Who's Reupholstered Their Cushions ?

[Tempest245]

I redid did all my cushions in a sunbrella fabric. I did new foam as well. I used JSI in Florida. Jane Vanse was terrific. They sent me a patterning kit with instructions to take all the measurements. I did the patterns myself, measuring everyting 3 times.

I couldn't be happier with the product or the service. I forget the final bill, probably close to $3500. I had 1st tried local furniture shops, and more local boat cushion folks, none of them seemed to want to drive to my boat and take the patterns, so I did it myself. I was nervous about doing it remotely, but it worked out great.
I think JSI has measurements on file for a variety of vessels.

They offered several styles of cushions, a huge selection of materials, and a variety of choices in stitching ( buttons, headreads, waterfall seams or square edge)

[SeaKing]

I want to clarify about the Sunbrella Upholstery grade material. It is much cheaper than the Ultra's and looks like a home interior fabric. It comes in various prints and matching colors. It is not stiff like the dodger stuff, if you didn't know it was sunbrella you wouldn't guess it. My wife is making cockpit cushions out of that now that will be comfortable to sit on, but durable as the dodger stuff. It is worth checking out for the boat interior.

On the Ultrasuede and cutting it out, my wife took great care in the planning of the cutouts. She chose a color that was discontinued of course.I searched online and found a full bolt of it and got it for $40 a yard. She wound up with quite a bit extra that we still have. She made some pillows from the scraps and embrodried our logo and a sailboat on the two pillows. When we sold the boat the new owners gave us the logo pillow since they were changing the name of the boat.

She is not a professional seamstress but has sewn as a hobby most of her life. I am attaching a pic of the salon and a seperate close up of the pillows. She mentioned I need to say the center main cushion was backward and the zipper edge is visible, but not the zipper. There is a flap covering the zipper, look at the edges of the side cushions at the finished smooth look. She hated seeing that work go with the boat, but I know it helped in the sale. That was our PDQ Original 34 ( hull #2).

[Therapy]

My question for all you experts (sorry for the intrusion) is: What material will last a long time AND is comfortable for a sweaty butt? You see, I cannot stand to wear "plastic" clothes. If it touches me I sweat for some reason. I can sit on chairs that have "cloth" but cannot sit on something like vinyl. I know nothing of materials that claim to "breathe" but if I sit on it for a little while my butt will tell me.
It seems to me that if it is so tight it feels like leather then the characteristics might well be like leather..........
Thanks.

[Joli]

You really don't want vinyl. Not comfortable when it's hot and humid.

We hired out our cushions, not that expensive.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Joli

You really don't want vinyl. Not comfortable when it's hot and humid.

We hired out our cushions, not that expensive.

I know I don't want vinyl but I am not comfortable on many "fabrics" when it is hot and humid.

Which is the best "breather"

[mobetah]

Bill,

We were going to have a pro supply the material and sew our chushions however the pro did not deal with a supplier who sold ultraleather so we purchased ultraleather from Gulf Fabrics ultraleather home page (good folks to deal with and reasonable prices) and had a her purchase the foam and do the sewing etc.

That was seven years ago and our chushions still look like they did the day we got them back even though we lived aboard and cruised for four of those seven years. Ultraleather is the way to go.

Good Luck, Bill A.

[Ex-Calif]

We have lots of kids on the boat. I agree with no vinyl due to heat and sweating. We went with a smooth sunbrella type material and it has been excellent. All kinds of spills clean up instantly.

One Mistake - We went with 2 inch closed cell foam. Should have gone with Paul's idea of a layered foam. 2 inch "soft" in the middle layered with 1/2 inch firm on each side. They are a bit hard but they still sit pretty well and sleep OK.

We had a pro do the whole thing. Here in Asia materials were 80% and labor 20%. It would have been very risky for us to do the patterns. All our settee cushions have 3D angles - A curve couple with the inside diameter of the hull. The flare at the hull is perfect.

If we had a bigger boat and no kids we would probably be after an ultra suede as well.

[Maine Sail]

Did ours last winter went with Ultra Suede and a Sunbrella Piping. I was going to do it myself but found an auto upholstery guy, through my commercial fabric store, who ran a shop out of his house. Labor for the whole interior was $1300.00 and he did an outstanding job. I bought the Ultra Suede as a "second" at a place in Maine called Fabric Warehouse for about $16.00 per yard..

I own my own commercial machine, a Consew 206, but my time to do a job that big is worth a lot more than the $1300.00 I paid.

[DeepFrz]

MS,
sweet.

[MarkJ]

Can Ultra Suede and Naudahide be bought in Aisa?

I is goin there with boatie and she may get her toush touched up if the price is right.

Otherwise I would buy the fabric before leaving Aus.


Mark

[Ex-Calif]

I am sure you can get it but you will pay a premium probably. What you should definitely get a break on is labor. Probably better in Thailand than here. Good yachties up around Phuket. Labor in Singapore is cheaper but not cheap.

I'll do a little snooping around.

[BadFish]

Thanks everyone for the sweet replies. Looks like plenty o' people got some experience dealing with this issue. Things I've learned from everyone:

1. NO VINYL, can cause warm-weather syndrome known as "sticky-ass."

2. Ultraleather shan't be scared o' my hound and his claws.

3. Ultrasuede would feel sweet on my naked crotch but prob wouldn't hold up to me mutt, hahaha...

4. Find a local seamstress or car upholsterer, do good work and cost less than marine upholsterers.

5. Pblais is once again the king of "short" answers, hahaha......... Thank you Pblais for your always well-thought responses.

Thanks everyone, I will eventually get some before and after pics up in this piece.

Cheers

Bil

[Sandero]

I have re upholstered 2x in 23 years. First time I used a navy blue chord which matched the original. The foam is excellent so it's still there. The second re cover I used a navy blue "velvet" looking. Hard to describe but it's sort of a plush with some square dot pattern. It's held up very well.

YUCK to vinyl or sunbrella down below. Sunbrella is super for cockpit cushions. Very strong.

I got a quote to do the V and it was something like $200. Seems reasonable.

[Pblais]

I would contact David at xxx for help with getting the right foam. xxx specializes in custom foam and makes foam to fit your needs.

We don't know if earthskater is pitching for this web site but if they do make a few good points.

One thing to note. I went to this site and did some entries. They quote regular and premium foams. The difference in price is more than double. The prices seemed to me neither high or low as i know for a fact foam prices have skyrocketed with oil prices. Here is what it comes down to. You might eventually wear out the fabric and need to recover. With premium you might reuse the same foam. Personally I prefer the premium foam with 1 or 2 inches of memory foam. The premium stuff is just a tad harder. The less premium is softer but bottoms out in a shorter period of time.

This is a case where the price quoted you might get from one upholstery place to another can vary by a huge margin. It is really easy to low-ball the job with poor quality materials to make the price point happy. You need to sit on the really good stuff to know the difference. Once you do it becomes apparent why they cost so much more and 5 years later you'll be able to prove it if you use your boat a lot.

[jhnhll]

I am currently redoing my cushions. All the material and supplies came from Sailrite, all the foam came from EBAY a place called Ricks Foam, he came recommended from some people on the Catalina 25 owners site