The Upholstery Forum

I noticed that the seat listing is unraveling threads. Is there a way to prevent the threads from unraveling?
Thank you

@Janet, are you referring to a seat cover that you have taken off and see the threads pulling apart? If so they are sewn into the seam most of the time and the seam threads may have let go.

Hi Big Rig,
Thank you for responding
No, not the old seat cover that I took off, but the new seat I am making. When I sew new seat listing to the new vinyl material the edge of the new listing is unraveling.
I thought about it and wondered if a zig zag stitch along the edge of the listing would help- what are your thoughts

@Janet, are you using a premade listing material?

Unraveling fabric:
1. Serger/overlock machine is designed to prevent this.
2. A zig zag stitch will accomplish this too
3. Binding tape
4. Glue
5. Hemming edge and sewing

@MalcolmM , you got it figured out. That is a good catch and know know why some fabric seams always have a zig zag.

@MalcolmM , you got it figured out. That is a good catch and know know why some fabric seams always have a zig zag.

Most of the automotive fabric I've used seems to be back coated to prevent unraveling, for residential fabrics that's not the case and it often has a problem unraveling, so does cotton canvas which I use a lot. I recently bought a 3 thread overlock machine to deal with the unraveling.

@MalcolmM , I have not liked working with canvas or fabrics at all. I stay away from furniture if I can for this reason and carry listing tape for automotive seats.

I can understand that, non backed woven fabrics are a PIA to work with but I primarily make sewn products and do residential upholstery where it's unavoidable. That's why I added the overlock machine, fastest way to bind an edge and no bobbin with a chain stitch machine, I was using a zig zag but it had a small bobbin so needed to be changed frequently.