I may venture into doing my own upholstery

[artificialreef]

Hello resto forum friends. I am thinking of learning to do my own upholstery since my resto needs everything and i cant afford to have it done. I have several pieces at the stern of the boat that look to be very easy to do.(see attachment) They are just flat pieces of vinyl stapled to marine ply. They do have purple striping that looks to be spaced the same amount on all the vinyl. My question is can vinyl be purchased with the trim (striping) allready attached? (since these are just sheets stapled to ply) or is this always custom upholstery trim done by hand. I dont mind changing the color of the trim if i can buy large sheets.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

OH NO!!!! Don't do it!!!

Just Kidding!! Lot's of forum members have tackled their own upholstery, including me, with excellent results. You can buy an old sewing machine and sew your own multicolored vinyl. Based on your pics, yours will be very basic sewing and upholstery and something you could easily do. Do some searching here on the forum and you'll find some good examples. Here's one of mine... "Building and Upholstering a Bench Seat"

 

[zool]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Those are just basic stripes, and you should have no problem redoing it the same way...you just cut the strips of color, and sew it from the backside, then flip it over and stable over the foam covered backer boards....you may be able to use a dethreader tool and use the original vinyl as templates, if they havent stretched too much...

You should start a build thread, id like to follow along on the Tiara refit..

PS, woody has a "seasoned" apron already, I havnt put one on yet, so my method is untested

 

[artificialreef]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Thank you woodon and zool for your last reply about my hull liner question (really helped my goog search using the correct wording, though i have not found it yet). I really appreciate your assistance and kind of you to offer your advice. I will post my progress and emergency room pics of the needle going clean through my fingers. Just kidding. So i guess the answer is no, they do not sell vinyl with the stripes allready on them. Guess i will be looking on cl for a decent machine. I have read some of these can be pretty used up. Anything i need to look for in a used sewing machine. I am great with motors, fiberglass and electronics but this is a new direction for me.
Thanks again gents.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

The Old 60's models All Metal ones will do the job. I got a Morse for $75 bucks that worked great. I checked the South Florida Craigslist and there's lots of machines available. You could get an industrial model with a walking foot for 3-4 hundred, use it and then put it back up for sale. They are really nice but have a bit of a learning curve to use but really not all that bad. Consew's, Juki's , Singers are all good. the motors are the key.

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

My wife and I both attended upholstery school a few years ago.

We just got through making canvas slip covers for our pontoon boat. With the biggest needle our sewing machine would take and ultra strong thread, our stitching really wasn't up to our standards. To hand stitch Sunbrella type fabric, it takes wire pliers to get the needle through it.

I wouldn't suggest taking on reupholstering your boat unless you were a good seamstress and had a real upholstery sewing machine.

You could pull staples and remove your present seat covers. Then an auto/marine upholsterer could make identical covers. You could possibly reinstall the new covers on your old seat bottoms with stainless steel staples.

One thing to take into consideration is the age of the boat and the condition of the foam rubber. Replacing foam rubber is very, very expensive on a boat. You wouldn't believe how many types of foam there are. It's often cheaper to replace all the seating rather than just buy replacement foam for the old seats.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Uhmmm, this^^^ is just not the case. My Morse machine sews sunbrella fabric using #18 needles and 56 Upholstery thread with no problems. The link I provided has videos that demonstrates the machine doing this. I have sewn thru 6 layers of 30 oz marine vinyl with this machine. It did make it "Groan" quite a bit but it got the job done. I had NEVER sewn a stitch in my life but after watchin YouTube videos and trial and error I was able to accomplish what you see in the link. I think if your good with your hands and have basic skills you can get decent results with a good All Metal vintage sewing machine.

Using an industrial machine with a walking foot will yield a better stitch they do have a higher learning curve and are a bigger challenge for a beginner to learn. I know cuz I have an iBoats friend that got in the business and I used his machines. WOW BIG difference. Wish I had one but just could not justify the expense since I was not going into the business. I guess you could buy one and then sell it when you were done with your boat. I checked the South Florida Craigslist and there are several of the industrial models for sale in your area. You might consider getting one but again they are a bit harder to learn on.

This is a pic of the machine I use... Made in Japan in the 60's All metal. I put a new Belt on it and it runs like a champ. I get all my supplies and vinyl from TrimJobber on Ebay.

I think the upholstery turned out pretty good...

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

This is a pic of the machine I use... Made in Japan in the 60's All metal. I put a new Belt on it and it runs like a champ. I get all my supplies and vinyl from TrimJobber on Ebay.

And it's a damn sexy machine ^^^ to boot....

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Yeah She's a PURDY little thing ain't she!!!!

 

[tpenfield]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

I doubt you will find anything ready made in terms of stripes or colors. It sort of depends if you are trying to do a close or exact match to what is there currently in terms of style, pattern and colors.

I too am a member of the 'DIY upholstery club'. The key to reproducing the more intricate seat coverings is to careful disassembly (unstitching) the existing covers and use the pieces as patterns for the new vinyl.

This is the rear seat assembly of my 242 that I completely re upholstered in 2006. (vinyl was getting brittle and cracking). Added some color stripes to the sunpad on the rebuild.

Before . . .

. . . After

 

[phillyg]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

My first attempt was to re-do all the upholstery in my 32' boat, inside and out, plus much of the exterior Sunbrella. While not up to professional standards, I was pleased with my first self-taught project. I bought an inexpensive industrial grade Tuff-Sew walking foot machine with the wide (9") throat and sold it when I was done. I was quoted thousands of dollars to have it all professionally done and I did it for a fraction of the cost, so I was pleased. Buy an upholstery book, look on the internet for videos and instructions and materials. You can do it, if you have a lot of patience and a steady hand, and use the existing seat covers as a pattern.

 

[Sea Stomper]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

OH NO!!!! Don't do it!!!

Just Kidding!!

Ha ha that's funny!!

More people should just buy a good sewing machine and be amazed at what can be done. I'm going to build my own vinyl and clear drop curtains this winter with my daughter's sail rite machine. I can't wait.

Yea, it's just like anything else. My mantra lately has been that "it's much worse thinking about a project than it is to just start to work and doing it".

So yea, just get some stuff and start experimenting! That's how you end up amazing yourself and when you are done, about a year after that you'll wonder how in the heck you did that.

 

[sphelps]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

I admit that I did not have one of those purdy Morse machines . I used a somewhat h/d sears Kenmore . OK for a first ever attempt ..


Here is a video . Kinda boring but the music is cool .

If I can do it anyone can .. Get as H/D machine you can afford My old Kenmore really struggled on the multi-layered area's ..

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

I admit that I did not have one of those purdy Morse machines . I used a somewhat h/d sears Kenmore . OK for a first ever attempt ..

If I can do it anyone can .. Get as H/D machine you can afford My old Kenmore really struggled on the multi-layered area's ..

Man SP, with that caliber of sew-MAN-ship, I can't imagine how anyone can stand to even look at your MFG, let alone get in it & actually SIT in 1 of those rookie sew-job seats.... :facepalm:

That ^^^ all turned out so fab, I might be tempted to hang up my resto hat. Not much room for improvement, it all finished out GREAT! :hail:

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

So you can see by all these guys that as I stated before you should ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THIS!!!! IT CANNOT BE DONE BY AN AMATEUR!!!!

 

[artificialreef]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Thanks for the input. And some really amazing work for "amateurs" though i think you guys are quite a bit above that. You have technical skills i think the avarage person does not. I may too and am going for it. Please give me your comments on the unit i just picked up. The dang thing has an oil resevoir underneith the machine so i think its heavy duty. Doesnt look very fancy but does look up to the task. 150$ on cl. I did see it run. No weird noises. It has a knee and foot control. I may have to figure out how to regulate the motor. I am good with electronics.Thanks again folks.

 

[sphelps]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Looks ten times better than what I used ..
Welcome to the club ! Find some scrap vinyl and start practicing ..

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Thanks for the input. And some really amazing work for "amateurs" though i think you guys are quite a bit above that. You have technical skills i think the avarage person does not. I may too and am going for it. Please give me your comments on the unit i just picked up. The dang thing has an oil resevoir underneith the machine so i think its heavy duty. Doesnt look very fancy but does look up to the task. 150$ on cl. I did see it run. No weird noises. It has a knee and foot control. I may have to figure out how to regulate the motor. I am good with electronics.Thanks again folks.

Ah, yeah. The stand kind of gives it away as to being an industrial machine. I can't tell in the 1st pix, but the 2nd one definitely makes it look like it's a walking foot machine. It should be plenty stout enough to do some marine vinyl & w/ xmas just around the corner, it's not to late to setup a leather goods booth at the mall That last bit may be a tad more then it's capable of, but yeah, it'll do.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Yep, it's an industrial straight stitch Non Walking foot machine. It will do the job for sure. I've done a search for a manual with no luck. Not sure how to thread it but hopefully they told you or showed you how or gave you a manual. If not you'll have to figure it out or possibly find someone to show you. It looks pretty basic so if you need help contact me. Not sure about the bobbin though?? Do you know what size needles it uses??

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: I may venture into doing my own upholstery

Well I contacted UniSew for you and they told me that your machine has Long been discontinued and they do NOT have a manual but...They did send me a JUKI manual that would substitute for yours. It's to big for me to post here but if you send me a PM with you private email address I'll gladly email you the PDF file of the Manual. It has threading diagrams and Maintenance details so you should be able to get her running in tip top condition.