one of those Grrrr.. problems

[fragged8]

hiya

This is probably for the upholsterers amongst the collective,
I've been sewing chanelle today and am getting that shrinking feeling
 
I've overlocked the edges which went fine but when i'm sewing the
welt on with my Juki i get a little ripple in the main fabric, i can live with that.

The biggest problem is when I sew the boxing on the main fabric shrinks like mad.

I did notice i got a little shrink when I sewed the zipper onto the boxing too.

My machine is a compound feed walking foot and i was using a 22 needle
with a long stitch length.

The stitches are pretty tight but i can't seem to get them any looser and about the
only other thing i can think is the foot timing is off a little but it does look ok except
for one little thing. Just before the foot is about to lift the lower dog moves forward
a tiny bit. Like less than a millimetre.

Foot comes down and as it touches the dog, the dog lifts a tiny bit and they move backwards
together, just before the foot lifts the dog moves forward a tiny bit ?? does that sound ok ?

Rich

[Mike8560]

When you say forward do you mean toward you? My brother and I could ha e a good fight about this he would say forward is the way the material move through the machine as you sew
me il call forwrd towards me as I the front of the dog.
His machine tends to gather the bottom layer when sewing and you have to HD the top and bottom together even when sewing.

[bobbin]

First of all, Fragged, it's "chenille" (in French it means, "caterpillar" because the fabric is fuzzy, isn't that fun?). 

Secondly, I know exactly what you mean with respect to how your compound feed machine is reacting to the fabric! and it's frustrating.  It happens to me all the time at my job when I'm faced with fabrics that are lighter weight or have more "give" than the normal weight acrylics and vinyls we generally use.  Frankly, I think the compound feed machines are frequently "too much machine" for them, but that's my own opinion. 

Here's what I do:  drop your needle size down (I often go to a 16 and am cautious when crossing multiple layers).  Drop your thread size down to 69 or maybe even 48 (we don't have it in the shop and I'm unsure of the size, one below 69).  Loosen the tension on the top thread and the bobbin.  I check the tension by stitching on the bias of a sample of the fabric; and even then I often have to use my hands to keep the fabric evenly tensioned before and after the needle.  It's fiddly and it's frequently frustrating because sometimes you just can't quite find the "sweet spot".   Sometimes I have better luck putting the boxing on the bottom and tops/bottoms on the top... not sure why exactly, but it changes the overall feed somehow and often works better for me. 

At home, in my own shop, my options are greater as I have a very nice, strictly needle feed machine that is perfect for medium weight fabrics.  I will frequently use that machine to apply welting and insert the zippers as the tension controls are "finer" and the feed is "gentler" since there is no "walking" action of an outer presser foot.  I will then move to my new, walking foot Juki to apply the boxing to the tops/bottoms, but not always.

Hope this gives you some ideas and maybe helps you out.   

[fragged8]

hiya

I know what you mean Mike , when i say forward i mean towards the operator
and backwards i mean towards the table.

Thanks for the tips bobbin, i have a few things to try there . I'm really trying to
avoid this cover shrinking because it's a recover and I dont want the overall length
of the cushions to reduce.

I may have to think about a standard machine, mine is way too harsh on
light nylons etc. I didn't even give it a thought that it would be too much for the
chenille as I have sewn it before with no problems but it was a different pattern/colour.

thanks again and i'll let you know how i get on.

Rich
Merry xmas