Embossed Alligator Motorcycle Seat

[zoomer56]

The seat has compound curves.  The Embossed cow hide will only bend in one direction. Have you guys a good way to make a pattern with nice lines.  So that a combination of garment leather and stiff cow hide flow over the seat nicely. There curves going up behind the but and down between the legs. Have made flat paternity and it's a disaster. In the attached picture the difficult area is the front sides where the driver sits. Might just have to forgo alligator in the bottom scalloped section for flexible garment leather.

Edited May 16, 2016 by zoomer56
mod words, add pic

[zoomer56]

Rule one, stiff leather will not bend in two directions so don't try to. Stick to one direction bending.  The center section is easy, a strip of alligator the bends only up at the back of the seat.  The two pieces on the side of the seat can be put in place to judge what part of the single side of seat curve will be covered.

Rule two, seat is not flat so do not draw pattern on flat surface.  Put your stiff paper or even rough cut pieces on the seat to cover all curves, tape them down.  You will need several pieces to cover the whole seat in a balanced way with nice lines. Then draw pattern or the intersections where sew lines will be. In my case, I pinned every thing.  This will ensure curved sections will match up when sewing.

Rule three, use the holes made by pins to place the pieces perfectly back to back.  I used pins to align then metal clips to hold all in place. Pins and clips are pulled off one at a time during sewing.