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[sandmanred]

So far I've done welted seams in 3 steps. Make the welting. Sew welting to one piece. Sew that assembly to the final piece. I just try to take care to sew a little closer to the welt on each pass.

Can it be done in two steps? Make the welt and then assemble all 3 layers?

[Adam12]

It can be done! I'll usually make my welt with a single toe foot or zipper foot to keep that seam hidden well away from the cord.

[frankscustomupholstery]

There is an old saying that practice makes perfect however, the truth is, perfect practice makes perfect. I have been doing upholstery for 35 years and have sewn welt all the different ways, sew welt, sew it to banding then sew all three together. This will work but can be troublesome as it perforates excessively and weakens the fabric, being the welt that has three and sometimes more stitches, and when placed on the edge of a seat where you get in and out tends to tear the welt off prematurely. To prevent this, whenever possible I sew all three in one seam. The trick is to just do it and you will get it. Sure this method doesn't work for all jobs but about 99 percent of the time it works. Practice it perfectly and you will perform perfectly. I was taught by my mentor to not do it the way she did it because it wasn't exactly right to learn it that way. She encouraged me to learn it right the first time so you will engrain yourself to do it the way you learned, not the way she did it. She was right as I tend to sew all layers in one shot. If you waver a bit you can always go over the loose areas and still end up with fewer perforations in the material, especially when working with vinyl. Oh, yea it's a big time saver as well!

[John Long]

While I agree with Frank and know he is correct. It does take lots of practice and a good bit of time to become an expert at sewing all pieces at once. For a hobbiest who is probably never going to achieve that level of expertise, sewing the welting up and to the band in one step and then assembling the rest cuts you back to two seams instead of three and requires a little less dexterity and skill.

Frank is right about something else too. However you learn to do it is probably the way you will do it the rest of your life. If you intend to become a professional and make production count, learning to do it all at once is the way to go. It will put money in your pocket.

John

[souperdoo]

I definitely fall into the 'hobbyist' category. The sort of thing that I make quite often is tool cases and inner luggage bags for motorcycle hard luggage. I welt everything for this sort of stuff because it stiffens the piece up so that it has some body and form instead of being a floppy mess. The material here is 1000D Cordura or ballistic nylon.

The skill of sewing it in one pass is one that I don't have yet. Instead, what I do is make up the welting and then sew it to one piece, but I sew it well away from the welt. This makes two pieces sewn together that are in alignment. Then I add the third piece and make that seam close to the welt.

This allows me to be a skilless and clueless wonder, yet get the final seam done without over-perforating the material as Frank pointed out. I still struggle with getting that seam in as tight to the welt as I'd like it to be.

[John]

You can even sew it all together in one shot if your practice enough but its difficult and easy to mess up. I recommend doing it in 2 steps. First make your welting but also sew it to one piece of you project at the same time. Then come back and sew all 3 pieces together.

[sandmanred]

Thanks for the all the great ideas!

The other thing I've heard if you are doing multiple passes is to stretch out the stitch length on the initial passes but I like the idea of purposely leaving an allowance so the last pass is the only one as close as possible to the welting.

Thanks again!

[John Long]

Another thing to consider is, you can see your stitches if you run it through one way but not if you turn it over. If you run it through in such a way that you can see the previous stitch you can always be sure you are not going to leave an exposed stitch because it is too loose.

There are times you can't do that but it usually can be done.

John

[sandmanred]

One more follow up question on welted seams. After it's all assembled what do you do with the seam allowance so that it doesn't show through on the finished side?

[John Long]

Usually, it is sufficient to just make sure it is all turned the same direction. You can trim the selvedge off if needed. Just don't trim it too close to the stitch weakening the seam.

John