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[Em Ski]

Hello!
I am a new member and am completely new to the world of upholstery. I am partway through a restoration project and got stuck when I realized I have to sew through 1.5" foam and fabric in order to "ease" the shape of the foam to match the original and make it fit.
5 years ago, I bought a chair from Goodwill thinking it would be a simple project to reupholster it, but I quickly discovered how naive I was. After pulling it apart, I got hung up on the question of how to sew through foam with just a simple domestic sewing machine to recreate the original chair's design, or how to ease/contour the foam through some other means if sewing through it is not possible. I have included pictures of the original chair for reference. After letting the project languish in my basement for five years, I finally decided it was now or never, and I stumbled across this forum while searching for different ways to solve my problem. If anyone has suggestions for how to sew (or otherwise compress) foam, or other thoughts on what I might be able to do to shape the foam in order to make it fit the chair, I would be grateful to hear them!
Many thanks!

[John]

Hi @Em Ski! Welcome to the forum!

To sew material that thick you usually need an industrial walking foot machine. You might be able to make due on you domestic machine by going slow and compressing the foam with your hands.
If that doesnt work you could also get a very similar look by cutting out each of those sections, backing each piece with 1/2 foam and sewing the pieces together to give it that look your going for.

Hope this helps!

[Cody]

1.5” is pretty thick for most standards. I would do what John suggests, or I’d think of a way to maybe sew .5” foam to get the look and then glue that to 1” foam. So you’re now sewing that thick.