The Upholstery Forum

My project is re-upholstering the interior of my 1953 Buick Skylark. I have ordered John's door panel video course and started with those, figuring they would be easier than the seats, and plan on ordering the seat video course. So far, so good. My only challenge may be the arm-rests, because in this car they are not removable. The entire lower half of the door panel vinyl sweeps up and covers the bottom of the arm-rest in one complete piece.



Anyway, my real question is this - I will be taking the seats apart to use as patterns to cut the new leather. The entire seat cushion is top-stitched with vertical stitching one inch apart for the entire length of the bench seat cushion. So I know when I take that seat cover off, when layed out flat it won't be its true length due to the padded pleats. Is there some formula (or other method) for calculating the exact length of leather needed?



Thanks in advance,
Mark

This is the formula. Works great with1/2” foam

Just today, I ran a test strip of pleats to see what I needed to do to end up with 1 1/2” pleats? I realize my example is a different style than what you will do but bare with me.

I started with 2 1/8 inches of material for each pleat and ended up with just under 1 3/4” after sewing the pleats. That tells me that I can cut back to 2 inches and be pretty close to where I want to be. I will take just a tad more fold allowance to make up the extra fraction of an inch.

You will not loose anything like that with your top stitched pleats but if you sew a small test piece with 10 pleats it will tell you what your loss is. Add that to each pleat as you lay the job out and you can be "right on the money."

You will find the old cover will not stretch or contract much. I suspect, after all these years it will hold it's shape when you cut it apart and make a good pattern.

Hopefully you will share your project with us as you go. It is a beautiful car.

John

John,
Thanks for the reply and formulas. I was considering doing a test run and calculating from there. That's probably the safest way to go. I don't count on it looking anything like the show cars in the pics, but it should still be pretty sweet!
You've got an Alder. Very nice! One of my machines for custom leather-work that I do is an Alder 205-370. It's a beast.

@53Skylark, Thanks Mark. I love that machine. It really is a fine piece of machinery. Between it and the reliable SewQuiet servo, it makes me think I know how to sew as long as I stay in my comfort zone.

John

Hi @53Skylark Good question! I cover this problem in the seats course when you watch that one.
Basically what you need to do is sew a sheet of pleats larger than the piece you need to cut out. Then you can lay your pattern on the back of the pleated sheet and cut it out to the size and shape you need.

John,
I just ordered the seat course and saw that. Thanks a bunch!

If you’re using 1/2” sew foam. It’s usually 1/8” added to every stitch. As you loose 1/8” roughly every time you see. For easy figuring and with a 1.2” seam allowance your first pleat would be from the edge 2 5/8” then every other one would be 2 1/8” from there till your last which would be the same as the first.