Wendigo skrev:
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> pfred> Har du något bra tips på läderöverdrag
> till styret? Har getskinn hemma som är tänkt att
> ersätta styrlindan men jag har inte riktigt
> spikat hur jag ska göra ännu. Basebollstygn
> eller körde du vanliga skomakarsömmar?
Skrev en lång utläggning hur jag gjorde läderöverdragen till en i Ohio i slutet av förra året. Ber om ursäkt för att detta nu blir ett ganska långt (lite OT) inlägg i tråden men av ren lättja klipper jag in den utläggningen här. Samtidigt blir den ju också bevarad för framtiden.
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Hi,
I didn't take any pictures of the prcedure when I made the leather jobs on the saddle and handlebar. I'll try to explane it though and draw some pictures which I'll include to this mail.
Let's start with the leather. I have used two different leathers, black and brown. I tried to find leather that would be thin and smooth in order for it to strech well around the saddle and the bars. Here in Helsinki there are not too many stores around that sell leather as a raw material. And ofcourse they all charge well for their products. I bought my leather from an second-hand clothes store in the form of two used ladies knee-long skirts. The brown leather was a bit thicker but I suppose both were like you would imagine a leather skirt or a pair of leather throusers to be.
And first the saddle:
The saddle is a cheap one that I bought from a local store selling mostly spare parts for cars, tools and stuff like that. Why I got that saddle was mainly because of it's construction which made it "easy" for me to cover it with leather. Basically the downside and the base of the saddle made up from moulded plastic about 5-10mm thick. On top of this there is 2cm of moulded "foam" which gives the saddle its form. The bars which connect the saddle to the seatpost are molded into the plastic base. On top of everything there was a cover made from black and blue fake leather and canvas. This cover was ofcourse tailored to fit as well as possible and then glued and streched over the foam, and folded over (or under) the edge of the plastic bas plate. The edge of the cover was riveted (nailed) down on the downside of saddle to keep it in place. On the tip and back of the saddle there where two plastic covers sitting over the edge to make it look a little more finished. These edge-covers were fastened with a couple of small screws.
I removed the edge-covers and tore out all the rivets from edge of the black and blue saddle cover. I removed the canvas (fake leather) carefully without tearing the foam below it too much. I had to help a little bit with a sharp knife in a coulpe of places since the glue between the canvas and the foam was holding on quite tight. After removing the canvas I gave the base of the saddle and the two little edge-covers a spray of black paint. Thought it was easier to paint them now then after I had the new cover on the saddle.
The fake leather cover was made up from four different pieces of canvas stitched together. I cut all the seams and ended up with four separate pieces of flat canvas. This gave me the models according to which I cut my pieces of leater into shape. (Naturally you need to cut them a little bigger for the seams...) Then I just sewed my pieces of leather together and ended up with a new leather cover which fitted the saddle quite well as it was.
Take a look at Pictuer 1. There you can see the a scematic picture of the seam I used for sewing all my pieces together. Firts you put the pieces with the outsides together and make one streight seam. Then you fold the extra material on the back to the same side and make a new streight seam through all the tree layers of leather. I used a black thread for my saddle and made the second seam on the "brown side" when joining a black and a brown piece of leather together. That made me nice seams with black stitches runnin along the seam on the brown side. The middle seam on the saddle is joining two brown pieces of leather together. Here I did it in just the same way but put a third streight seam running down the other side of the first seam. This gives double stitches running down both sides of the seam where the two pieces of leather fold together.
The leather needed to be streached a bit onto the saddle to make a snug fit. I didn't want to have it nailed down on the edges like the original cover had been. I wanted to have it stiched onto the saddle. Therfore I drilled a row of small running along the edge of the saddle. The holes went in on the side of the plastic "base plate" and came out through the bottom, basically going through the edge of the plate. Hopefully Picture 2 explains. I stretched the leather into place and sew down the edge by placing the stiches so that I could run the needle through the holes. This left me with a nice seame running something like 4mm above the edge of the saddle. After this I just screwed back the edge-covers and gave the leather some grease. I used shoe polish for that.
And then the handlebars:
The handlebar cover is basically a rectangular piece of leather wich has been wrapped around the bar. You probably noticed that there is a rounded piece of back on the back of the curve of the bar. This is cutout from the brown leather rectangle leaving a hole. The hole is shaped somethin like in Picture 3. Black leather is the sewed in place instead of the missing leather in the hole. I used the same seam as in Picture 1.
Along the longer edges of the rectangular piece of leather I made an "edge seam" showed in Picture 4. Later on these edges where joined together (Picture 5) when the cover was wrapped around the handle bar and sewed together. The intention of these edge seams was to prevent the leather from tearing. I beleive that only sewing the edges together with the cover stretched around the bars would have made the thread tear through the edge. The edge seam moved he holes through wich the thread went a bit further in on the leather and made the stretching force spread more eavenly.
Before stretching the leather around the handlebar I put the little round piece of black leather in place on the end and stiched it to the edge of the brown rectangle, now starting to form a cylinder. You can actually start sewing the long edges to each other from the tip before you slip the end onto the handlebar. I used a layer of thin handlebar tape below the leather to make it a bit softer. The leather itself is quite thin. In addition to this I have some double sided tape on top of the handlebar tape to make sure the cover won't slip around the bar.
I believe I made te length of the covers according to the length of the top of the bar. This meant that the leather would need to be "pushed together" a bit on the inside of the bar and stretched out on the outside. Stretching it over the outer curves was a bit challenging but it worked.
Hope this gave you an idea of how I made my covers for the saddle and handlebar. Please feel free to ask me if some part of my description is uncelar and you can't make any sence of it with the pictures on the FGG. I can take some more closeups for you if you need.
Regards,
Pontus
