U-shaped booth repair

[inkedgal]

Hi all,

I want to reupholster the u-shaped seat of this booth (not the entire booth). I plan to make a pattern out of the exisiting seat but I'm worried about how to get the vinyl inside the curve to lay flat and not wrinkle. How do I do this? Here's a picture.





Also, how much would you charge to reupholster a seat like this?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Jen

[scott_san_diego]

I will not be a problem as long as you place the seat on top of the new vinyl and use a bobbin with a pen or pencil and trace the outline of the booth.  The bobbin will give you your 1/2" seam allowance.  Then when you sew on the band around the top cover, you put it on everything should lay down flat without any wrinkles.

Hope that helps.

[inkedgal]

So a 1/2" seam allowance will allow the boxing along the inside curve of the "U" to lay flat when stapled at the bottom? My main concern is not having a puckered, wrinkled mess inside that "U".

Thanks for the advice.

[fragged8]

hiya

make lots of reference marks and make sure they meet together .

[sofadoc]

I'm surprised that there are no seams on the seat top of the U-Shaped one, because in the picture it looks like more than 54" wide and deep. Is it?
As long as it is boxed, I don't think that you'll have any problem pulling all of the wrinkles out.

[gene]

My guess is that it's less than 54" deep.

But then, what do I know? The other day on Jeopardy they wanted to know how many sides a cube has. I said 8. They said the answer was 6. They were wrong! A cube has 4 sides, 1 top, 1 bottom, 1 inside, and 1 outside. That adds up to 8 for me!

Gene

[JuneC]

Don't forget to snip the selvedges (seam allowances) in the corners after sewing.

June

[MinUph]

One other thing when you upholster the bench make sure all the salvage is folded down toward the boxing. It will look better and be more uniform in appearance. A top stitch might work out better placed on the boxing side of the the seam. If the customer will allow it.

[inkedgal]

Wow,  I woke up to some great advice.

fragged8: Plenty of reference marks. Check.
sofadoc: I thought the same thing when I first saw it but it's just under 54" deep.
gene: I'll get Trebek on the phone and sort this out.
junec: Snip selvedges. Check.
minuph: Fold selvedges down towards boxing. Check.

Thank you all. I really appreciate you taking the time to offer advice.

-Jen

[hdflame]

I will not be a problem as long as you place the seat on top of the new vinyl and use a bobbin with a pen or pencil and trace the outline of the booth.  The bobbin will give you your 1/2" seam allowance.  Then when you sew on the band around the top cover, you put it on everything should lay down flat without any wrinkles.

Hope that helps.

I'm trying to visualize how you use a bobbin to mark your 1/2" seam allowance.  I use a little piece of cardboard with a piece of tape wrapped around it.  I'd like to know how to do your trick.

[scott_san_diego]

I use M size bobbins.  Take a pen or sharp pencil and stick it in the hole and run the bobbin around the seat bottom and your pen mark will give you  1/2" seam allowance.  I have been doing this for over 19 years.  It saves a lot of time

[raymiemack]

Hi, I just did 6 restraunt booths exactly like this last week. The other advice is good but If I could say one thing, just make sure that the inside curve is not any longer than it needs to be - ie make sure the two straight ends at the front are not to long.  That was the mistake I made with my first attempt. I had to remove the whole section of seating so tracing the seat alone was not an option for me.

Once I had the correct shape though it was no problem, I top stitched the seam aswell.

Regards

Ray

[Peppy]

I use M size bobbins.  Take a pen or sharp pencil and stick it in the hole and run the bobbin around the seat bottom and your pen mark will give you  1/2" seam allowance.  I have been doing this for over 19 years.  It saves a lot of time

I did that too, till I found this-

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=50272&cat=1,42936,50298

I make patterns for three sewers. One Sews a 3/8" seam, one 1/2", and the other 9/16" (most days). I like being able to tailor the '1/2" ' to the sewer. For that matter I like only allowing a 1/4" seam sometimes.

I highly recommend getting this set. Very handy indeed.

[hdflame]

Ray, thanks for the explanation on the bobbin.

Peppy, those look pretty cool.  In order for either to work, I'd have to take a plastic pattern and make one out of wood or something stiff, so you could run it around the edge.

[Peppy]

The idea is that you have a piece of wood allready that your going to cover. I wouldn't build something just to trace it. Those things do simplify making a pattern from math, laying out something on paper. Measure out finish size lay the ruler on the marks, run the wheel on the ruler. Tada! Cut size.