The Not Leather Thread

[Handstitched]

G'day G'day,

I have absolutely no idea where to put this, although I did check. Maybe the mods know better. 

Some of us leather workers / crafters  work with textiles other than leather.  I just thought I'd show what else I work with .  I do canvas  & horse rug repairs, but I also work with that ..."stuff" ...um.... vinyl  

Some of my customers ask me to fit factory made MC seat covers .  I have found its easier to warm them up before fitting , you can see the heater, its been cold here lately.   I worked from the centre outwards. Pulling, stretching, stapling as I go. Quite a good result.

Theres heaps of vids  on this no doubt  . 

The last seat in the pic was messy ,  I made the cover & the foam needed TLC ,  but turned out pretty good. 

HS

[chuck123wapati]

22 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

G'day G'day,

I have absolutely no idea where to put this, although I did check. Maybe the mods know better. 

Some of us leather workers / crafters  work with textiles other than leather.  I just thought I'd show what else I work with .  I do canvas  & horse rug repairs, but I also work with that ..."stuff" ...um.... vinyl  

Some of my customers ask me to fit factory made MC seat covers .  I have found its easier to warm them up before fitting , you can see the heater, its been cold here lately.   I worked from the centre outwards. Pulling, stretching, stapling as I go. Quite a good result.

Theres heaps of vids  on this no doubt  . 

The last seat in the pic was messy ,  I made the cover & the foam needed TLC ,  but turned out pretty good. 

HS

very nice !! I've made a few myself.

[Handstitched]

20 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

I've made a few myself.

Thanks     I had a look around but wasn't too sure where to put this thread. 

The pic with  the seat covered in newspaper tape etc,  the idea behind that,  was to make a template using what remained of the original seat, to make a new piece,  there was hardly anything  left of the orig.

I'm not an upholsterer ,  my Father was though , by trade. I've just used what I have learnt from my Father.  I learnt a lot from him. My Mother was a seamstress  by trade, so I guess  me working with textiles is a natural progression . It wasn't intentional, its just the way it worked out...without me  even realising    

HS

[DJole]

I recently took the old crappy vinyl shifter boot off of my 5 speed Accord and used it as a pattern to make a nice, clean.... canvas boot! 
Black canvas with gold thread, and I used gold acrylic paint on the top of the knob to highlight the shift pattern.
I didn't really want to use leather in the car, although I seriously thought about it!

[Rbarleatherworks]

I just finished up an ATV seat, I think it turned out quite well

[Handstitched]

21 hours ago, DJole said:

I didn't really want to use leather in the car, although I seriously thought about it!

I've seen so many of those either vinyl or leather cracked, or falling apart, but that looks pretty good.  A lot of vehicles are subjected to some pretty extreme heat . 

As for the rest of your car, ...., it just needs to be loved   

15 hours ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

just finished up an ATV seat, I think it turned out quite well

You're right,it did turn out well, quite a big difference     

HS

[DJole]

4 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

I've seen so many of those either vinyl or leather cracked, or falling apart, but that looks pretty good.  A lot of vehicles are subjected to some pretty extreme heat . 

As for the rest of your car, ...., it just needs to be loved   

Yes -- in the picture, you can see the steering wheel off in the passenger side footwell. It was off because I'm working on installing an immobilizer switch so that this car won't get stolen again. 
It was stolen about 10 years ago, but located with no damage.
It had the catalytic converter cut off a few months ago, and some lowlife tried to steal it from a supermarket parking lot, a few weeks later, by attempting to saw through the steering wheel and prying the club off. Luckily, somebody saw the bastidge and scared him off. He left the saw in the car, and the steering wheel with a gouged rim.  
We had another car stolen back in January, and we got it back pretty broken. We can't really afford to lose another car. All the sad details are here: <http://djole.altervista.org/djole/Amusements/Acura sadness/SadCar.htm>

[chuck123wapati]

5 hours ago, DJole said:

Yes -- in the picture, you can see the steering wheel off in the passenger side footwell. It was off because I'm working on installing an immobilizer switch so that this car won't get stolen again. 
It was stolen about 10 years ago, but located with no damage.
It had the catalytic converter cut off a few months ago, and some lowlife tried to steal it from a supermarket parking lot, a few weeks later, by attempting to saw through the steering wheel and prying the club off. Luckily, somebody saw the bastidge and scared him off. He left the saw in the car, and the steering wheel with a gouged rim.  
We had another car stolen back in January, and we got it back pretty broken. We can't really afford to lose another car. All the sad details are here: <http://djole.altervista.org/djole/Amusements/Acura sadness/SadCar.htm>

That's just crazy, man we live in such different worlds in the same country. I haven't locked my car ever, never had one stolen. in fact stolen cars are almost unheard of here i noticed the other day a brand new Chevy truck setting in the grocery store parking lot running with the windows open lol lady just hopped out and went in the store with no thought what so ever and its not uncommon for folks to do that here.

[Samalan]

4 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

That's just crazy, man we live in such different worlds in the same country. I haven't locked my car ever, never had one stolen. in fact stolen cars are almost unheard of here i noticed the other day a brand new Chevy truck setting in the grocery store parking lot running with the windows open lol lady just hopped out and went in the store with no thought what so ever and its not uncommon for folks to do that her

Chuck I live in a nice small town just outside Boston MA  every so often people come in the driveway at like 2 am and check the doors in all the cars in the neighborhood they don't take the car just whatever you may have left in it.

[chuck123wapati]

1 minute ago, Samalan said:

Chuck I live in a nice small town just outside Boston MA  every so often people come in the driveway at like 2 am and check the doors in all the cars in the neighborhood they don't take the car just whatever you may have left in it.

LOL I noticed how naïve I was to this first about five years ago, i took a trip down to Denver, pulled into a shopping mall parking lot. When I got out of my car and was walking through the lot i happened to notice none of the vehicles had anything in them you could see. My car had cds, glasses, and any number of things strewn all about on the dash and in plain sight lol. Folks here might stop and roll your windows up if it was raining that's about the size of it but about once a year we get a kid or two that steals for about a week or someone passing through until they get caught. But there is no way to hide here what you do, there are about 8000 people and the next town is 100 miles away. Everyone knows everyone for the most part.

[Handstitched]

@chuck123wapati Very much the same where I am . We leave our cars unlocked go into shops etc. 

18 hours ago, DJole said:

Yes -- in the picture, you can see the steering wheel off in the passenger side footwell. It was off because I'm working on installing an immobilizer switch so that this car won't get stolen again. 

Whatever we think of our cars, they are our pride & joy 

While on the subject of steering wheels, I have a few old 13 "  sports steering wheels in my shed,  in poor shape. Might use those to practice re-covering them . Never had a call to do one, but you never know, always good to have the knowledge. Your pic gave me a reminder. 

HS

[DJole]

3 hours ago, Handstitched said:

While on the subject of steering wheels, I have a few old 13 "  sports steering wheels in my shed,  in poor shape. Might use those to practice re-covering them . Never had a call to do one, but you never know, always good to have the knowledge. Your pic gave me a reminder. 

I'm seriously considering using leather to cover up the gouged part of the steering wheel. If you zoom in on the steering wheel in the photograph, you can see the cut section on the rim.
Using some leather is cheaper than a new (or old from a wrecking yard) steering wheel!

Edited July 28, 2022 by DJole

[Samalan]

16 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

Folks here might stop and roll your windows up if it was raining

if someone here rolls up  your car windows that means they broke into your house and got the keys to your car round here we have those electric windows.

[Handstitched]

4 hours ago, DJole said:

If you zoom in on the steering wheel in the photograph, you can see the cut section on the rim.

Yep, I can see it. 

It'll be a good chance for me  to practice the herring bone stitch , I don't do it too often . 

HS

[chuck123wapati]

37 minutes ago, Samalan said:

if someone here rolls up  your car windows that means they broke into your house and got the keys to your car round here we have those electric windows.

lol here it may mean your keys were in the car too.

[Samalan]

18 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

lol here it may mean your keys were in the car too.

that's a good come back LOLLOLLOL!

[Doc Reaper]

At one time in my life I lived above a jazz bar,  it was a good experience, but in a crappy area of Richmond Virginia. I knew the owner and told him I needed a better car, the car was a New York State winter rat that I had purchased to leave the state. Certain portions of the floor would display the pavement below!!!

    I left my keys in the car, windows down, outside a bar, in a rough area of town, for well over two weeks. The car was so bad no self respecting thief would touch it! I found a note on the windshield stating that I could sell the car to a junkyard. The $75 I got for the car made me feel like a criminal.