The Upholstery Forum

Boat seats, i'm sure it would relate to any seat. When taking the cover off the foam and using the cover for a pattern, do you take all of the stitching out, cut the thread to save the panel, or cut next to the stitching making a notation on the material to add for the seam allowance? The last one I did had 25 pieces, seat base and seat back. i took my time with a razor blade and cut every seam apart, it was a pain. The one I took apart this time was cut at the stitch and a note added to add 1/2", it sure went quicker. I'm sure there's no right or wrong, but good vs, better??

@Scott, I have done them both but really prefer to just leave their orignal seam allowance on simply becasue I get forgetful and confused once I cut that off and like to see the fold marks for sewing back up help me a lot.

I’m the same I cut the seam, keeping the allowance. But I have done both ways. I don’t always get to work continuously on seat something and like @BigRig I tend to forget things. I even write notes on some patterns and forget that I wrote the note.

I tend to buck them apart too, usually with a sharp olfa knife... gets faster with time.

I switch between both ways. I prefer to just cut the seam allowance off because its faster. But sometime its too hard to be precise if there is a lot of bulk and Ill switch to a razor blade.