[fennerford]

does anyone know if it is possible to do an interior at a normal house with just a sewing machine.

[kristkustoms]

And some spray adhesive, basic tools, scissors, utility knife with plenty of blades, straight edge, and a jigsaw. Maybe other stuff but i just got home from working 17.5 hours and Im dead and cant think.

[willys36@aol.com]

Sure is. Here is the first page of my journal showing how my interior is going together. You can assemble one with surprisingly little sewing work. The only sewing on my truck interior will be the seat covers. The headliner and door panels are all cut and glue. Regular sewing machines aren't very good because they don't handle thick stacks of upholstery and most don't have a walking foot which is a must. If you are serious, probably should watch ebay for an industrial upholstery machine.

[fennerford]

what is a walking foot?

[poncho62]

I have done headliners, door panels, pickup truck tarps with a regular sewing machine, but it would have been easier and better with an industrial model.

[kristkustoms]

Upholstery can be done with very minimal tools, but certain tools make the job that much easier. The sewing machine for example, i did my first couple jobs years ago with a household machine, but the machine i have now is so much better than a household machine. You could use a hand stapler, but an air powered one will be so much nicer on your hands. Etc etc etc

[daimon1054]

If you lay it out and do all the cuts you can get it sewn cheap enough. I just had a seat redone and they wanted a ton so I took the stock cover off took some time and took it apart and laid it on the new fabric then cut it and marked it. I had a friend's wife that sewed so she showed me how to mark the stuff so there was no guessing on how it was to be put togther. A local shop then charged me 1 hour labor to stitch it togther. I know I cheated because I had a pattern but I am sure you could do the same thing.

[willys36@aol.com]

A walking foot is available on the top end machines. It refers to a feature that allows the top foot to move in unison with the sawtooth in the bottom plate that moves the cloth as you sew. With just the bottom foot moving as on less expensive home machines, sometimes the multiple layers of slick auto upholstery shift in relation to each other and cause bad seams. With the top and bottom feet moving the stack, you have a fighting chance of everything staying together properly.

[fennerford]

so if my sewing machine moves the material as i am sewing it has a walking foot?

[willys36@aol.com]

Not necessarily. All machines move cloth through automatically with the saw teeth foot embedded in the base plate. high end machines have a feature that allows the foot that you lower to grab the cloth when you are ready to start a seam to walk the cloth through in unison with the bottom foot. My wife does a lot of quilting which is thick material too so she has one of those machines. I think the brand she has is Bernina. Totally computer controlled and programmable - it does amazing things but it cost over $800 so it should do something!