[Cat]

Hi my name is Cat and I am a self employed car/auto marine trimmer based in Tring Hertfordshire.

Quite often I look at the cool build threads in here, but I haven’t got a car that I am building. So I thought that maybe I could start a thread for the cool interior builds that I have done/am doing for people.

Sew... (do you see what I did there:lol I’m going to start this off with my bay Heidi. The reason I got into upholstery in the first place.

At VW Action many years ago (when it was at Herts County Showground) there was a moon eyes crew cab there that had glitter vinyl seats. I had never seen that in the UK before. It was then my mission in life to have glitter vinyl seats in my van. Several years later and I achieved my goal. (just to add, white interior is completely impractical, but is bloody awesome!)

 

[Cat]

thank you.

im going to aim to update it once a week

 

[Cat]

Me too.

thank you.

 

[Cat]

I'm in , let's see some upholstery pics

do you want to see the rank foam aswell? :lol:

 

[Cat]

I'm going to try and update this on a Tuesday. Reason being, i do my parents shopping, so i don't work Tuesday. (I guess that's the joy of being self employed) Plus i need to sit down and look through my One Drive. it takes me ages to find stuff in there :lol:

this is from today. i've been working on a wizard hood. I templated from scratch. Got the main thing stitched up today, but got to wait until the weekend for some help putting press studs in etc. once the back is tied down, i can mark out for the window and then concentrate on the door edges and front edge.

this is also a sneaky peak at a new bag i'm making.

i decided to make handbags with left over materials, plus who doesn't want a bag to match their interior

 

[Cat]

Glad you posted on here as I'm down the road from you and need someone to trim my oval bug seats. Just getting the frames powder coated and will email you for a chat

:hug:

 

[Cat]

:lol:

I think I've seen enough of that over the years so I'll pass on that one

 

[Cat]

i know i said i'd post on a Tuesday, but i forgot i had to take my dad for his covid jab today, so i switched my day off for today.

These are the diamond seats that I did for my husband.

He then changed his mind on what he wanted, so we put them up for sale in the classified section on here, but they didn’t sell. I’m guessing they were too bespoke for most people.

since then, he changed his mind again and they are now back in the bug, waiting for the paint to be fixed.

 

[Cat]

It wasn’t all bad though, as out of putting these seats up for sale came my first VW customer and my first full width tuck n roll bed with matching buddy seat.

Thank you Luke :hug:

 

[Cat]

it's only letting me put 2 pics up at a time today for some reason

 

[Cat]

i actually templated for the back piece on my office floor at the day job when everyone had gone home, as i didn't have room on the boat to do it :lol:

 

[Cat]

then i did the cute buddy seat to match

 

[Cat]

Nice work.

thank you.

i'm working on a dodge van this week. the customer has supplied the vinyl. its gold diamond stitch

 

[Cat]

Lovely.

My dad could drive a sewing machine, and had a large industrial one for repairing tents and suchlike, but it's something that I've never attempted. I found the machine in one of my brother-in-law's storage sheds a few years ago, but thirty odd years in a damp corner had sadly left it fit only for scrap.

that's a shame some of the old machines are the best.

 

[Cat]

Enjoying seeing these. There's some lovely work there

thank you :hug:

 

[Cat]

I was, possibly illogically, really quite upset at finding it like that. I had thought it long since sold, which didn't bother me at all, but for it to have been ruined by benign neglect was awful.

these things happen. :hug:

but if you do see a cylinder arm sewing machine give us a shout, they cost a bloomin fortune! i'd like one, just can't justify paying the money :lol:

 

[Cat]

In 2018 whilst still holding down a full time office job, I started work on my sister’s friends 1934 Austin A10/4 door.
It was a learning curve for everyone. It had been in the family since new and been off the road for a very very long time. Over the course of about a year, my evenings and weekends were spent working on the interior.
I was lucky enough to see the car on the road last year and I still can’t quite believe that I did everything from seats, leather restoration, trim pieces, carpet edging and headliner and sliding roof! It’s not till you see everything together that you realise how much time goes into it, but it makes me feel proud that I did it.

 

[Cat]

on the front seats there were a few springs that were broken, so i learnt how to replace the broken springs and lash them back together

 

[Cat]

the tuck n roll was made in the old fashioned way with real sheep wool wadding and backed with calico.
nowadays its easier (and cheaper) to use scrim which is a foam that comes in different thicknesses.

there is something to be said for working in the old materials though, it just feels nice to work with, also my cats loved having a load of fluffy sheep wool at home to squish :lol:

 

[Cat]

on the back of the seats is a carpet kick panel. this is where i learnt the skill of edging carpet.

i always think it's such a cool thing, as you stitch it in such a way that you can't actually see the stitching in the carpet (it's the little things like this that i love, but maybe that's just me) :lol:

the lighter green is the old one