Tailor Made…

One of the primary goals I set for myself when I started restoring the Mustang was to get myself out of my comfort zone and learn new things. Over the last couple of years, I’ve learned how to rebuild brakes, precision cut metal, install engines, reupholster seats as well as a slew of other things I didn’t know how to do before.

This week, I added another new skill to my repertoire – sewing. A couple of weeks ago, my wife commented on my “disgusting” rear seat bottom cushion:

My wife’s comment prompted the purchase of the raw materials required to recreate the cushion:

The plan over the last couple of weeks was to do just that.

Before I could recreate the cushion, I needed to finish restoring the seat frame and the burlap so the cushion would have a solid foundation upon which to rest.

The old seat frame was in better condition than most of the others I’ve restored, but still needed some attention:

I started by media blasting the frame into a nice clean surface:

I then primed and painted it to look new again:

Recreating the burlap was significantly more challenging on this seat compared to the fronts. Due to the curvature of the seat frame, the burlap comes in three different pieces. I rebuilt each one separately:

…and then attached them along with some re-used felt to the seat frame:

At that point, it was time for some sewing lessons from my wife. I originally tried to use my Grandmother’s old sewing machine that I “rescued” out of my Brother-In-Law’s garage thinking it would be poetic to use tools “from the era”:

However, neither my wife or I could get the machine to operate consistently. It was missing a piece in the front to cover the bobbin and without the piece the thread kept getting tangled.

We eventually gave up and my wife very graciously let me borrow her machine, pictured below with the tin-snips that I used as sewing shears for this project:

With the equipment, materials and training procured it was time to start tailoring. I started by making a simple pattern from the old “disgusting” pad:

With that template cut out, I transferred the pattern to the new foam and cut that out:

I ended up cutting out two layers of foam and using spray adhesive to stick them together in order to get the thickness I wanted.

Using the cut foam, I traced out and cut the cover for the foam out of duck cloth. With that, it was finally go-time for a test of my sewing skills.

It, uh… didn’t go well at first:

Through trial and error, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and I was finally able to lay down a nice seam on the cover:

Once I was done stitching the outside of the cover, I turned it inside out to hide the seam:

…and then stuffed the foam inside:

At that point, I was left with the center section. Similar to the design of the burlap, this section is separated from the two sides of the padding in order to accommodate the curve of the seat frame. I couldn’t think of any way to use the sewing machine in this area so I broke out a needle and started stitching the really-old-fashioned way:

After a small eternity, my first real sewing project ended up as something I was really happy with:

At that point, all that was left to do was install the I-couldn’t-find-any-other-color green anti-rattle foam between the springs in the seat frame:

And stretch the new upholstery over all my hard work so nobody would ever see it:

I think the results look great and totally belie the fact that I was (and still am) a complete novice at this sewing/tailoring/upholstering stuff.

Project Upholstery is now 5/6 complete. I’ve finished both front seats and now the bottom half of the back seat. All that remains is the rear seat back. That segment will start to get torn apart for restoration this week…