The Upholstery Forum

New here. I posted this in the general forum but no response. I thought I would try here since it is automotive uphostery. I discovered John's Youtube videos on doing old-fasioned stuffed pleats and have been practicing with my SInger 111. Many thanks to John for creating a great resource! I have made several practice panels with some vinyl material and am trying to match the look of the original seats in an antique car I'm restoring (1925 Dodge Brothers). The pleats are 3.5" and I've settled on RA of 3/4", BS of 3/8. I'm pretty comfortable sewing up the pleats and am now ready to experiment with making the corners on the front seat cushion (see photo of example). The corner radius is around 4 - 4.5 " and the forward half of seat is trapezoidal. My question, is it better to cut the radius before stuffing or after? It seems like doing it after will give a more accurate result but then you do have to deal with the 1" thick cotton.

I am curious also Mike. Hopefully someone will chime in. Sometimes it takes a few days for answers. How did you stuff the pleats? I have been thinking about a couple pieces of channel like John showed in one of his videos, but not sure where to go to get them made. I would think one would need several sizes.

Hi Lee,
I had some aluminum roof flashing and made them just as John explained in his video. The fashing bends pretty easy. I did have to trim them down on the sides a bit to get them to fit properly but you can cut the flashing with a decent pair of scissors. In my case, all of the pleaats will be the same size so I only need this one set of tins. I think you could look for a sheet metal fabrication shop (maybe ducting) and ask if they would cut and bend them. All that's really needed is a sheet metal brake of sufficient width. You might find a machine shop that has one.