A little change to make a BIG differance on Cowboy sewing machines

[BigSiouxSaddlery]

1 hour ago, RockyAussie said:

Good news to hear @BigSiouxSaddlery Just out of interest a couple of months ago I got a job that required the use of some sheepskin to be able to be put onto a wheel electric wheel chair armrest. I never got to take any pictures of it installed on the wheel chair unfortunately but was told that the fitted beautifully. The interesting thing about the job was that I designed it to be stitched with the fleece on both sides of the stitch line. Try as I might I could not find anything online anywhere on how this could be done so I went ahead and just gave it a go. Initially I had trouble with the standard needle plate due to the fleece getting caught up in the gap between the dog foot and needle plate so I switched over to the narrow needle plate set which has a lot smaller clearance for the fleece to get stuck in. That worked better but the the skinny foot kept getting caught up in the top fleece. I found a wider foot for the top and bingo my troubles were fixed. here are a few pictures to show some of it which may help -

The armrests to be covered. The sheepskin has to be able to be removed easily for cleaning as well.

 

I found that it was better to use brown thread in order to be able to see where I was stitching as i went. It does not show at all in the finished job.

Has anybody seen any examples of stitching done this way before? Do you have any links to share?

Well that looks like a challenge for sure.  I'm afraid I have no insight to offer.  The sheepskin for saddle skirts is only on the bottom side as it is stitched, so the foot doesn't come in contact with the fleece.  I've heard people complain about the fleece getting caught in the standard feed dog, but oddly enough, I've never ever had a problem with mine.  I think the problem with the narrow dog not feeding it as well was due to there being less surface area to contact the material rather than any fault of the parts. Saddle skirts with dense wool an inch in length is asking plenty of any machine with feed dogs. 

I guess now that I think about it, I have sewn fleece to leg hobbles, for horses. With that project the fleece is on the bottom, then wrapped around the edges of the body and sandwiched between the body and a top layer.  Not such a fun sew.  But the foot still doesn't come in contact with the fleece, so I still have no advice! 

 

[Wizcrafts]

I got a flat slotted throat plate with my CB4500. The slot is long enough to allow for a half inch stitch length. The width is just 1/8 inch. I use that plate on the most difficult sewing jobs that call for this machine. Mind you, this was before I got the narrow dog and plate from Brian. My sense is that the flat slotted plate would be an excellent solution for sewing fleece and shearling. The feed dog must be removed to use the flat plate, making the machine dual feed. The consequence is that forward and reverse don't usually match unless you manually watch the needle come down in reverse and fudge the stitch lever to align the needle with the previous holes.

[RockyAussie]

3 hours ago, BigSiouxSaddlery said:

Saddle skirts with dense wool an inch in length is asking plenty of any machine with feed dogs.

That I think is just one more of the reasons that the art of saddlery always leaves me in awe.

 

3 hours ago, Wizcrafts said:

The consequence is that forward and reverse don't usually match unless you manually watch the needle come down in reverse and fudge the stitch lever to align the needle with the previous holes.

Sounds good until you realise you can hardly see the thread at all let alone the needle hole somewhere in that hairy mess.

In the end it all worked out stitching up better than I could have imagined but after spending hours trying to find anything similar on the youtube etc I was getting pretty convinced it was not going to be possible.

Sometimes you just gotta try.

[DrmCa]

On 1/16/2022 at 7:40 PM, RockyAussie said:

The second picture above shows one of the seams like I am talking about.

Sorry, I did not understand what kind of seam you were making. Are you folding the edge? To keep furs out of the moving parts, you might try to wrap it in baking paper and to stitch over it then rip it off.

Edited January 18, 2022 by DrmCa

[RockyAussie]

10 hours ago, DrmCa said:

Are you folding the edge? To keep furs out of the moving parts, you might try to wrap it in baking paper and to stitch over it then rip it off.

Yes. What I have done there is folded the fleece back over on itself and stitched it up. In the bottom left in a couple of the pictures above you can see where I have already sewn around on the job. I don't believe it would be possible to cover the fur with baking paper and sew it due the thickness of the pile being more than an inch thick in combination.

[DrmCa]

There could be some other thin material that is strong enough to keep the pile out but easy to tear thereafter. A plastic bag? Pretty strong bags exist.

[AndrewW]

Just curious…does anyone have experience with the narrow plate and feed dog fitting on a TechSew 5100SE? Maybe @RockyAussie have you had any orders for that machine?

Appreciate the comments!

[dikman]

I'd be very surprised if it didn't fit, after all, it's just another 441 clone.

[RockyAussie]

On 1/24/2022 at 8:37 AM, AndrewW said:

Just curious…does anyone have experience with the narrow plate and feed dog fitting on a TechSew 5100SE? Maybe @RockyAussie have you had any orders for that machine?

Appreciate the comments!

So far there have been no issues fitting them up to the other 441 clones and I have sold a couple to other Techsew 5100 owners but as yet I can not say with a 100% certainty as they have either not had a chance to try them yet or they have not had a chance to share back yet their findings. As soon as I get any confirmation I will post it here. R..dall .....would you be so kind to confirm the fit is good when you can?

Edited January 24, 2022 by RockyAussie

[Thescandall]

On 1/24/2022 at 4:54 PM, RockyAussie said:

So far there have been no issues fitting them up to the other 441 clones and I have sold a couple to other Techsew 5100 owners but as yet I can not say with a 100% certainty as they have either not had a chance to try them yet or they have not had a chance to share back yet their findings. As soon as I get any confirmation I will post it here. R..dall .....would you be so kind to confirm the fit is good when you can?

It’s still on the boat steaming across the big pond. But as soon as it gets here I’ll give a report.  Looking forward to it.