Upholstery Continued (from RV-10 list)

[BigD]

Doing the seat backs for the rear seat posed a couple of problems for me - I wanted to cover the aluminum seat back as well as the cushion, but make the cover in a way that it can slip over the whole seat and yet be taut when finished - and be removable for cleaning/repair/replacement. I also wanted to cover the bottom of the cushion but not go up too far, and of course leave room for the hinge pin.
A car seat has room and hardware for listings to pull the cover down into the cushion and give the seat shape, I needed a way to do this too. On this version I put several stitches through the seat cover and cushion, but that ends up making dimples instead of a smooth back, so next I'm going to try either Velcro (but I'm a little concerned with the bulk showing) or cement the cloth portion of the seat to the foam and use the rear cover to provide tension. I'm thinking it might be nice to have a seat back pouch on the seat next to the baggage door for stuff, but that can be added later.

Here's the front view with the cover not completely taut - the Velcro on the back is too thin and just basted in place, which turned out to be almost worthless as a test. Note the dimples...

this shows the back, the not so swift Velcro, and how the cover is put over the whole assembly:

This shows the bottom of the cushion cover (and a couple of unfinished edges):

I will say that making the pattern for this took way less time (I must be getting some of that education) and the actual sewing takes less time than the layout and cutting, unless you get stuck, sew in the wrong order or have to remove a seam.

==dave==

 

[carolsyracuse]

looks great

Wow your first attempt at upholstery looks great. And you should have a great sense of accomplishment having done it yourself

 

[BigD]

Thanks...

I appreciate that - your -10 and Brian and Brandi's are a lot of the inspiration to try doing the interior myself. I think the seat bottom looks pretty good, but the back needs some tightening up - we'll see when I get started with the actual material. BTW, the sheepskin you have - tell me more about how it's attached - I wasn't sure if it's like a cover or if it's the top layer of the upholstery. ...

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Final Rear Seat Cushion

The material came in and I really wanted to see how it would look - so I cut out my pattern pieces and attached the fabric to the foam.

Getting the cushion inside the cover and arranged correctly takes some time and effort (still a little jostling left to do).

I'm glad I used cheaper fabric to practice with, but this material was thicker and a little stiffer in comparison. I like it!

==dave==

 

[Mike D]

Looks great Dave!!
I plan on rolling my own also, so this is great you are showing your progress and improvements.

 

[carolsyracuse]

Sheepskin

Hi Dave,
The sheepskin that we used is built into the seat cover. I have a commercial machine, but not one made for leather or sheepskin. It was a challenge to keep the feed even with the sheepskin. The good thing about the sheepskin is
You don't need to make the top cover in pieces as the sheepskin is attached as one piece.
Carol

 

[BigD]

Rear Seat Back

Here's the first rear seat back stitched up with the 'real' material - I have not glued/velcroed or otherwise secured the fabric portion to the underlying foam yet, so it is still a little poofy. This took a little longer as I underestimated my ability to not get the pattern exactly correct. That turns out to be somewhat of a spatial problem with compound angles and remembering the difference between where the seam is going to be vs where the seam allowance is. I also wonder if this version has too many pieces or if I need to trim the seam allowances down, as there's quite a bit of excess baggage under the cover. Not sure what the professionals do, but I'm going to have to try something - I guess another option would be to sew the flaps down, but that introduces extra stitching on the outside, and the inevitable chance of having crooked lines...

Anyway, not excellent but serviceable:

And a peek at the inner works with all of the seam allowances:

==dave==

 

[carolsyracuse]

Dave
you can trim the seam allowances.The vinyl will not fray.I wonder if you should have used the same thin foam on the back of the vinyl that you used on the fabric and incorporated into the seam. I think I would try glueing a strip of the thin foam to the back of the vinyl right up to the seam allowance on the front pieces and possibly the sides and top if they seem loose as well.
It is hard to tell without seeing the whole cover in place.

 

[BigD]

That sounds like a good idea (wish I'd had it) - Thanks. I'll give that a try.

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Seat back done...

Here's what they look like together in position:

You can see the lump from the lumbar support cushion (and associated wrinkles). I may try a little heat to tighten it up some, after practicing on some scrap. I did end up using adhesive on the cloth portion of the seat back, and added a piece of the sew foam under the top forward section of vinyl (thanks Carol) after taking in the seam about 1/2 inch. Total material used for the two rear seats 1 yard fabric and 3+ yds vinyl with some pieces left over. The back is closed off and pulled tight with a Velcro cover:

Now on to the front seats...

==dave==

 

[paul mosher]

seats

Wanna do a set for my 7?

 

[BigD]

Front Seat, draft version

More sew foam arrived today, so I started on the front seats with practice material. Instead of boxing in the front of the seat I thought I'd try wrapping the top around, including the 1/2 inch of foam behind the fabric. I think this is called a waterfall seat. This is the easy part, however. I need to decide how to tie in the bottom with a method for inserting the cushion, and I'll have to look at the seat structure to see where to add flaps both for holding the cushion down and hiding the works. This time the top material was trimmed to the size of the cushion before sewing so that the seam pulls the fabric into the foam just a little. This practice vinyl is also thinner so easier to horse around on the machine for the corners.

Paul - thanks for the vote of confidence. If I had a set of seat cushions for the 7 to practice on and make a pattern, and no -10 in the garage that needs to get finished, I'd say sure. I already feel a little bad spending time inside sewing instead of outside finishing the cabin top - which I hope to make progress on over the holiday. Ask me again as I get closer to flying....

==dave==

 

[BigD]

What to do with the leftovers?

Not interior work, strictly speaking, but a couple of short projects to use up some material - pubs bag (shameless copy from Royal bag) and a kindle cover:

And, I haven't completely stopped work on the cabin top:

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Front Seat, Bottom Construction

I may be making this busier than necessary, but still want to leave a way to get the cushion in and out yet snug up the cover. Here's what it looks like attached to the seat frame (still 'practice' material); also, the fabric top is not glued or otherwise fixed down to the top of the cushion, therefore the rice bag for photogenic purposes.

This is done with the bottom in four sections - a front and back piece that come around the sides, then two overlapping side flaps, and it all velcroes together, plus has the Velcro strip for attaching to the top of the seat frame:

This should work OK, I just need to trim the bottom pieces a little tighter for a better fit. The top material is cut to fit to the edge of the foam, and the seam allowance (I'm using 1/2 inch) compresses the foam for a nicer fit - I didn't do that for the bottom and it shows. Alternatively I could sew the bottom in just two overlapping pieces (a la the rear seats) and count on the existing Velcro on the top of the seat frame to hold everything.

There is also a front and rear strap that wraps around the seat frame and sticks to Velcro on the bottom.

I'm ready to do this as final, and start working on the seat back. Then all that'll be left to do is bind the carpet pieces. Oh, and put the cabin top on and so on and so forth...

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Bellows for Lumbar Support

Plan is now to put inflatable lumbar support in the front seat back. The pink foam support cushions that came with the kit seemed to fit the rear seat backs better, so that's where I put them...not sure if they were meant for the front or not. Oh, well...so I wanted to experiment with some way of sewing an expandable flap behind the fabric portion of the seat back. Here's what I came up with:

and here it is expanded:

I think this will mean the vinyl on the front of the seat outboard of the fabric center will need to be anchored to the foam. Time to prototype. The front seat bottoms are awaiting the arrival of more Velcro to finish up. In the meantime I've been looking around the house...

==dave==

 

[BigD]

First Draft

Here's a pattern check on the front seat back:

I'll use the front piece to trace a pattern for the sides of the front (vinyl) on either side of the fabric center, and figure out how to wedge the bellows in.
Also want to add a pocket to the back panel. It's a start...

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Front Seat Bottom Final

Here's a better look at how I decided to put this together - two side flaps that Velcro to the fore and aft sections of the seat bottom:

and the two additional fore/aft flaps that wrap around the seat frame; the other exposed Velcro connects with Velcro on the seat frame.

View from the bottom in place:

And from the top:

I haven't glued down the fabric to the foam, and may not...still thinking about it. Stay tuned for the seat backs...

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Front Seat Back

This is how the front seat looks now:

A view of the bellows for the inflatable lumbar support:

The stitching on the black portion of the front is a little zig-zaggy, and I forgot to change thread color so had to stick with a contrasting thread on both sides. I also decided to sew the seam down along the sides in the direction of the sides to make the transition from front to side uniform and avoid bulky spots. Thought about French seaming it, but got worried about having two chances to have a crooked line. I think I'll have the front and back fold under the cushion and Velcro or snap together, and I'll have to finish the side edges off and decide where to run the hose for the lumbar support (which mr fed ex is supposed to be bringing by this afternoon). I may also run Velcro up the sides instead of sewing the front to the back like a pillow case - that'll make it much easier to install/uninstall and allow me to use some fabric glue on the front side vinyl if I decide to. Then sew on a back pocket and install!

==dave==

 

[carolsyracuse]

awesome

Dave
The seats look awesome. I can't believe it is your first set.
Carol

 

[BigD]

Thanks

Well, if you count the 'prototypes' it's probably my second or third set. I just hope I keep making new mistakes...although this morning found me seam ripping again, trying to sew something on backwards (old mistake). I'm enjoying figuring this out.

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Done, mostly

Still a couple of flaps to trim, and make one for the back bottom, but essentially done:

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Group shot

Warts, wrinkles and all:

I've decided to not glue the seat fabric to the foam, so you can't see the shape well - I'm guessing that with a bunch of hours of being used they'll look more contoured; there's more fiddling around to do with pulling things tight and straightening, but for now it's on to actual airplane contruction again...hope I remember how to rivet...

Still have carpets to do - I'll get those posted when done. The front seats used approx. 4 yards of vinyl - I did not try to maximize the material usage as I wanted the stretch to go across the seats, but even so I think it'd be tough to do it with less. Patterns saved for future reference.

==dave==

 

[BigD]

Carpet

So now it's time to put a binding on the carpet, and I'm thinking what could be simpler? I start with the smallest pieces, the pax seat floors, and start having trouble with running off a straight line and the material not wanting to feed straight because of the compression of the carpet by the presser foot. This results in a slightly slack, poofy and not consistent edge. Now, I know it's just a floormat, and after it's been stepped on 57 times it'll be flat and no one is going to notice anyway, but I wanted to see if I could get a tighter edge.

I tried a few different things, like sewing with the carpet on top, using an edge guide, and pinning things down, none of which helped. The problem was the pinch of the seam and the expansion of the foam/carpet outboard of the initial stitching of the binding (in the red oval) - hard to compress that consistently when wrapping the binding around the edge and sewing to the back:

What worked for me was to stitch around the carpet about halfway to where the binding was going to be sewn down to pre-compress the carpet/foam (green oval). Now after sewing the binding on to the top I can get a nice, tight roll and fairly even edge.

I decided to use the black vinyl I had left over from patterning the seats - it looks OK and the binding tape I purchased with the carpet was too narrow (1 1/4 inches). I cut some 3 inch strips and that is way easier to work with, and I can always trim the bottom back closer to the seam - 2 inches would probably be plenty assuming a 1/2 inch bound edge. The carpet is from Airtex and comes with the foam backing - if I was using unbacked carpet then the pre-stitching might not be as helpful, depending on the pile.

 

[BigD]

Baggage carpet

Here's what the bound carpet looks like in the baggage area, without any of the finish panels in - so it looks like it's too small...

I decided to not try to bind the edges around the tie-down cutouts. The rings are removable - and will probably spend a lot of their time in a pouch behind the rear seat. If I planned to run the carpet up the side, like the sides of the tunnel, or maybe up a little ways in the baggage area, then I would use the binding tape on the back of the two pieces to create the 90 degree joint where the wall meets the floor, and the binding would be invisible but (hopefully) the carpet would appear to be continuous. For now, though, it's just for the floors.

==dave==

 

[Mike D]

Very inspiring Dave!!!

Did you make patterns? If so, how did you do it?

What was the most difficult part?

 

[BigD]

Patterns - Yes

Not sure if you're talking about the carpet or the seats, but the answer is yes to both, and thanks for the nice comment. I started with paper (masking paper worked OK) and used that to sew up a 'test' cover. Then, seeing where adjustments were necessary (and in some cases starting over again) transferred the patterns to posterboard (easier to trace around). If I was going to just do one seat cover I wouldn't bother with the posterboard. The carpet was just a big sheet of paper trimmed to fit. For the seat fabric the pattern size also depends on how much and where your seam allowances are going to be. For example, I ended up cutting the top and bottom pieces the same size as the cushion, but adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance to the side pieces. When sewn together with 1/2 inch seam, the cover is pulled slightly into the cushion helping to fill things out. I'm pretty sure a more experienced upholsterer wouldn't bother with all those steps, particularly sewing a test pattern, but it helped me learn about measuring mistakes, angles, corners, where and how to trim etc. Plus the practice using the machine was worthwhile. Ultimately the actual sewing is the quickest and usually easiest part - kind of like riveting - just takes sitting down and doing it.

If you go back to the original thread in the RV-10 section, you can see some of the patterns in the background and how things evolved with experience: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=113508


==dave==

 

[BigD]

Not completely RV related, other than I was curious about sewing actual car seats vs aircraft seats and cushions, so I decided I'd re-upholster my daughter's car seats while she was home for the holidays. And I used the same fabric. Now I'm wondering if using a car seat, like from a corvette or something with a sexy interior, or at least the underlying foam/shape, would be a way to get a totally custom interior, especially in an 8...would have to figure out how to incorporate the pink/blue/green confor-foam and attach the seat to the airplane. I found a pair of seats (for practice before tearing up the 'real' ones) in fair shape at the junkyard and they weren't that expensive. The seat bottoms came out pretty tight, the backs have a few wrinkles, so I'm not ready to call myself an upholsterer, but they're adequate and I learned a bunch.

==dave==