The Upholstery Forum

Hi,

I am totally new to any sewing projects and tasks and I need some guidance please. I am in UK

I have a van conversion project and would like to do the upholstery myself. It would be fabric upholstery but possibly leather although it would be fairly soft and thin leather or leatherette. I also sail dinghy's and was wondering if I could make new sails too - material would be dacron, and quite then also, although would need to stitch multiple layers at edges etc

I am on a budget and do not want to spend too much as will only be doing my own projects and nothing commercial plus the projects will be occasional. So my question is what would be a decent beginners heavy duty sewing machine on a budget please

Thanks

This will come down to what your budget is. Not knowing that, i would suggest, a used Juki 1541 or Consew 206rb. Will probably be ~$1200 used unless you find a good deal. They are both easy to operate, if anything goes wrong with it you can normally find someone to work on it, and they are the mainstream machines most everyone has used at one point or another.
Another option could be Sailrite's LS-1. Entry level heavy duty portable with great support from the company even if you buy one used. A brand new one runs $995 but used ones can be found for $600-700.
If your budget allows for a newer machine, look at www.n-ccarpet.com , the NC6 is a Consew 206 but comes with nc's warranty and support.
There are tons of other options out there too. Paff, Typical, Thor, etc, etc...