The Upholstery Forum

My name is Mike and I am a complete newbie.
I picked up a Thompson Mini Walker a few days ago in preparation for redoing my boat enclosure. I have never sewn a thing in my life and have been You tubing and reading as much as I can find.
Anyway the lady I bought the machine from gave me some material and I have been practicing a little.
I left the original covering on in case I royally scrwd it up. I added foam on top for more cushion.
A couple things I learned on this small project:

1) the foam needs to be cut smooth, I can see the imperfections through the fabric
2) make foam and cover a little bigger than base, pulling the cover tight shrunk it down and shows the base. I think wider foam would wrap the base and cover the transition, I could be wrong.
3) I see myself making more stuff

Hey @miket welcome to the forum. Looks like you’re off to a good start. Don’t be afraid to ask questions here, everyone’s nice and tries to help.

What you said about cutting the foam smoothly is a good observation. But this goes for everything you cut in upholstery. You sew using your edge on the material as your guide. Crooked cut, crooked stitch. Also, with the foam, not sure if you have sew foam or not, but it’s easier and usually comes out nicer to sew the foam with the material and cut off any extra later. John and cechaflo have great videos to watch and I’m sure both show this method as it’s common in the auto world. Keep up the good work!

All correct observations @miket

I wish I had more advice but @Cody pretty much said it best

Thanks guys!
I'll have to look into sewing the foam. It is 3" thick but I guess you compress it as you sew?

@miket sorry I misunderstood. You’re not going to want to sew 3” foam. What you’d want to do it build the majority of the seat out of the 3” foam. Then sew 1/2” or whatever thickness you want to the material. This just give the material a fuller look.

Cody wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:48 am @miket sorry I misunderstood. You’re not going to want to sew 3” foam. What you’d want to do it build the majority of the seat out of the 3” foam. Then sew 1/2” or whatever thickness you want to the material. This just give the material a fuller look.

Got it!
That makes sense

Thanks!

Hey @miket
I go into depth about the different uses of scrim foam in the seats course. I dont have any youtube videos on it but watch this video you can see me backing pieces with scrim foam at 7:53


I typically recommend 1/2" on top pieces and 1/4" on the sides. But it also depends on the look you are going for. Scrim foam rounds out your covers more than if you use no scrim.

Thanks again John

@miket pick yourself up a turkey carving knife to cut your foam with.

kl4bidn wrote: ↑Fri Sep 28, 2018 1:31 am @miket pick yourself up a turkey carving knife to cut your foam with.

Amazon was nice enough to send me one the other day!