The Upholstery Forum

hi, Can anyone give a beginner some advice please ?. I am in the process of making some motorcycle seat covers and not doing too badly I think. One problem I have is fitting the seat cover neatly under the seat. I have been studying jean marc briant videos on you tube and noticed that he often makes the covers in such a way that he sews a strip of material around the edge of the seat to eliminate the gathering of vinyl when fitting. I was wondering which is the best material to use ?... Is it nylon or polyester binding tape ?
Hope that makes sense,
Regards,
Paul.

There’s a lot of ways of doing it and there all right, Sailrite pulls the cover over and staples then trims the wrinkles off. I’d use polyester as it weathered better than nylon with UV rays. Hopefully this video will imbed

To do it the way your meaning without the wrinkles you need to make a pattern of the bottom of the seat also. Once you have that pattern made, adding seam allowance. You have to figure out how much material you want under the seat. For example, let’s say you want 1” under the seat. Cut the center out of your lower seat pattern, leaving 1” plus your 1/2” seam allowance. Sew this to the boxing of you seat cover. Now slip the seat into the hole you cut into the center of the bottom pattern and attach. If patterned correctly all around. It should fit snug and your seams both on the top and bottoms to the boxing should be right on the bends, and the bottom flat to the seat pan.

Thank you Cody and Revv up, I am trying to get my head around Cody's option which sounds like a very neat option. Just for reference, my seat is the front seat of a BMW r1150gs which has a very complex profile. When I made my patterns, I did make the pattern to profile the bottom edge of the seat with extra material for fixing under the seat. I do have some 1" polyester binding tape, which is may be too narrow once seam allowance is taken into account. Thanks again for your suggestions, I will experiment with all options.

I have finished the seat... I made a pattern of the underside of the seat. Very happy with the technique, I think it is the nearest option. It is far from perfect, but I hope to make a better job next time... This is my first seat and I have learned a lot doing it.

The seat looks awesome! Nice job @Plh

@Plh ,

You did a very good job there mister!

Looks great, nice work.

What was your choice of material?

Thank you for all your positive comments. As I said before, I am pleased with the results, but it is my first project. The material was purchased from a company in UK called AS Trim. I don't know which brand it is, it was listed as Stretch Tech grippy and Stretch Tech leather grained vinyl.

Just finished rear seat.

I LIKE IT

@Plh Looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing the pictures!