Upholstery, worth doign your slef or professionally?

[delavan]

Hi,

My old TT project is a 1978. It probably got owned by a few people. The last guy was a young dude that seemed to use it to party. I found shotshells and stuff in there, empty liquor bottles, etc...

anyway, I removed the fabric cover for all the cushions. The covers will be washed about 3 times, to ensure I get most of the sand, dirt and whatever else that was on it. Its not badly stained, but a little bit. The foam inserts are stained a little bit. Only on one I can see some black dots, might be a little moldy, but its hard to say.

I paid $2000.00 for the trailer, but I already pumped north of a thousand bucks on it (deep cycle battery/4 new goodyear tires, LEDs, etc)....I might want to save the foam, but is it expensive to replace?

What have you done to your project in terms of foam/cushions?

 

[Pugapooh]

I would think having it done professionally would be expensive.  Do you have a sewing machine?  What size are the foam pieces?  Jo-Ann Fabrics carries foam that may work for you.  They also have the heavier fabrics you would need.

You can get an adequate machine for under $200.  Just make sure you get "denim" needles for it.  And heavy duty thread.save your old covers for patterns.

It doesn't hurt to get a quote on it.  It may be easier to let someone do it.  Really depends on what you want to spend but is possible to DIY.

 

[UTTransplant]

Is this for dinette seats? If the upholstery is simple covers for cushions and you have sewed before, reupholstering isn?t hard. It just requires careful measurements and sewing. Luckily you have the old covers as a pattern. Buying new foam for cushions is also easy. I replaced the foam in my TT dinette cushions with guidance from buyfoam.com. Good prices, great foam, and fast service.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Agree with the others, assuming you have the basic sewing skills. You need a good quality machine to stitch heavy fabrics, though. A professional shop will likely strain your budget. But so will decent quality upholstery fabric.

Personally, I'd replace the foam too. Old foam gets brittle and odds are the original wasn't all that cushy to begin with. New foam in a medium-high density will be much more comfortable. I under stand the budget limitations, though. You paid too much for the trailer to begin with, plus have already spent a bunch more. Sometimes you just have to go cheaper than the ideal.

Foam is priced by density and cubic inches, so length/width/height are all factors.  I have no idea what you have, so cannot guess the cost. Upholstery and craft stores tend to be high priced, but check around to see. Even Home Depot has sheets of general purpose foam that you can cut to size. It's not high density, though, so crushes easily when you sit on it.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Future-Foam-3-in-Thick-Multi-Purpose-Foam-10030BULK3/203837114

 

[Pugapooh]

I forgot to mention.  Jo-Ann 's often has sales on foam and fabric-40-50% off.  You can also sign up for coupons.  I don't know what will be in the 4th of July sale but definitely worth waiting to buy during a sale.  Don't be afraid to ask them questions,hopefully they will have someone working that is helpful.  Look for the older ladies,lol.

Happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[UTTransplant]

Agree with the others, assuming you have the basic sewing skills. You need a good quality machine to stitch heavy fabrics, though. A professional shop will likely strain your budget. But so will decent quality upholstery fabric.

The bestcheap machine for upholstery is an old black Singer 66. Tens of thousands of them still in existence, and they sew like a dream. They only do straight stitch, but they have a powerful motor and go through most fabrics very easily. Just take your time. I can find them where I live for $50 or so.

 

[delavan]

We do own a sewing machine! Finding "denim" needles is probably easy to do. I was just looking at possibly comparing the cost versus doing it ourselves.

 

[Richele]

I have redone the cushions and curtains in both of my pop-ups. I am a teacher by career, seamstress by trade so I do have sewing skills.  As for replacing the foam it can be very expensive.  If it doesn't smell I would just spray it done with Lysol, be heavy handed but don't saturate and let them sit out in direct sunlight for a few hours, make sure you flip them.  If they do smell I would replace the foam.  Look into buying a foam mattress topper the same thickness and cutting it to size.  I have found this helps with the cost. Also there are a lot of great you tube tutorials for how to recover the cushions and make the curtains. 

 

[delavan]

I have redone the cushions and curtains in both of my pop-ups. I am a teacher by career, seamstress by trade so I do have sewing skills.  As for replacing the foam it can be very expensive.  If it doesn't smell I would just spray it done with Lysol, be heavy handed but don't saturate and let them sit out in direct sunlight for a few hours, make sure you flip them.  If they do smell I would replace the foam.  Look into buying a foam mattress topper the same thickness and cutting it to size.  I have found this helps with the cost. Also there are a lot of great you tube tutorials for how to recover the cushions and make the curtains.

Thanks Richele. I went "copious" on the lysol last night. The foam doesn't stink. But it is stained. There is some "moldy-looking" spots on one of the longer ones, it might be the only one that I try to replace soonest. The covers were washed and came out good. I will not replace the buttons that were tied by a rope, seems like a pain re do that.