How do I repair upholstery puckers?

[Billy P]

Hey everbody, my friend, who does upholstry work covered a motorcycle seat about 2 weeks ago. The person who got the seat called him today and told hm that the seatcover had bunched up on him. I guess you could them BUTT PUCKERS, LOL. Anyway he used an alligator print leather that he got from Churchill Barton at Brettuns village. The leather is fine, but I am suspecting that it was too thin/lightweight to cover the top of the seat with, probably a 3/4 oz leather. I suggested that he might could get a piece of maybe 4/5 or 5/6 oz leather and contact cement or Barge cement the thinner cover to a piece of that and then sew the 2 pieces when he recovers the seat. I asked if he had glued the leather to the foam seat padding, but he had also used some of the gel pad seat material and was not able to do it that way. He and I are trying to get started doing some custom seats together and any advice/help on getting this thing fixed will be greatly appreciated by both of us. With sincere appreciation for any and all help/ ideas Billy P

[Guest]

Hey Billy,

I have only done one seat of a similar nature. I put a suede split in the middle of a vegetable tanned seat.

But first off, the seat top leather should be AT LEAST 6 oz. I outlined my suede insert and tooled an inset so that the top of the suede was about level with the seat top leather. The suede was then glued into the inset and I then laced the suede to the top to make sure that is would not bunch. The result looked pretty good, I thought, and you could do the same with a "snake skin insert".

I've included some pics of the seat. The dark lacing and stitching was purely decorative.

Edited June 21, 2007 by David

[Roger]

whenever i install an insert, i cover the whole seat in 1/4" foam and glue the cover to that. if the cover is thin, i would do as you are thinking and glue it to something a bit thicker but it should be glued down or you will continue to have the same problem