The Upholstery Forum

Hi, I'm new to the forum and to upholstery and am struggling getting my pleats to go round a small radius, like the top of a seat that the pleats flow over the rounded edge instead of stopping before it. I seem to get the foam flattening out and horrible puckers sticking out on the sides of the pleats at the start of the radius. The picture shows what i am trying to achieve. Any help greatly welcomed
Thanks, Alan.

I haven't tried it myself but here is 2 tips:
1. When gluing foam to material - do it already radiused. You should have "bent" piece which you going to sew. Otherwise when you put cover on - your foam will compress under material.

2. Add another layer of fabric under sew foam. Lot of times people do it so you have bottom flatter. With regular sew foam you have about 50/50

I wouldn’t glue your material to your foam in this case. Let the material float over the foam. Imagine a military marching down the street for a parade, when they get to the corner the outside soldiers has to widen their steps while the inside have to shorten to keep cadence and in a line. Now the material is the outside soldier and needs to stretch further than the foam does, but if it’s glues it’s cant stretch and will flatten. Will this cure the whole situation you’re after. No, but will help.

Thanks guys, I will have a go and see how it goes :)

I do it the way @IvanD said. Temp tack your scrim foam to your seat in with the curve. Then glue your fabric to the curve. You will have a bent piece now that will flow over the curve. It can be a little difficult to sew up but it should work nicely.

Thanks John, thats great info, will give it a go and post a picture of my results.
Thanks, Alan.