Two things describe a machine: how it moves the material, and what shape the bed is. The first matters far more than the second, and it is the one most buying guides skate over.
The short version. For upholstery you want a compound feed machine on a flat bed. Everything else on this page is either a step down from that or a specialist you will use a handful of times a year.
Feed — how the material is moved
A machine has to move two surfaces of the material at the same rate. If it only drives the underside, the top creeps, and on a long seam you finish with the two pieces out of register. That is the single most common reason upholstery sewn on the wrong machine looks wrong.
Drop feed Regular feed
How it works
Feed dogs under the material do all the work, moving it while the needle is out of the fabric. The presser foot only holds down.
Good for
Single layers of cloth. Every domestic machine and the lighter industrials.
Where it falls down
Anything thick, layered, or slippery. The top layer creeps and you finish a long seam with the two pieces out of register — the classic result of sewing upholstery on the wrong machine.
Needle feed
How it works
The needle moves with the feed dogs rather than straight up and down, so it carries the material forward while it is still through it.
Good for
Thicker seams than drop feed will manage. Keeps layers in register better.
Where it falls down
Still nothing gripping the top surface, so slippery materials can drift.
Walking foot Top feed
How it works
An alternating pair of feet. The outer foot holds while the inner foot lifts, moves forward, drops and grips — so the top of the material is driven as well as the bottom.
Good for
Vinyl, coated cloth, single-layer leather, most upholstery panels. Stops the top layer drifting.
Where it falls down
The needle still does not move with the material, so heavy multi-layer assemblies can shift at the point where you turn a corner.
Compound feed Unison feed · triple feed · compound walking foot
How it works
Feed dogs, inner foot and needle all move together while the outer foot holds. Three things driving the material in step instead of one.
Good for
This is the upholstery machine. Thick multi-layer work, leather, heavy weaves, anything where the layers must stay in register through a curve.
Where it falls down
Poor on very light cloth — the feed can mark delicate material. Less forgiving to set up than a drop feed, and it takes practice to get the settings right for a new material.
The names are used inconsistently, so here is a test that settles it. One supplier calls unison feed “also known as walking foot feed”. Another says needle feed “is more appropriately termed compound”. A third lists compound, needle and triple feed as three names for one thing. They are not the same thing.
Watch the needle as the machine sews. If the needle moves forward with the material, it is compound feed. If the needle only goes up and down while the top foot walks, it is a walking foot machine and nothing more. That is checkable in ten seconds and it beats arguing about the label on the box.
Bed — what shape the machine is
The bed decides what you can physically get under the needle. It has nothing to do with how well the machine sews.
Flat bed
The familiar shape: a flat table with the needle in the middle.
Good for
Long straight seams over big panels. Everything flat, which in upholstery is most things. The workhorse, and the machine to buy first.
Where it falls down
Useless on anything tubular or three-dimensional. You cannot get inside a finished cushion cover or round a headrest.
Cylinder arm
The bed is a narrow horizontal cylinder rather than a table, so work can be fed round it.
Good for
Tubular and three-dimensional work — headrests, bolsters, finished covers, awkward corners a flat bed cannot reach.
Where it falls down
Long flat seams are harder to keep straight with no table to rest on. Flat-bed attachments exist to convert one, which is worth knowing before you buy two machines.
Post bed
The needle sits on top of a raised vertical post.
Good for
Visibility and control on small, detailed, three-dimensional pieces. Precision top stitching where you need to see exactly where the needle lands.
Where it falls down
A specialist. Very few upholstery jobs actually need one.
Long arm
A flat bed stretched — more room to the right of the needle.
Good for
Large panels, awnings, tarpaulins, marine covers. Anything where the bulk of the work has to pass through the throat.
Where it falls down
Takes up a great deal of bench. Only worth it if you regularly handle pieces big enough to fight a standard machine.
The overlocker
Worth its own mention because it does a job the walking foot machine cannot, and because a lot of upholsterers do not realise how much use it gets.
An overlocker sews, trims and wraps the raw edge in one pass, using loopers instead of a bobbin. In upholstery it is edge protection: it stops a cut edge unravelling before you have got the piece together.
Only on cloth that actually frays. Plenty of upholstery weaves are stable enough at the cut edge that overlocking them is time spent for nothing. It earns its keep on loose weaves, nubby textures, linens and anything destined for a loose cover that will be taken off and washed.
The order that works. Overlock the cut pieces first, then straight stitch them together on the walking foot machine.
Doing it that way you are running flat single layers through the overlocker, which is quick and accurate. Leave it until after the seam is sewn and you are feeding a bulky folded allowance through instead, on a curve, with the piece already assembled. Both methods are used, but the first is easier on every count.
The overlock is not the seam. On woven cloth, an overlocked join on its own can fray along with the edge or sit oddly on the face side. The straight stitch is what holds the piece together; the overlock only protects the raw edge. A five-thread overlocker does both in one pass — a four-thread does not.
What to actually buy
One compound feed flat bed machine will do almost everything. Long seams, panels, cushions, covers, leather, vinyl, heavy weaves. If you buy one machine, buy that.
What is actually in my workshop, after thirty-four years. Two walking foot machines — a Jack kept for the thick work and a Juki for everything else — plus an overlocker, and a second Jack that lives in the van for on-site repairs. No cylinder arm. No post bed.
That is worth saying plainly because every buying guide points you at a specialist bed as the second machine. In practice the second machine that earns its keep is another flat bed, because what you are really buying is a second setup: one threaded heavy with a big needle, one ready for ordinary work, and no stopping to change over.
The forums say the same thing from the other direction. Upholsterers who do own cylinder and post bed machines report they make small curved work easier but only on a few seams, and not often — one trimmer noting it is less trouble to top stitch on the flat bed already threaded than to swap thread over to the cylinder for two runs. Flat-bed attachments exist for cylinder machines, so if the awkward work is occasional there is a cheaper way round it than a second head.
The exception is genuinely three-dimensional work most days — a lot of headrests, bolsters or finished covers going round the arm. Then a cylinder arm stops being a luxury. For most furniture upholstery it never quite gets there.
Thread and needles for whatever you end up with: the selector, thread guide and needle guide.
Sizing is standardised, so these numbers hold wherever you work. Manufacturers do vary slightly at the margins, though — if your thread supplier publishes a chart for their own product, it beats any general table including this one.