The Upholstery Forum

Greetings.

I am doing some boat seats (vinyl) that have intersecting seams on each side of the cushion. Proper alignment of the seam intersection is a challenge. I am wondering if there are any tricks to getting them perfect (or at least really good) every time?

My best bet may be to use basting tape to hold everything in alignment throughout the sewing. Here are few pictures of my hit and miss . . .

I can get them right with painstaking effort, just wondering if there are any proven techniques that folks have?

TIA for any help on this.

Pics below . . .

Pretty good . . . .
OK . . . .
Big miss . . .

@TedP , what marine upholstery contest are you entering? I think it is just a fine piece of work let it go to the water and see who cares about the alignment there.

@BigRig The contest is called " the endless pursuit of perfection"

I'm going to re-make the one that isn't aligned. I would like to get any pointers to avoid this sort of mishap going forward.

My next post will be about too much thread showing along the seam lines.

This material is Nautolex Sofdura (mystic white) and I am finding it challenging to work with for some reason.

Usually at the patterning stage I put hash marks ( every 2” - 3” or so) to mark the cuts of little V’s into the seam allowance of both pieces, that way you can keep things lined up quite a distance away.

I’m with you on the relentless pursuit of perfection and drive myself a tad crazy chasing it to end up being able to find fault in anything I do

I use a plier stapler in the seam allowance to hold things together, basting tape takes too long and pulls apart when you don't want it to.

BigRig , is correct on this one. Usually your imperfections will go unnoticed by others. Strangely as we look at it , it gets on our nerves. looks good to me too.

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone.

I have come up with a technique that is helping . . .

I put a few stitches in the seam allowance where the panels intersect, thus establishing the alignment. Then I use some double stick tape (basting tape) to hold the seam intact while sewing.

I'm also being more mindful about measuring the critical dimension(s) of the panels as I am cutting & sewing, so I can make sure they are going to mate-up properly and adjust things on the fly.

Quick Update . . .

I've got this intersecting alignment pretty well figured out. Here is my latest example . . .
. .
I first check the critical dimension of the panels (yellow line) to see how exact they are.

I tack the two intersection points with a few stitches near the edge of the seam allowance to establish the alignment. (purple arrows) Then I adjust the sewing line (yellow), using more or less of the seam allowance as needed to get a proper fitting seam between the 2 intersecting points.

This is working out much better than merely following the alignment marks as I was doing before.

Looks really good!

Stapler, the Bostich model. You'll see them being pulled out in some youtube video's, and these are guys that sell video classes on line.