Connect with your social network account

[dedonaldson]

Hello all,
I have a Consew 225 and am making covers for a 4 door 1955 Bel Air bench seats. After gluing up the vinyl to the scrim and marking the 2" panels it occurred to me that it is going to be hard to fit the 60" long and 24" wide panel into the machine with my short arms and big gut!

I have rolled the panel in half and will be able to fit the bulk under the short arm. However, the difficulty will be in reaching forward to be able to control the first 12" as the seam is done! Other than putting myself on a stretching rack, do any of you have any techniques for sewing wide and long panels on standard arm machines?

Regards to all.

[Cale]

I am not 100% sure that I totally understand, but, from what I am imagining, would someone assisting you to feed the material help?
Another thought that I had were if you raised the machine, maybe to chest or eye level, so that you could stand and feed the material through the machine? That way, maybe you could get closer or in a better position.
If you can, or will, post some pics so that we can better understand the issue.

[BigRig]

@dedonaldson , you may want to search the laser light guide thread we had on here. If you are running a Servo and can control the speed you should be able stand/squat control the fabric yet keep stitching a straight line while feeding the fabric. Your not going to have that full foot on the pedal but enough to keep it sewing and get the job done! Failing that look for a shop around and pay them out to do that portion of the job for you, never hurts to reach out

[dedonaldson]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have attached some pics to show the panel I am working with. This is the "desired" panel size. I say desired because I am beginning to believe that I am will need to cut it in half and go with a non-pleated panel in the center to join the two halves. I think I will be able to fit a less that half size under the machine arm.

Another alternative I thought of to allow me to use the large panel was going to 1/4" thick scrim to reduce the bulk of the panel that would be under the arm.

Any thoughts are, as always, appreciated
.

[John]

You just need to practice. That is not the easiest task. You need to practice starting and stopping stitches and staying straight. Make sure you keep the needle sunk when stopping to reposition. Most of the inconsistency in those long stitches come from when you stop to reposition. It just take practice and you will get it

[BigRig]

@dedonaldson ,

You can do this despite your gut and short arms. That viny land foam are going to be your obstables and you may want to go with 1/4" scrim to make the job easier and start over looks like you dont have enough foam cut for that job. Slow and steady wins the race on this one. It would be very nice to see your progression with this since you are taking photos. Good Luck

[BigRig]

@dedonaldson ,

I would love to work with you on that project, love your machine!

[dedonaldson]

Thanks folks.
John, my problem is not getting a straight stitch. The major problem seems to be getting a small enough "roll/fold" to feed through the arm opening to allow any stitching. I just thought there must be some "trick" to sewing the wide panels without the potential for bunching up in the under arm opening.

Will continue to post as the project progresses and will also include any lessons learned for the other rookies in the audience.

Back to it!

[Susy]

@dedonaldson Sometimes instead of rolling to fit under I fold it on an angle and adjust it as I go. I start with it folded towards me and once I get so far I fold it away from me and push it under the machine so most is on the opposite side. Sometimes it take a couple folds but I find it easier and less bulky to fit under my machine ....I hope that makes sense

[Cody]

I didn’t see this said, and maybe you’ve tried it. Anyways, it’s worth bringing up. Are you starting in the middle and working out, then flipping it around. Less to roll up.

[BigRig]

@Cody, thanks for mentioning this it is a good point! I was just assuming he would be which brings me to thinking his foam is cut a little to shy too. There could be some twisitng going on there and a possible redo.

[John]

Yeah like Cody said, Start in the middle if you can. With long sections like that fitting it all under the neck is always difficult. It only way to make it eadier is to use a long neck machine. But you should be able to make it work with you consew. Nice machine by the way!