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[Cody]

Well I did some steam work on this and it’s not as good as I hoped it would be, but it turned out better than I expected when I saw all wrinkles. I may have to order more material as I have other flat parts to wrap and not enough to do the seat over again. The front corners on the seat sucked in when I did the border stitch. Where the top and bottom cushion meet the material is loose. And the wrinkles.

@John all the patterning was made after the foam work was finished.

[Bondo497]

Wow what a difference steam makes!!!

[John]

Almost there Cody. A little more practice on the sewing and your there. Can you load a picture of the foam. I think you may get a better result if you dont taper the foam as much.

[Cody]

@John I don’t have pics of the foam. I started with less taper and though maybe it was causing the wrinkles. So I tappered it more but I can try again with less. I’m going to tear this one apart and and use it as a template and have marked where changes need to be made. Where the pleat meets the collar around the corner, where I agree there is too much material. What’s the best way to pattern and adjust for this to reduce material there.

[John]

No worries @Cody Vinyl is cheep and once you get the pattern for this you'll be set for all the next ones!
The way I make my patterns is draw all my seams and alignment marks on the foam. Then lay clear vinyl over the foam using some temp tac to hold it in place. now transfer all your seam lines and alignment marks to the clear vinyl. Do this for all your pieces and that's your pattern. I like clear vinyl because it some what mimics the shapes your able to cover regular vinyl.

Before you taper the foam more try to attach the listing tighter to the frame. This will compress the foam more and create a tighter smother transition. I hope that makes sense...

[John]

It make take some experimenting till you get it just perfect. Things like this rarely come out perfect first try.

[BigRig]

@cody,

how are you doing with that? I don't know if I could have taken that apart for a redo Would have to think about it a long time.

[Cody]

@BigRig i talked with the guy and he’s in no hurry. So I actually stepped away all last week and did some 69 charger seats. It was a good mental break and also time to look at what I have and how to improve it. Unfortunately as much as I’d like to not take it apart myself, my pride is getting to me and I know I can do better. So I’ve drawn a road map so to speak on it for when I take it apart. Then I’ll go from there.

[BigRig]

@cody, we had a 69 Charger with white interior. Nice project!

[Cody]

@BigRig i wish I could say I did the seats in this but he customer bought a set of covers from legendary. They’re actually nice quality and good fitment. They’re just going original style in black. I have to strip them down and rebuild the seats from the frame up. It’s a fun learning curve. Everything I’ve worked with has been newer or foam replacement. These are the traditional burlap, cotton layers up. Well the front buckets were foam originally so that’s a bit easier. But had to pay attention to where the the burlap went, the Muslim, and the felt so the frame wouldn’t puncture the cover.

[Cody]

@BigRig well it’s started. Going to rip into this after work to I guy and see if I can make a useable pattern from it. The sides I know I can. It’s the insert and collar I question.

@John I’ll remake the foam transition but this time I’ll go back to less of an angle. I have an idea on how to cut it with an old bandsaw of my gpa to get a cleaner cut.

[John]

Oh yeah band saws work great for cutting foam if you have access to one

[Cody]

So I tore the seat apart Thursday night. Didn’t get much work done otherwise. My wife and her brother are getting promotions in the military this weekend and we had a celebration yesterday for it. But I noticed something and maybe this has something to do with wrinkles in the corners of the insert and collar. I’ll explain the best I can. So imagine the top collar is like a thick upside down V. But the insert is cut to fill in a gap of something shaped like a U, the lines are straight. So when sewing the collar to match the insert, I sewed it and had the manipulate it and pulled the bottom legs of the collar in to match the insert. I messed with the one I tore apart on the table and could already see where it caused wrinkle by moving the collar legs to make the lines vertical to match the insert. So I need to make the insert cut out on the collar more equal. If the insert is say 9” wide the whole way. I cut the collar at 10” at the bottom edge and 9” as I moved up and need to make it 9” the whole way. This is just me laying in bed making up numbers. I’ll have to measure and see if what I’m thinking is truly the problem. But just at a quick glance it seemed so.

[John]

HMMM... Im not sure I understand. But if you just make your patterns wit clear vinyl and add you seam allowance. Everything should be the exact shape you need it to me and ready to sew up.

[Cody]

Well I think I have a much more usuable top. It’s not done yet, but it’s better already. This will basically get shown to the customer who already knows it’s the wrong color (scrap material) and will be marked all over with notes. If he likes the general seat I’ll take this apart as a pattern. I also have notes on paper I’ll keep. Now the bad part is, I changed the insert to make the seat look more full. It’s about an inch wider. I’ll have to remake the foam for the seat. I see this being the biggest issue as I’ll be able to get the foam close every time, but not exact. Making each cover have to be a bit different.

[John]

Looking good man! You should be able to reproduce the foam close enough every time with out having to make each cover different.

[BigRig]

@Cody
I really like the redo!