Hellbent for Leather

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Franco
Thanks for the kind words!! I have tried using the faux leather before and find it to be more difficult to work with than plain ol veg-tanned leather. The cutting and stretching takes some practice to get the hang of. No matter how many things I cover with leather I always have a moment where I feel all is lost because I either cut too much or not enough. Just be diligent in your measurements and calculations and try to keep optimistic. I would love to see some pics of that seat if you got time to post them.

I will definitely look for some golf bags...that never occurred to me but it does seem like an excellent source of leather and hardware. I always look for people throwing away leather couches. The back usually faces a wall in the house so it is almost always free of wear and tear. Plus it is a huge section that you can just cut out, roll up, and drive off with.

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Rusty Shakelford said:
Franco
Thanks for the kind words!! I have tried using the faux leather before and find it to be more difficult to work with than plain ol veg-tanned leather. The cutting and stretching takes some practice to get the hang of. No matter how many things I cover with leather I always have a moment where I feel all is lost because I either cut too much or not enough. Just be diligent in your measurements and calculations and try to keep optimistic. I would love to see some pics of that seat if you got time to post them.

I will definitely look for some golf bags...that never occurred to me but it does seem like an excellent source of leather and hardware. I always look for people throwing away leather couches.

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Click to expand...

Hey Rusty,
I never thought about the curb couches. ...good idea.

I just bombed this one out on a little BMX that I put together from frames and parts laying around..this rusted gem only had just the hard plastic saddle left. no brakes, no chain.

Anyway, I put some foam on top of the seat...real thin, and this 'fabric' was more like a stretchable vinyl....from a golf bag, I wouldn't even call it faux leather..lol.

It's how to attach it underneath, you can see the front is rolled under pretty crude fashion. (since I kindof rushed it at the end there) and since my compressor blew up I didn't have my staple gun handy, so I used some contact cement.

It's an improvement...but I'm going to try some real leather next time...I see how nicely it stretched on your seat. That one looks like you attached some snaps to apply the fringe? or are they just some studs for a demarcation line?
but I do wonder how you usually attach the rolled part underneath?

Nice work you're doing
Franco
chaos.jpg
 
The seat looks pretty clean from the pic...well done. The front part can be tricky since its such a tight turn. You have to cut out some triangles to get the cover to lay right and then get them to line up when you wrap it or you can just fold them if the cover is thin enough. I cut out some triangles then cut the cover into panels then sewed them back together. The fringe is just the bottom of the panels that I cut into strips.

Staples or tacks usually work well for anchoring the covering but the seat I recovered was metal and already had some tabs for holding the old cover on. I filed the holes out so the leather strip would fit through them and wrap around the tabs...that's what holds the cover on. Here's a pic because its hard to explain. The silver parts are just eyelets that the leather strip passes through.





I had to sew down the strap in parts so it would lay down on the cover.

If you have a Tandy Leather around you they are having a sale on veg-tanned shoulders. Whole shoulders for $30. Its just the "craftsman" grade stuff (any thickness though) but that's a pretty good price for such a large chunk and I never do any work that merits the grade A leather.


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Clever Rusty.
I like the way you wove that leather strip into the bottom
that seat looks super.
and the pics...they explain it well

I used the BOLO for curbside 'stuff' this morning, and found an old leather covered chair. Cut the seat and backrest out...old leather, nice patina"the back of the seat is thick leather, with some lovely embossed patterns on it..was almost a shame to cut it up, it was on a nice maple frame...

I'ma keep on trying....you've given me some good inspiration here.
thanks again

F.
 
So for a quick update...I've been trying to knock out some work before school starts back up. I keep running into issues with the saddlebags. I grossly under-calculated the amount of thread that I would need. Each of the long seams needs 18ft of thread! So need to make another trip to Tandy.

I have everything pretty much prepped...just need to sew. Since I haven't been able to move forward in that direction very quickly I did some more reassembly on the bike.

I still need to figure out how I'm gonna work a headlight and taillight. Have the taillight bezel and lens but need to come up with the lighting part. I have a headlight being delivered and it will take some doing to wire it up as well.

Here's some pics of how it sits now and how the saddlebags are coming.











Fingers are hurting from sewing the past few days...glad I got a 12-pack of "painkillers" in the fridge!!!
 

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