New Cushions - How Bad a Project?

[SVTatia]

I have read posts from people who instead of replacing the foam, they installed the Froli system. Maybe that is an option worth investigating.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-113804.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...em-100104.html

[Yeti]

I jut did mine a few months ago. I kind of winged it and you can tell on the back corners of the first cushion. But it works for me. You can't see those corners when everything is in place. I also used Velcro instead of zippers.

As far as foam goes, the foam factory is the best option I found by far. However, they have a "retail" site and a "wholesale" site. The only difference is the look of the site and the prices. The retail site was almost double.


I used their best foam, the "lux high quality", in 5" depth for my salon cushions. I'm 6'2" and a donut shy of 300lbs and that foam hardly budges under me. It's definitely firm.

Here's the website for the wholesale section of the lux hq foam. I used one full sheet for my four salon cushions. Had only a few small strips as waste.

http://www.foamdistributing.com/LHQ/...lity-foam.html


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[rassabossa]

Lots of good tips here so I'll just add a couple more. Use a walking foot machine, especially if you are going to sew vinyl. If you are going to use welt cord, buy the right foot for it. It makes it MUCH easier and straighter. Start small with practice pieces and covers. Once you get the hang of it, it shouldn't take more than a day.

[nimblemotors]

For foam, car seats have great foam in them. The patio cushions I made were from a van rear seat.
Those rear van/suv 3rd row seats get discarded all the time.
Call me cheap, I call it recycling.

[Franst8]

In regards to the foam, you could look.at latex foam. It is real rubber foam. It's incredibly comfortable and holds it's shape for a very long time. It comes in many thicknesses. I sleep on mine and it's great.
Find suppliers thru google. You can get it with no covers on it and cut to size. I put some waterproof fabric under final cover.

[Franst8]

Nimble makes a good point about auto seats
I took apart some seats from a Jaguar years ago and they were made from Latex foam.
Good luck with your project.

[RDW]

This thread is a good advertizement for Sailrite, which they well deserve. Using their infomation and videos I have done the following projects since 2008, total 46 foot boat cover, cockpit cushions, pillows for saloon, cockpit enclosure to fit on bimini, cockpit table cover, minor repair of sails for friends, new cover for life sling, dinghy chaps and ultra leather recovered saloon cushions. All with just the instructions from Sailrite and a good ripper.
Have at it!!!
RDW

[tbodine88]

I had mine made by a friend with a sewing machine. I measured the cockpit and made some drawings so she'd have a pattern. I bought foam from
eFoamstore.com - The nation's leading source of foam

and sunbrella from sailrite.com
and "Kevlar Thread Color: Black" from Amazon since kevlar is supposed to be more sun resistant.

[MarkSF]

Just to prove it's possible, I made this one tonight, following the instructions by Sailrite. Only 5 more to go! (3 more like this for the seat backs, then two twice as long for the bases)

[Weyalan]

In my experience the reason that replacing cushions is expensive is that the "good foam" is expensive.

[Sandibar]

Wife and me (mostly wife) did all 18 cushions and mattresses on our boat two years ago. Big project, but saved a lot of money. Biggest help for us was to get the foam cut to size by seller using old mattresses as templates.

One thing that was recommended here in Finland and not mentioned in this thread I think, is to add a layer of thin wadding between foam and cloth. This prevents abrasion of cloth by foam. Easy to do with the sprayed adhesive mentioned earlier.

[Franst8]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I also added a layer of batting from the fabric store between the foam and the cover. It also helped with the fit and added a nice look.

[thebootlegger]

I second the suggestions above especially watching the Sailrite videos...if you have access to the 2014 Sailrite catalog they have a good step by step for cockpit cushions in it. Also just IMHO...stay away from strips or patters you need to match for your first few projects. Good luck.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by thebootlegger

I second the suggestions above especially watching the Sailrite videos...if you have access to the 2014 Sailrite catalog they have a good step by step for cockpit cushions in it. Also just IMHO...stay away from strips or patters you need to match for your first few projects. Good luck.

^^^^This is a very good suggestion: it takes extra fabric for matching repeating patterns [the amoung extra depends on the length of the repeat, roughly], and, for instance, if you had a Tartan, and are a Scot, then you'd really want your Tartan's tartan to match correctly.

[CaptTom]

Thanks again for all the tips. I've bought from Sailrite before and planned to go back and watch some more of their videos. I'm not Scottish so the tartan issue is moot, but the point on avoiding patterns the first time out is well taken.

I expected more opinions on selection of foam (thanks to those who offered theirs already; I've visited all the sites posted here and taken notes.) I know the foam is the most important (and most expensive) part. I'm now thinking I may visit an upholstery shop and see if I could test-sit on a few different selections, and pick their brains for ideas and sources.