Im wanting to try my hand at doing my own interior in my Model A coupe so we have been doing a few practice pleets to see how it goes. My wife is doing the sewing we have a small industrial walking foot machine but it doesnt have much depth.the problem seems to be that on larger areas the pleets are not "tight" I'll post a few pics of the material and practice runs. Maybe someone could offer any tips or advice? Thanks in advance Mike
Couple different things. Get to your local upholstery shop and get some 1/2" scrim foam or "pleating" foam". Its foam with a scrim or cloth backing. Right now the foam your using is cheap so the machine is just cutting right through it making the depth very shallow. On the pleats you've shown try folding each one at the seam and sewing another seam on the back side of each one, about 3/8" from the edge, basiclly sewing each pleat to one another from the backside. It will greatly reduce your pleat width so you'll have to practice on these and then space them out alittle farther next time. Thats called Cheater tuck n roll, its not TRUE tuck n roll but looks great non the less. Also you could try doubling up the pieces of foam and with a razor blade, make a slice where your seam is going to go, that way it pulls the vinyl down into the seam, for those 40's style DEEP pleats. <<You will definately need some sort of material backing on the foam for those though. Hope this helps -Andrew
Does the foam you are using have a backing on it? Tufting foam or sewing foam has a woven backing to hold the stiching. Also try to lightly adhere the vinyl to the foam with some spray adhesive. Also the sewing technique you are using is called tufting. That is when you leave the s***ching exposed. Pleating is when you fold the material onto itself and s***ch it together. As far as what you have started, if you are worried about the wrinkles dont! Most likely they will come out when you stretch it into place. Any leftover wrinkles can be heated out with either a steamer or heat gun. Just be careful with the heat gun as you can very easily burn the vinyl.
You can make your own scrim by lightly glueing lightweight cloth to the back of your foam. Get cheap stuff on clearance at wal mart, cheap bed sheets work good to.
I`ve noticed that there is a difference in which way you sew the pleats,across the roll or up the roll of matarial. The vinyl stretches a little more one way than the other, thus causing wrinkles.
Use a good scrim backed foam and glue your vinyl to it before pleating. You will be much happier with the results.
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