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Hi Julier

Our van is an old Avondale (1990s approx - not sure of exact age) but is a fab van for us size wise etc (did have to do a bit of a damp repair on front of van too) but we got the van really, really cheap so haven't minded spending a bit of extra to do it up. Hope to keep it a good few years too.

Believe me, if I was confident enough to have done the foam and the cushions I would have had a bash - just not very good with sewing, don't own a sewing machine and wouldn't have a clue where to start ! lol

At least I know where to come if I need some doing in future  

Lol at Lillyjoy

I would need to have your van here, or come & camp at yours to do it. lol.

I'm lucky our van is kept on the drive but I was in & out the bloody thing like a fiddlers elbow for a week while I was doing it. I didn't have the room in the house to have all the cushions in here at once, & with the fabric having a pattern in it I had to match each cushion up to the next to make sure the pattern was level on all the cushions.

Hi Tigerlilly,

I can see your thinking behind getting the upholstery done proffesionally, especially if you got a good deal on the caravan when you bought it. I don't think I would have tackled ours if we had needed to replace the foam as well, but to be honest the fabric & the foam were in good condition, not a mark on it at all, I just hated the fabric, it made the van look really old & dated, thats why I changed mine, + I thought when we come to re-sell it (hopefully next year) I might get more peeps interested if it looked a bit more modern.

Hi Julier

Wow, your pictures looked really impressive, especially as (apart from the middle bit where I have a chest instead of wraparound seating) the "before" pictures were the spitting image of my van now.  Its 16 years old and looks it.  The foam seems to have a good bit of life left in it and we're hoping to upgrade next year, so I might rope my mother into making new covers to slip over the top.  I don't fancy taking the old ones off, might open up a can of worms.  

I was thinking of trying a caravan breakers near me, but now I'll have to talk nice to my mother instead, she's always looking for new projects (when my girls were babies she had great fun taking a Britax baby seat apart and using it to make a template for a new one).

Its sited a couple of hours away, so maybe I should've thought of it during the winter though, bit of a hard job to complete in a week or two. You've obviously had loads of practice, wish I was as creative.

Hi Karen.

Yes it is a bit of a task, but like you said I have done a few other little upholstery jobs around the house, but most of them required a staple gun which I must admit is a godsend on re- upholstery.

I didn't take the old covers off my cushions in the van, mainly like you said, I didn't want to see what was underneath in case it was really bad. I did remove all the buttons because I intended on recovering them & putting them back, but the metal on them was a little rusty and I couldn't get them apart ! so Iv'e saved them just incase whoever buys our van from us wants to go back to the old covers.

I used a sewing machine to actually make the covers, but then hand sewed them onto the exsisting cushions underneath, making sure I sewed through a small part of the foam so they would stay in place & not wriggle about, that was the hardest & most boring part of the job. If you lift your cushions you will see that the underside is the Swift logo fabric & not upholstery fabric, so I just made mine the same.

Good Luck & keep us posted on how you get on.

Hello again Julier

I forgot to mention that my dh saw your "Priority" picture and its given him ideas! we have the same flap-down shelf but normally only put our laptop on it (we bought a gadget that enables it to receive Freeview, which is neat - and a LOT cheaper than buying an LCD tele)

Lol at Karen,

I wondered what you meant by Priority picture at 1st then I realized  you mean the Brandy optic piccy don't you ? lol  That was the 1st thing Anthony bought for the caravan

Yeah that flap down shelf is a bit flimsy for my liking especially with the Roadstar TV on it, they weigh a bloody ton,  anyways that TV broke, (I forgot to take it off the shelf when we packed up to leave the site & it fell off in transit)  so I got a cheap 15" flat screen from Asda for £169.00 & it's brilliant and a lot lighter.  

Hi Maz,

Thank you.  When i finished the upholstery it made the caravan look totally different & I was chuffed to bits with it, I didn't change the curtains coz they were a peachy colour, & I was quite happy with them, they've only faded a little bit, now if they had of been pink I would have changed them.  Good Luck with your advert by the way.

Hi Julier

Your upholstery looks amazing - my van is a similar size - can you tell me how many materes of fabric it took to do this? thanks

Have a lopk on www.foam.co.uk They do a lovely job of re-filling your cushion/seats & seat backs with their various foams, they also advertise all sorts of materials & fabrics. Whether these are just so customers can choose which to have on the seats to go with the rest of the van, I don't know.

We had some seat base covers re-filled by them 3 years ago & they did a superb job, from leaving here in a box to going back in the van was around 72 hours.

BB

Hi maggie586 & Thanks.

It was such a long time ago that I re-covered the caravan seats I can't remember.

If you think that upholstery fabric is normally 54" wide, just measure around the cushion & add on extra for the sides, & work it out from there. thats the only way I can think of telling you how to do it. I would add on at least an extra metre though just in case.

I got my fabric from Dunelm mill in Derby, from the discontinued shelf, which is why it only cost me £4.99 per mtr, it sold before at about £22.00 a mtr. I know they have a few places dotted over the country now.

Bloody hell Dawn thats cheap, can you send me the link for the site where you got the fabric from ?? Pleaseeeeeeeeee

Long time no speak by the way, hope you & Ant are both keeping well.

hi yes i will do that if you give me a mo

oh erm yes aint seen you for ages how you all keeping, good i hope?

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=1428744&mpre=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D310056208432 there you go julie, i ordered this on the sunday night and it arrived tuesday!! so far i have been well pleased with it

if the link hasnt worked here you go http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb130/tentmad/caravanseats.jpg

Quote: Originally posted by tentmad on 14/6/2008

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http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=1428744&mpre=http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=1428744&mpre=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D310056208432 there you go julie, i ordered this on the sunday night and it arrived tuesday!! so far i have been well pleased with it

if the link hasnt worked here you go http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb130/tentmad/caravanseats.jpg

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as you can see i havent got to put the buttons on yet, seeing as im getting them done for me, i will be taking all the cushions together to the upholsterers as it works out cheaper to get them to do them than the hassle of making the buttons and retensioning it all, actually thats going to be the most expensive part, 50 buttons at 30p each lol

Quote: Originally posted by tentmad on 14/6/2008

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Quote: Originally posted by tentmad on 14/6/2008

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 there you go julie, i ordered this on the sunday night and it arrived tuesday!! so far i have been well pleased with it

www.rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=1428744&mpre=http://stores.ebay.co.uk/elbee-Fabrics

if the link hasnt worked here you go http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb130/tentmad/caravanseats.jpg

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as you can see i havent got to put the buttons on yet, seeing as im getting them done for me, i will be taking all the cushions together to the upholsterers as it works out cheaper to get them to do them than the hassle of making the buttons and retensioning it all, actually thats going to be the most expensive part, 50 buttons at 30p each lol

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