The Upholstery Forum

Could someone tell me why I am getting the bubbly looking pleats? Should I be gluing the sew foam to the vinyl back? Seems to happen mostly on door panels. I had some pleats that were 39" x48"pleats that looked fine and they were not glued.
Thanks in advance for any pointers, Lee

Is that door surface concave? And Do the panels look fine when they are flat on the work table?

I’ve run into similar problems with projects that have inside curves and still really haven’t found the answer.

There is a very slight curve. I would say about 1/2" in the 28" length. If I recall correctly, they looked fine and this problem showed up maybe a couple of weeks later.
Thanks for the reply.

i have better luck when i glue my foam to the vinyl first , dont know if thats a right answer.

Thanks Rhonda, I will give that a try next time. Lucky for me that was on my hot rod. The customers car turned out just fine.

I am not sure that laminating the foam and vinyl is the best option to resolve this issue but do agree.

The concave it most likely the issue. My trick for concave pieces is to lightly temp tack the foam to the panel in the concave position with cheep spray can glue. Then attach the fabric to the foam with contact cement and allow it to bond and lock in that shape. Then remove the the foam / fabric and sew your pleats. This method can cause there to be less material shrinkage than normal because the fabric is glued to the foam so you may have to do a test first.

I hope that helps!

Thanks John and others. It took me a minute to understand what you meant, but I know what you suggested. I surely will give that a try on my next concave project. I may just redo my door panels. Right now I am in limbo waiting on a couple of customers to finish their paint so I can proceed on them.