The Upholstery Forum

Hi there, I'm new to the forum, so hello!

I'm new to upholstery and am trying to figure out what kind of machine would be sufficient in order to get started. I have a wood shop and build custom mid century danish inspired furniture and I would like to start learning how upholster my work (chairs and sofas) in fabric(woven and velvets).

Firstly, it's hard to find much information on how to upholster danish inspired furniture (ie wegner, juhl, etc) so I haven't really seen what kind of machines people use to do that kind of work.

Additionally, my girlfriend is learning to sew garments so it would be nice to share one industrial machine to start with until I'm making more money selling furniture. I'm trying to get a small business off the ground, so every dollar matters!

There are some videos on yt that make me think that something like the juki ddl-8700 could be sufficient to at least get started with?


But I also know that people recommend a walking foot for working with leather and thicker fabrics. The only problem is that I don't really know what constitutes as "thicker/heavy" weight fabrics. Would something like the ddl-8700/5550 be able to handle common upholstery weight fabrics and velvets (not leather)? or is there a better all around machine out there? The 8700's coming in at under $1k usd is a lot easier to stomach then the walking foots nearing $2k. If it's enough to get started with, I'd rather do that and then save for a walking foot when I start selling more furniture, but for now I'm just wanting to learn without blowing the budget. If you don't the 8700 would be enough, could you explain in simple terms why not?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Best,
Tyler

Thicker & heavier is mostly a function of how many layers you need to sew through for seam construction. If you are sewing a cushion with welting and foam that's 4 layers of fabric and two layers of foam. It adds up fast. The 8700 is a drop feed machine and is great for garment construction and very light weight upholstery (residential) when you do not use foam. You will also have to learn how to "help" the machine along by pulling carefully on the fabric. If you get the standard 8700 you can sew with Tex 45 and perhaps tex 70, but the "H" version will enable you to sew with Tex 90 thread, but you will still have a small "L" sized bobbin. Walking foot machines generally have an "M" bobbin which is much larger. The 8700H has a larger needle plate and a dozen other internal parts to handle heavier fabrics and thread, you can then get a smaller needle plate for garment work and will have to figure out how to lighten the tension top and bottom to not cause "puckering" on lighter fabrics. If you are going to do automotive or marine upholstery get a walking foot, if you are only going to do residential work then the 8700H will work.

I know Kevin of Upholstery on Broadway, he also uses tex 40 thread for his seam construction with his Juki DDL 5500. That's a lot lighter thread than would be required for Auto/Marine upholstery, but Kevin specializes in antiques and never uses scrim foam on his cushions. For him it works, but not for me.