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It is time to replace the cushions and covers on Alley Oop.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Would be great to hear how others have done it.

Cheers.


Tom on
Alley Oop

G'day Tom,
Im about to redo mine, im planning on doing it my self on a singer sewing machine which i have at home, what sort of fabric are you using??? and what colour??
Aaron.

I had new foam and covers made by a local upholsterer about a year ago. I went for blue vinyl with piping, like the originals. This was quite an expensive exercise but made a huge difference to the boat. I am not keen on soft covers because they tend to get wet and can also absorb and maintain smells from the boat (and from my motley crew).
Cheers,
Mark

The cushions I have on Blue Moon, have a 3 or 4mm piece of plywood glued & taped onto the bottom of them....I think its a good idea, they dont get condensation under them, they tend to hold there shape, & with a strap across the top of the whole cushion, it really holds the locker lids in place.

cheers

A couple of weeks ago we decided to do something about our 'V' berth mattresses.

There is nothing really wrong with them except they are a bit thin and they are covered with brown vinyl.

New cushion/mattresses are not cheap so we looked at putting a layer of foam over the top.

Went to Clark rubber and found yellow foam about 40mm thick with an egg carton like surface on one side.

A king single size was big enough to cut diagonally (measure first) with just a couple of small bits left over at the small end. (Price $145)

We sewed up covers from a bed sheet with Velcro closers at the big end.

Really worked well to sleep on and don't take up too much room but we will probably not leave them on the boat unless planning to sleep a few nights.

Only one problem. We used them the next night after we bought them and woke up feeling sick and I had a headache. The smell was not nice. They are two weeks old now and the smell is nearly gone.

Cheers,

Tom

I have done cushions on previous and other peoples boats and have just done the church pews in my dining room.

The most expensive part is the foam. So if you can wash, air and reuse what you have you will save.

Fabric can be purchased at varying prices from Spotlight or any other fabric shop.

I prefer fabric over vinyl, looks nicer and is more comfy under bare skin.

Wash and dry the fabric first. Make sure it is colour fast.

I personally use upholstery or curtain fabric or at home on my pews have used tapestry looking fabric (at $5 per metre when it dies it is cheap to replace.

Matress ticking can also look fabulous. It has stripes though, which is why I did not choose it.
Stripes tend to not stay straight. Only look good when straight.

If you are not great at measuring and working out flat shapes of 3 dimensional shapes... like me...
Hand sew the cushions covers. Much more forgiving.