Double Needle Machine For Double And Single Stitch?

[ken sungela]

Hello,

I'm a beginner wanting to purchase my first machine for leather auto upholstery. My focus is making low volume, but high quality auto upholstery like what's shown below.

Looking at a refurb. Consew 206 RB5 with a servo motor for about $1000. Or, I found a brother b838 double needle walking foot with servo for $1900. Is it practical to do the double stitching with a single needle machine, or would I need the double needle? I understand the double needle is faster. I'm told by the seller of the Brother B838 I can remove one needle to do the single stitching if needed. Is this also practical? If so, I would have my bases covered with the double needle machine being able to do both single and double stitching. Any opinions?

[gottaknow]

If you're looking to achieve what's in the picture, get a double needle. I can instantly see the difference and so will a customer. We'll take a needle out of a double needle in the factory if we're short on single needles. When you do remove one, remove the left one. That hook rotates the opposite direction and you'll get a prettier stich from the right side.

Regards, Eric

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

This question comes up often when I speak with customers.

What Eric is saying is 100% on point, when it comes to French Seams like in the pic above.

The other thing that very important to consider is that if you don't have a single needle, how are you going to do cording or welting? How about zippers?

I've cut down presser feet for people who want to do this anyway on double needle machines, and they understand and are willing to make the trade off.

But, like Eric, would also tell you, you really would want two machines in the ideal world for this. It's up the the end user to determine what's thier best option when making a trade off.

Generally, I recommend a single needle 1st, then a double needle after that.

[CowboyBob]

We had a customer buy a long-arm double needle with the hopes of using it as a single.I tried to explain to him how it would be awkward & hard to use BUT he thought the one machine would do both his single & double needle work.He even had Tennessee Attachment make some cording feet & zipper feet.The poor guy dumped a lot of $$ in this & then after about a year called back & let me know I was right.Then he wanted to sell it back to me because he's getting out of tarps & just doing upholstery work.I sent him a few people wanting it & I guess he finally sold it.

[alexitbe]

This is interesting to hear... I can do basic single needle sewing, but nothing more with a double needle sewing machine?

What guage (distance between needles) would you suggest? What is industry standard in the clothing industry?

Cheers

Alex

[gottaknow]

3/8" is pretty standard.

Regards, Eric

[alexitbe]

Thanks Eric,

I will look for that size.... I am wondering in the world of garment making, so a double needle machine might be useful...

Cheers

Alex

[Trox]

Dropdown guide with a center guide is a helpful tool for sewing nice French seams. For keeping a constant distance from the center, both for single and double needle machines.

Tor

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

3/8" is pretty standard.

Regards, Eric

Eric,

As we all know, there is no "standard" of course, but garment is generally 1/4", upholstery, auto trim, French seams are usually always 3/8" like you said.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Gregg From Keystone Sewing

[gottaknow]

I have so many gauge sets for my double needles. Yes, 1/4" is the most common for garments, When we were making the official internment flags for the VA, we did everything at 3/16". I also will use a 1/2" gauge to set 5/8" Velcro where we sew the long sides at the same time, and simply use a 5/8" bartack to close the ends. We'll use a 1" gauge to folder set a channel for drawcords on jackets. Most double needle lockstitches will take a 1 1/2" gauge to folder set waistbands, though we usually use a chainstitch for that (Singer 300W class). Needless to say, I have a huge section of parts storage just for my double needles. In garment construction, we try to folder set as many things as we can to save money. Just like the seam on upholstery, it just looks more professional with those perfectly parallel lines.

Do you guys sell parts for the Singer 300W class? I'm always looking for sources. Imo, it's the best chainstitch ever made, being needle feed and some sub-classes having close coupled pullers.

Regards, Eric

[ken sungela]

Thanks for the feedback. 5 years ago I would have bought the double needle and tried to make it work like the other fella ...I think I'll listen to your advice and get a single needle to start.

What do you think of a Sewstrong GC-4400 with a SS-550 servo motor? Again, I'm not doing large volume, maybe a couple of interiors per year at most, but I want to be able to do stuff when I want and not leave the car a shop for weeks.