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Seat Covers
This page is intended as a pictorial guide to covering the
Barnett Williams style slung seat.
The frame is detailed on this website in the original EZ Clone drawings
(Sheet 8), and looks like this –
Front view and side view.
This one is painted black – hiding it’s true nature as bent EMT
tubing (thin wall conduit). That’s
my toe in the picture too.
The idea is to add a stitched, full size slung seat
tailored to this frame. There
are several other methods – more than one person has laced a pre-finished
panel in the frame. Another
man (Carl) does a neat ‘lawn chair’ tuck in the fabric edges and screws the
tuck in with a self tapping metal screw and washer.
This is a completely hand stitched, tailored cover for the seat frame.
I think it looks very cool, and gives a stylish, very custom finish look
to the seat and the bike. This
is the way I do it, FWIW.
Materials.
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The finished frame, of course.
The one above is primed and painted.
Since we cover the seat rails, it is real difficult to paint the frame
later.
-
 Phifertex
fabric. If you love black,
this is also the material they sell at Ace Hardware as “Pet Screen”.
I am using yellow here – this seat is for ME.
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Phifertex is an open weave vinyl coated mesh fabric.
Very strong, doesn’t ravel when cut.
Very breathable as a fabric for hot weather riding.
Ideal. For the amateur
seamster, the open, visible mesh is also very easy to line up for seams, and to
‘measure’ your stitches for evenness.
www.poweroncycling.com
sells 4 colors.
http://www.sailmakerssupply.com/Store_Pages/Phifertex.htm
sells 12 colors. You need to
buy 1 yard – the fabric is 54” wide.
If you cut that in half, you have 2 pieces 36” by 27”
- enough for two seats.
-
30 lb. monofilament fishing line.
Easy to find clear to match any color.
I am using a light green here, so we have a chance of seeing it in the
photos.
Tools
– sharp scissors, straight pins, and an upholstery needle.
I use a 2” needle, with an eye just big enough to accept that
monofilament ‘thread’. That's it. Pretty simple.
THE
WORK –
 This
is the first wrap of fabric on the frame.
You have plenty. Fold 1 side
over and make sure, top and bottom, that there is ample fabric to extend past
the ends of the rail. Look at
the mesh of the fabric as you fold it over – make sure it aligns square –
like a grid, not a moray pattern.
Set two straight pins on this first side.
See the circled pins?
Fold the fabric at center over the other side rail.
Pull it tight against the two pins already set – try to keep the mesh
of the fabric perpendicular to the rail.
Set 1 pin on this side. Check
the fabric top and bottom at the end of this rail – is there enough fabric to
extend beyond the ends? Is it
the same extension of fabric at both rails, on both ends?
Good to go?
 Now
pin the center along both rails. Pull
tight against the pins on the opposite side as you go – keep things square.
Work both sides, work you way through the ‘bucket’ of the seat.
The fabric will fold and crimp a little around this bucket – just pull
it as tight as you can. Without
cutting anything, pin as close as you can to the two stretchers on the frame –
see Picture 005 for a detail.
These next three pictures show the cuts you make around the
cross bars for the seat frame. You
will cut a careful slot for each of four places where the frame is joined.
 Start
at the top – there is a touch less tension here.
Make a cut like the picture, tight to the center side of the cross bar.
As you cut, tension is relieved and the fabric should straighten out
around the cross bar. Pull it
tight, make sure as you cut the slot tight to the bar – this may change a
little as you pull. See how
the cut stops on the rail, right at the joint?
Pull on the inside flap you just cut.
Can it pull tight and lay flat with the part already pinned?
Good.
 Now
finish the slot – cut across the bar, about ¾”, and then cut back up to the
edge of the fabric.
 This
picture shows pins around this slot in the fabric.
Just put 1 or two pins above the cross bar – then go on to the next
cross bar position and make the same cuts, set the same pins.
With all four cross bar’s tailored in and pinned, then finish pinning
the sides of the fabric at the rails.
Keep it as taut as you can, always.
This is a front view of the seat, with both sides fully
pinned. Leave the top and
bottom flaps loose for now. I stitch
both sides before I finish the ends.
 This
is the beginning, or anchor stitch, at one end of the first rail.
The whole trick to stitching is to pinch the fold tight to the inside
edge of the seat rail. This
anchor stitch is the first step. Put
the needle in from the rear at one end of a rail, across both sides of the
folded, pinned pocket. Play
with this, twist the needle along the rail – find the right spot so that, when
the stitch is drawn tight, the ‘pinch’ in to the rail will work to leave no
gap between the fabric pieces. Turn
the needle from the front and push through front to back across about two
threads in the mesh. Pull most
of your thread through, and tie an anchor knot (a square knot) in the thread,
cinching it down tight.
 Here
is that knot tied tight, on the rear of the seat.
Skip two threads in the mesh, and push the needle through back to front
again. Pull that taut, and
from here forward you will stitch from the front.
 The first several stitches.
I use the mesh itself to measure my stitches – skip two cross threads,
push the needle in, skip two more, pull the needle through back to front.
In, front to back, skip two, in, back to front, and then pull a 2-stitch
taut from the front. Each
stitch should do the same thing the anchor stitch did, closing the fabric tight
over the rail. Your eye
and judgement will teach you how to do this.
It is easier than I make it sound. – after all, *I* can do it….. “Cinching
down on the rails this way adds just that much extra tension in the seat sling,
stretching it tighter, which is a good thing.
 This
picture shows the stitching on the front across that slot where the stretcher
attaches. Make sure you stitch
down the end of the flap, then just carry the thread across behind the cross bar
and begin with the other flap. The
center red circle shows that I take a quick stitch in the fabric above the cross
bar, just to keep things neat.
 This
shows that whole first side, stitched in.
When you finish the side, tie off your monofilament thread by stitching
backwards about three stitches from the end.
Then, from the rear, push the needle through for one last stitch.
Before you pull this last stitch taut,
wrap the tight end of the looped thread three times over the needle –
pulling this tight creates a knot to finish this seam.
Trim the loose thread ends.
This shows how I trim the excess
fabric – I cut it about ½” behind the seam.
Shown in red it the last remaining cut to make on this side of the seat.
Do this on the other side, and here is the whole seat with
both rails stitched and trimmed. Starting
to look like something, eh?
Now for the ends.
This is easy. First,
trim if you need to.
 Leave
about 1 ½” of fabric on each end.
You can do with less if your want, but play with the fold first.
When in doubt, leave it long.
Above is the tuck/fold for finishing the ends.
Work from the rear, take this diagonal tuck in the already doubled fabric
right over that end of the rail. Then
fold this first flap over the rail end and down onto the rear of the seat panel.
Concentrate on this one corner, work it tight into the corner, and set it
with a straight pin. Now do
the same in the other corner of this end of the seat.
Here is an end fully pinned in place.
Do each corner, then fold the center evenly over.
You may need to adjust the corners after that center is set just so.
5 pins will do it on an end.
 In
this front picture I have begun the end stitch.
Same stitch, same anchor knot as before.
This ‘anchor’ is a little hard to push through all the fabric in that
tucked corner. Start the
anchor knot not on the extreme corner of that tuck, but about ¾” back from
the end, and right on the side rail. After
tying the knot, stitch (on the front side) from that anchor point up the rail to
the end first, cinching the flap down at the rail.
Then stitch back about ¾” from the end, and begin to stitch out across
this end of the seat. Again, let the
mesh measure your stitches – cross two, stitch, cross two, stitch.
Or as tight as you want to do it.
At the other end of the flap, cinch in a double row of stitches at the
rail again.
This is a finished end. You
have done it! And it only
takes about one football game to stitch a seat!
Write with questions.
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RECUMBENT!!!! 
