The Upholstery Forum

I just started teaching myself to sew using my new to me consew 206rb5. i love the machine and its been a great learning experience. Most of my work is recovering snowmobile seats from the 60's and 70's which requires lots of pleating with many different pleat widths and different textures. sewing them looks fine but i find people prefer the heat pleat and it would also cut my time per seat cover considerably. is there any way to do small batch heat pleating at home or is there a machine available to do this?: Any help is appreciated thanks in advance

@skidog59 I've got to investigate to what heat pleats are. I'm green too, just ask anybody on here.

Is that kind of like what you would see in oem designs on say door panels where it's not actually sewn but stamped?

Yes that is what I'm referring to . Not sewn in but melted in

@skidog59 I don't know of a do it yourself machine but you could probably make a hot rod type iron and do what you're wanting to do. Either electric or flame heated. I've been picking my brain about the same thing to do scrolls on a Peterbilt door panel.

I would also assume that you would have to use unbacked vinyl on your top and bottom pieces with individual pleat size pieces of foam so the two pieces of vinyl can melt and stick to each other wouldn't you agree?

@skidog59 sorry about multiple replies but I'm answering when these ideas come to me. Here's another one, I know you are looking for speed and water proofing by doing it that way but you could still get the same look by double top stitching closer together with the same color thread as the vinyl you are using. Ok I'm out of suggestions..... For now.

@Bondo497 I'll take as many replys as i can get. I've thought about making my own iron but was hoping someone had done it before. im unsure of what temperatures are needed. as far as i know you can still use backed material and you need to put some time of batting in between to make the pleats puff up. i know someone has the knowledge just have to dig it up or start experimenting. i have been pleating with stitches and it looks fine but im trying to get as close to correct as possible.

@skidog59 those look awesome. Well if you do find out the method and what to use I hope you will pass it along because I am very interested in this subject as well.

@Bondo497 If I figure something out of be happy to share I can't find anything on this anywwhere

I think I saw an add for door panels and they referred to that process as dielectric or some thing similar to it.

They sell vinyl with factory heat pleating.

It’s dielectric like was said before. From what I’ve looked into. The machines are expensive and big to do this. If you were to invest I. Something you’d want to mass produce and sell. It’s actually hard to find information about. I saw one video that briefly touched in the process but I can’t find it anymore. From what I’ve been told any heat and press or just press method doesn’t work the same as factory. If it were leather that would be a different story but for snowmobile seats that’s a no no lol

http://www.thehogring.com/2016/09/19/wa ... -panels-2/

Here it is

Link didn’t work, but this is the video is was leading towards lol

Awesome video thanks for sharing that.

@skidog59 Is there a reason you cant use the fabric that is already sold with the pleats in it.
https://www.albrightssupply.com/searchr ... Click=3957

@John the reason i cant use the ones commercially available is because i require different pleat widths and textures than the ones offered. some situations i can use the ready made stuff but its rare.

@Cody thanks for sharing the video that information gets me one step closer to a solution i know a guy that made his own machine and does the pleats one at a time which would be fine for me as i usually don't need to do huge runs but he is reluctant to share the information with me because he wants me to pay him to do it. I totally understand where he is coming from so i will have to figure something out myself. thanks for the great video link

Gotcha. I will be interested if you find out a way to do it. I have never tried before.

Saw this and immediately remembered this thread.

@skidog59 ,

I just did a 95 Polaris seat and really after doing that you may want to look into doing the hidden stitch pleating with a waterproof material on the back face sewn into it. I don't know if there is an easy way out for you to save time. They are custom recovers and you will just have to charge for that time.