In the afternoon and evening on Saturday, I started the upholstery work. First, let me say how nice it is to have good tools! A good pair of sharp sheers, a 24" transparent quilting ruler with guides, a good pair of snips, a magnetic guide for the sewing machine, an magnetic LED light so I can see what I'm sewing, the digital variable speed motor on the sewing machine, and most of all, basting tape! What a difference! It was an actual pleasure to do the upholstery instead of a challenge!
So, I started with the easiest piece first, the upper seat cushion. Using paper patterns, I cut the material and using the basting tape, was able to put everything together so that all I had to do was run it through the machine.
After sewing and fitting, I realized that I'm going to need a little filler foam so that you don't feel the seams. So using some headliner material that I had left over from the XK-8 headliner repair, I cut pieces to fit and glued them in.
I also needed a back panel so that I can close everything up. I didn't want to use my expensive upholstery material, so I used some vinyl I had from another project that worked perfectly. It's not the same color, but it's on the back, so no one will notice.
I plan to close everything up with Velcro, which I have on order. Once that comes in, I can sew it into the cover and call it done.
Next I worked on the bottom seat cushion. Same process as the top cushion only there was no need for sewing flat seams on this one. However, the shape was more complex than the top cushion, which provided it's own set of challenges. Here are pictures:
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| Upper seat cushion with sewn cover. Note foam backed headliner material on head rest. |
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| Upholstered upper and lower set cushions in situ |
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| Upholstered upper and lower set cushions in situ |
Next, with be the bolsters. Stay tuned...
