[jbowling]

So ive been having trouble with this for a while, and no matter what i try, i can never seem to get my french seams to turn out anything close to decent when i hit a turn. at first i wasnt making "v" cuts in the material and the material would bunch up underneath and overlap as show in picture one on the backside. on the front side of the material, atleast 1 thread sticks out further than the rest, as shown in picture 2.

then i started making "v" cuts around the turns to keep the material from overlapping and bunching up. then it almost became the opposite. a couple threads would sit in further than the rest and the stitches would shorten up. as shown in picture 3.

Picture 4 just shows the backside of the material when ive made the "v" cuts around the area of the turns.

[jbowling]

figured it out

For anyone else who might have this problem aswell,
i stepped back and took a look at how i was handling the material.
im actually ashamed of myself cause you would think i would know better, but i was pulling on the material off to the sides. instead i just relaxed my hands and guided the material into the machine and let it do the work.

long story short, dont pull on the material!!

[DanTwoLakes]

You also need to tighten up your stitching so that the top and bottom look exactly the same. The stitches are too loose on the top. That can mean either the bottom tension is too tight, or the upper tension is too loose, or a combination of the two. I'd start by tightening the upper tension until the bottom thread matches the needle thread. The two pieces of thread should meet in the middle of the two pieces of fabric

[jbowling]

Yeah i fixed the tension when i did the new one. Thanks Dan

[John long]

That is a great improvement J. I did welting on my seats simply because I was not confident I could satisfy myself with top stitching. I absolutely love it, but, it just has to be right! Good luck and keep us posted.

[bentwings]

I just did 2 bar stool seats and used up 2 yds of material before I got it right. Long day, no real pay, haha It took a while to get the tension just right but I had lots of material to use practicing.