I'm restoring a 66 Chevy Shortbed for the wife and she wants the seat covered in Mexican blanket material. Any tips or tricks to keep it from bunching up when you slide across the seat? I was thinking of doing maybe 4 inch pleats to help stiffen it.
Is the seat underneath ****? I used carpet tape on my old (vinyl) seats to hold a blanket in place on the bench in my ute, so far so good. And thats with my kids scrambling in and out in the reckless way kids do. I also used the same tape to hold carpet down on installs in a mall centrecourt, it didn't go anywhere, so it holds well. The other thing to do, rather than pleat it might be to get it sewn box style, like a car seat cover, so it follows the shape of the seat easier. That and the tape might do it.
It sounds like you want to sew up a seat cover using one as the mat'l. If that's right then fabric tension and good sewing is the main ingredient. There are a few tricks and additional mat'ls you can use to get a better job. Back it up with some light foam like 1/4". If it's woven really loose you do what I was taught as 'dry gluing' that foam to the back. You hold your glue gun or aerosol can of glue a good distance from the surface and apply it lightly. Too close it'll be too wet and soak through. Do both sides, let it dry 2-3 min and get some help to tension the material tight on the table and apply the foam (or another suitable backing mat'l) with as close to equal tension as you can. We've pulled this off on mat'ls that exceed $80/yd with long term success. Some of the trimmers here know what I mean.
when i did it we just sprayed the seat and the blanket with some trim adhesive and stuck them together,lasted for a year and a half before beachbum jim s***ched it up right.
This is important as a loose weave will fall apart. 1/4" foam will work or you can use muslin, a thin bed sheet like material. Good Luck!!!
Thanks for the input. It's been 30 years since I s***ched my last interior but I'm going to give it a try.
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