Wrinkles and Puckers -Help Please

[timtheboatguy]

Every boat cover that I make is full of wrinkles and puckers when finished. I have tried being more careful when fitting the blank to the boat with little success. I look at other covers that seam to be almost perfectly smooth. Any suggestions?



Here is a link to my website with several pics:
http://www.timsdockside.com/canvas.html

Tim

[JuneC]

What's that shiny fabric you used on some of the covers?  Like the yellow and dark green pontoon covers?  Top Gun?  The seams on those are much more drawn up than the others.  Your Ski Nautique cover looks great!  The royal blue and grey covers also look good.  I'd say there's nothing wrong with your patterns.  But your sewing machine needs some adjustment.  My guess is you're sewing with too much tension and/or too much foot pressure.  The thread is gathering the lighter fabrics. 

I had this problem when I started canvas work.  Finally, on a couple of covers, I measured the fabric before I sewed - say it was 145 inches long.  After sewing a fore-aft center seam it was 142 inches.   I was losing INCHES in every seam thanks to a too-tight thread tension.  I backed off the top tension till the nut was basically off the post and it still gathered the fabric.  >:( The thread was getting into a groove in the post and it was sticking so badly, my tension adjustments wouldn't work.  I bought a new tension assembly, adjusted the bobbin, and haven't looked back. 

June

[Mike8560]

As going to say what June did thread tention.
I do see some wrinkles where it is tight fron a snap say and xreats a diagonal wrinkle.
K erall o wouldn't beat myself up on it. The customers must be happey looks like you e done alot of work.
Do you still have the venture Tim.  ? I sold mine a year ago.

[timtheboatguy]

Do you still have the venture Tim.  ? I sold mine a year ago.

Negitive on the Venture, also sold mine about a year ago.

Oh, and the shiny fabric is Aqualon. I will experiment with thread and foot tension, thanks for the tips.

[MinUph]

Tim,
  As the guys already stated the seams are much of the problem. This holds true with any sewing if when you sew a seam it doesn't lay flat on its own it will never flatten out. Test the tensions on say a 36" seam and see when you get it to lay nice and smooth on it's own. As for the seat work It looks like the patterns might be slightly large in places. And the motor box top on the left front corner is not cut straight. Also it looks as though you reused the foam on that and it is very hard to fill out a cushion like top with old foam that has taken a set to the old upholstery. Boat vinyl work needs to made pretty tight so it all needs to be stretched on. Especially inside curves. You only have one or two places to fasten so the covers need to be tight on their own.

[Stephen]

Every boat cover that I make is full of wrinkles and puckers when finished.... Any suggestions?
Tim

Hi Tim,
When you are still learning it seems pretty natural that your work would have some wrinkles. I notice that the boat seats also have wrinkles. Those curves can be pretty tricky to get it cut and sewed just right. But don't worry, with practice things will get better. June's suggestion about the tension is a good one.

In addition to what was also said, I would suggest that, whenever you have a tricky area to fit, you might want to think about making a prototype, as suggested here: Making Upholstery Prototypes.

Best Wishes,
Stephen

[fragged8]

 I had major problems with seam pucker when i started out but the guys in here
helped me no end, they all ROCK !! in there own unique ways hehheehe

to some extent I still get it a little because of the way canvas behaves but it tends to drop out after fitting.

TRY THIS with acrylic canvas: change the orientation of the fabric on a test panel, sew 2 pieces together
along the selv edge as if you were sewing a blank for fitting on a boat.
Then sew 2 pieces together, one cut length ways off the roll and one cut width ways
you will find the second one will look better along the seam.

As was said TENSION, back those suckers off but also, I use as long a stitch length
as my machine will do.


Another thing can be Gorilla hands, if you are pulling and tugging like a crazed monkey
then you're going to stretch the material. if you need to tug the material to line it
up going through the machine move your hand about a foot or so away from the
presser foot and hold the material there but do it gently. Also you might want to
look at your patterning accuracy if you are always tugging the material

for darts and seams etc I make reference marks on both sides of darts so when i sew them together
they do not end up mis-aligned

Another tip my machinist taught me, top sew from the inside not the outside
it works a treat especially on topgun


Regards
Rich

[timtheboatguy]

Thank you for all this great input! I am starting on a new cover on Monday and will try applying some of the above advise. This forum has been a big help to me, it's like having a bunch of experienced to co-workers to learn from!