Morris Minor Owners Club

Having bought a lilac moggy earlier in the year both my wife and i decided we had to do something about the black interior, it just looked terrible.

Having looked at the cost of a new interior I decided to buy a sewing machine and give a go making one myself.. this is the result of the first seat

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Seat in the car and door trim.
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my daughter helped clean up the seat
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Excellent work!! Fancy doing a red duo tone set for mine? Daughter is moaning about the plastic sticking to her legs now the sun has finally come out!

Wow - this does look very very good. I'm going to get a closer look as soon as I get time to pop round.

Man good with sewing machine a rare breed - I think you should now consider giving up the day job - there could be a great demand for these skills

Out of interest what fabric have you used it's hard to tell in the photos - is it vinyl or cloth? It looks really good. I like the two-tone door cards

Charlie has used good old fashioned cotton and then treated it with Scotch Guard. He also used a soft padding which is stitched to the fabric which will obviously make it more durable. I'm sure he will provide the details. I'm definitely going to make some Unless, of course, he does them for me

thank you for the compliments..

linearaudio.. have a go your self.. my sewing machine is a 1930 singers and cost me 5 pounds off ebay.. it really is very easy provided you do things slowly. The fabric cost me 30 pounds so even if it all goes wrong you have not lost that much!

regaliaqueen.. as ani says I have used a normal cloth fabric that the seller told me was suitable for upholstery.. i did read a bit on the internet about sewing vinyl and everyone seems to think it is difficult and as i have never used a sewing machine before i decided to go with cloth.. i will not say what the person selling me the fabric said when i told them i wanted it to trim a car out and i had only just started using the machine.

ani.. ginny says I can not give up my day job unless you want to come to my funeral after about a week!

Charlie I really like the idea of co-odinating the interior with the paintwork. I have recovered 3 interiors in vinyl and yes it's hard work - and I have been using a sewing machine since I was 5! It's also v. hard on the fingers as I did the first set almost by hand . I've always fancied doing an interior in tartan cloth but it won't go with Clipper Blue !!

Nonsense! This would go well with it :<br><br>

Very nice work! Your car must be really nice to sit in now! You can't eat chocolate or drink blackcurrant juice in there now, though. You probably daren't even breathe!

I made a leather wallet for myself on an old Singer, and because of the friction against the metal I had to push the material manually, lining it up for the stitch. Probably the same problem working with vinyl.
I thought later that I could have put a piece of paper between the leather and the bed of the machine - but then it would need removing, from under all the threads. Maybe a warm wash would have removed it? Never thought of that. Maybe it's the way to do it?

Looking at the quality of your first job, why not give it a go in vinyl? Seems you enjoy a challenge......and succeed.

Love the tartan - not sure about Jon he's not a great fan of tartan - finds it a bit "strong". I shall stick to recovering Bella' s set in vinyl, just haven't decided what colour yet! She's needs a respray before that!

How thick is the material?
You wouldn't want to wear something made from upholstery material and I suspect seats made from anything else wont last long.
Higher mileage cars often have sections of the seat worn away just from the driver getting in and out and that is using something designed for the job.
I'm afraid anything not designed for the job wont last very long

when i bought the material i told the person what i wanted to use it for and she said it was upholstery fabric.. it has only cost me 30 quid so even if it only lasts a few years i will be able to do it again for far less than a commercial retrim. As for how thick er.. no idea but I certainly would not want to wear it!

Once it has worn out next time i might even go for the vinyl solution, but never having used a sewing machine before i wanted to take the easiest route no point in running before you can walk.. suppose i could say that about retrimming a car with no experience!

Glad to hear that.
Anything you might wear would last minutes rather than years .
Good plan to scotch Guard it too.

Once upon a time I made a motorbike seat cover, tuck 'n roll looking no less, from leather offcuts using an ancient Singer sewing machine.
Broke a needle or two but the sewing machine was none the worse for it.

Charlie,

Do you have any pictures of the finished product?
I would also be interested in some pictures of the outside of the car.

Vigil