Furniture Factory Sewing Experience or knowledge?

[baileyuph]

In spite of it being relative mature technology, I still haven't seen the equipment furniture manufacturers accomplish self welting in their seams, primarily cushion upholstery.

Out of curiosity, can anyone bring a focus on this activity?

I know it is difficult to do on a custom shops equipment.

Doyle

[gene]

Howdy DB,

I do not know about factory machinery that makes the welt cord onto the cushion panel as one piece, or onto the boxing as one piece.

I learned how to do this on my sewing machine from Merv Knutson's videos. On rare occasion someone will want the pin stripes in the fabric to run through the welt cord, on the front of the cushion cover, for example.

Last week I replaced the welt cord on 6 sofa cushion covers. The cat had torn up only the welt cord. The cushion covers were factory made with that self welting. Once I cut the threads all around the cushion cover there was enough fabric left for me to sew on separately made welt cord.

gene

[sofadoc]

Out of curiosity, can anyone bring a focus on this activity?

Factories that are mass-producing form a precise template can benefit from self-welted boxings. But as a small "One-piece-at-a-time" shop, I've never seen any advantage other than the example that Gene cited about getting an exact match on pinstripes.
For me, there's a little too much trial and error in getting started to use the self-welt technique. By the time I get a good template to work with, I could've just sewn the panels seperately.

[Sömnad]

In spite of it being relative mature technology, I still haven't seen the equipment furniture manufacturers accomplish self welting in their seams, primarily cushion upholstery.

Out of curiosity, can anyone bring a focus on this activity?

I know it is difficult to do on a custom shops equipment.

Doyle

I used to work at La-Z-Boy. They did have a specific machine that fed the welt onto the band pieces. It would simultaneously fold the edges and feed the welt into it. You can recreate this process by cutting the band piece wider (like two welt casing widths wider for each edge) then do an according type fold, inserting the welt. Not sure how to explain it. But if you took a cushion from a factory, unpicked it and took out the welt, you would see the fold I'm describing. Essentially, fold the edge in towards the middle and then back on itself with the welt inside that last fold. When we did it at the factory, all the band pieces were cut then sent to the sewing dept to piece them together, then sent to the "double welter" then back to sewing to be sewn into a box cushion.
Not sure if this even answers your question??

[MinUph]

I've done repairs on this work. What a PITA but after getting use to it not so bad. Yea right. Without a folder it is hard. I feel for the seamstress that has to finish the end when sewing it on the cushion. It's not all that easy and I don't think the folder could be used at that point.

[baileyuph]

I used to work at La-Z-Boy. They did have a specific machine that fed the welt onto the band pieces. It would simultaneously fold the edges and feed the welt into it

Welcome Somnad, you are new.  Am I correct in understanding that the band is connected, like in a loop with the cord and zipper already incorporated, then this assembly is sent to the sewing department where the faces of the cushion are sewn to the band, forming the final cover?

Factories are so fast, I suppose the two cords are formed in the band in one pass?  If so, that would seem to be an unusual machine.

Yes, I have unpicked the self welted cushions, to perform repairs and in doing so have observed two techniques in the self cording process and sewing that band unit to the faces.  What I mean is in one method the finished cushion cover does not reveal the thread and in another method, a top thread is seen from the outside in the cord seam.  Or put more simply, one way there are no threads seen on the finished side and in the other way, a top stitch is seen from the finished side of the finished cover(outside).

In the "double" welt example, does the machine enclose the welt in both edges of the band in one pass or is that a step for each edge?

Thanks so much for your input, it helps as I have never worked in a factory process.




Regarding Paul's quote about connecting the boxing ends, I agree that would be, or is in a custom shop like mine.  I have encountered the task of doing what he is explaining. time consuming. But, at the factory, as Sonmad explains, the boxing ends have been joined by the time it is sewn to the cushion faces.  Correct?


Thanks,

Doyle

[Sömnad]

The machine we had ran both sides in one pass. They didnt form the loop in that process. They sent it to the sewing dept who would sew it into the loop and then sew the main cushion cover portions onto that. With the industrial machines it wasn't too big of a pain to sew over the welt. Of course if you aren't used to that process it's not easy and it's fairly awkward to line up the ends just right.
Yes, I am new to the forum. Thanks! I look forward to learning some of the traditional processes to go along with my factory ones. And if I can shed some light on the high speed factory processes along the way I will be glad to help.

[baileyuph]

Thank you Somnad, I really enjoy reading and understanding the efficiencies of factory arrangements and procedures. 

Your presentation is real clear, intuitively I understand the difficulty of joining the loop and how tricky that can be.

Going forward, when time allows, I will do some googling in hopes of seeing a machine that forms both edges of the banding.

Glad to have you participate with an interest in gaining insights of how the custom side of operations may work.

Collectively, it is a very experienced group.

Thank you,

Doyle

[byhammerandhand]

Welcome.  Your packet explaining the secret handshake will be arriving shortly.