get the stitch line to fall between the insert and the line of stitching you demonstrated in the link?  I sew the welt to the top/bottom piece and then join the boxing.  I don't prestitch the welt before applying it to the top/bottom.  How do you get a nice tight welt when the left side of the presser foot is so wide?

I'm all about adding time saving feet to my collection.  But I come from a production background and doing welting the way you do would be a waste of time in a production setting; it's way too fumbly for rank beginners to the world of stitching.  The price of welting feet and the seconds required to change them is well worth the money!

[Mike8560]

oh I agree bobbing for a novice a welt foot where you could just run a big  length is the way to go. I took me alot of practice to get good.  Two jaded I don't have to keep stoping to hold ahead of the needle.
But as I find it so easy this way I would want to change feet to make it  and then remove them to sew a zipper on the boxing ect. 

On the wide left side of the foot it ride on top of the poly filler the skin y center foot witht the hole Wichita the needle passes pull the vinyl don't tight around the filler  I always sew my premade welt onto my top plate and then sew on the boxing.  s car as stitch spacing  I do it by feel I like to mKe the piping stitch a little loose the the remaing sitched are tighter to the left covering all the  stitches   Do you need yo sew the welt strip to the top ate then add the poly filler wrapi g the stop arou f it presewn to the plate?  I'd like
to
see that

[bobbin]

Ooh, baby, you're good!  it takes a practiced hand to do that without screwing it up.  Power to you, I'm impressed (mightily!).

But I'm for the easy way, buy the welting feet, lol. 

[TheJoe]

June, I made the welt using foam core I got from a local shop using what I think is a zipper foot just like in mikes video, just not quite as fast.  I'm not sure how much faster it could be with a pipe foot, just won't require quite as much attention.
Like he said I also found it should be done a little looser.  I don't plan on using the cushion I made, it was  learning project, the vinyl was on sale at joanns for about $8.00 yard.  I also used thin upholstery thread from joanns that isn't going to cut it (see below).

With that said I would much rather buy pre-made.  After looking at marine fabrics at the local shop (DLT, I think they are a sponsor here) i'm starting to think joanns Spradling vinyl isn't so bad.  They sell Spradling for $4-$5 more per yard than joann assuming it's the same stuff.  I'm going to see if they can order welt to match.  The only advantage I can see to making it is that you can make it much looser and that would probably be a good handicap for me.

When you guys say welting feet do you mean a piping foot that has a grove to keep the piping straight or a foot that has provisions to help feed the material and cord almost automatically?  Do they make such a device?
There are some deals on feet on ebay, piping feet at the shop I bought my machine are about $45 each, I think I can get by with what I have for all the (personal) projects I have lined up.

After reading/watching njpatriots thread/videos, I must have gotten jinxed because I started having the same problem.  I was out of town for a week and when I got back I went and got some 92 poly thread, I sewed a few test pieces and everything was fine.  I decided to play around with some sew foam I got and started having issues.  I spent about 4 hours making changes trying to figure out the problem.  I was having very loose stitches or getting major knots down below.  I took it to the shop this morning and the old man alerted me that the bobbin cover plate was turned around the wrong way.  I had never looked at the under side of the cover and he showed me the clearances/relief cuts.  He did some tension adjustments on the top thread and it worked fine, haven't put it back in my table to try it yet, hopefully that was the only problem.  After I left the shop I remembered that I tried sewing without the cover very slowing to try to identify the problem and it still knotted up on me.

While trying to diagnose the problem last night I thought that perhaps the top thread tension was too high because the top thread was breaking at times when things appeared ok down below.  With the tension dics fully loosened there was still quite a bit of tension.  I noticed on the flat post on the front of the head with the three holes that there are deep grooves worn in it.  The smaller thread I was using before went right through them fine but the larger 92 thread was hanging a bit.  I need to get a new one... or do I?  The old man at the shop I bought the machine from only uses the first and last hole and threads barber pole style.  Every resource I have seen online says to loop straight through all the holes.  I mentioned this to him and his reply was "who you gonna believe"...."There's lots of information out there, but it's not always right"..."You can usually just run the thread through one of the holes and it will feed fine".

He's tough to argue with and he helped me for free today, so I dropped the issue.  I guess I'm going to stick to his barber method until I get a new post, because the grooves are deep as I mentioned and even if it feeds ok it appears to be abrasive to the thread.

The man who owns the shop is quite a character.  I went and looked at the machine twice before coming back to get it.  On the second trip I brought material to test and asked him once more that everything had been checked and gone through to be sure I wouldn't have any surprises.  His reply was not yes, or let me have a look at it but simply... "Son, I've been in business 61 years."   

[sofadoc]

When you guys say welting feet do you mean a piping foot that has a grove to keep the piping straight or a foot that has provisions to help feed the material and cord almost automatically?

Both the front and rear feet have a groove cut out for the welt cord to pass through. They don't have any provisions to feed the welt and fabric.
Like this set: 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONSEW-226-226-SINGLE-NEEDLE-WALKING-FOOT-WELT-CORDING-FOOT-SET-1-4-/290613618097?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a9ebe5b1

I don't usually run my thread through all 3 holes either. But sometimes with a lighter weight thread, I'll run it through a few extra holes just to add a little "drag". Conversely, if I have some thread that's a little too waxy, I'll just run it through just 1 hole to reduce "drag". 

[Mike8560]

Also like sofa just wrap it through a couple holes. 
Check the post te tention disks are on I've had the thread cut halfway through before
and the thread will cut in the groove

[fingers]

Just a thought here on tension....2 holes vs 3.   Depending on thread thickness there does need to be enough 'pretension' or 'drag' through your barber pole (or thread guide) to keep the thread down in between those tension discs.
Another random thought here. I've seen some folks run their thread around that little post in the tension disc assembly. Never could figure that one out unless maybe there is a variety of configurations depending on maker.

[TheJoe]

Looking at piping/cording feet on ebay, I am seeing two different types,  One type has the entire cord running through the front foot only and the other has the cord going between the two feet.

Here are the two types:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONSEW-225-226-WELT-FOOT-SET-4-EACH-WW8-/290432882605?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item439f2617ad

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONSEW-206RB-225-226-PIPING-WALKING-FOOT-SET-6-PAIR-/390369368952?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae3d3db78


Any specific uses for either type or advantages to one type over the other?

Thanks for all the help and encouragement guys.

Joe

[MinUph]

I like the first type myself. Seems to make corners easier.

[sofadoc]

Another random thought here. I've seen some folks run their thread around that little post in the tension disc assembly. Never could figure that one out unless maybe there is a variety of configurations depending on maker.

That one comes up often. The short answer is that it is NOT necessary to run the thread around that little pin. Many people do, though.