I have a seat that I'm looking to re-cover. I'm thinking tuck and roll would be cool so I figured I'd give it a shot myself. I have the vinyl & access to a sewing machhine. I plan on doing a traditional tuck not a top stitch and I hear that polypleat makes life ALOT easier. I already tried my local upholstory shop and they referred me to a wholesale supplier but I don't have a resale # so I'm outta luck there, besides I don't need 5 yards of the stuff. Anyone got any leads or a better way to approach this project?
J. C. Whitney sells pre made seat covers with heat sewn pleats for every kind of car back to the thirty's .thier supplier has all the patterns.reasonably priced and easy to install.I gave a set to my dad for xmas a few years back for his 50 club coupe and they look great.they also sell yardage of heat sewn pleated material to match
If Polypleat is the same thing as channelled pleating foam, then I can tell you that it's pretty hard to use. You have to sew the vinyl to it from the back side, all while shoving the ever growing roll of pleated material under the sewing machine. An easier way of doing it is to mark out the pleats on the surface of the vinyl, lay the vinyl over 1/2" scrim-backed foam, and sew the pleats into the foam all the way across the vinyl. Then fold each pleat along the stitched seam, vinyl to vinyl, and sew another seam approx. 1/4" away from the first seam on the back side. When you unfold the material you will have a nice pleat with no visible stitching. Plus, all of the material you're sewing is out from under the machine, not rolled up underneath it. Since I don't do auto upholstery for a living anymore I can give away the secrets... Hope this helps!
Kinda let me see if I understand. Put vinyl onto backed foam and fold on mark, vinyl out??? Sew a line, Fold it the other way vinyl in, then sew again? If I missed that, would you mind clarifying please. Thom
I think this might be what he's talking about: http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/0711sr_upholstering_a_hot_rod/photo_23.html If you page through 3 or 4 of the pictures, you'll see the sequence of the pleats. It seems to be: 1. topstitch the vinyl and scrim backed foam in pleats 1/2" wider than you want your final pleats to be 2. fold vinyl face-to-face along the topstiched seam 3. stich on backside 1/4" in from the fold 4. repeat for next pleat
Yeah, that's right. the difference between polypleat & scrim is that the polypleat is more dense and has channels cut into. I assume it makes your tucks "puffier". scrim is your standard foam with fabric glued to the back to take a stitch. I'll probably just go that route, I can get it easy and I know the technique. Now it's time to practice. Thanks again!
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