Hot Rod Forum banner

windlace wrinkling problem

31K views 50 replies 20 participants last post by  captainbob 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm having trouble with windlace wrinkling on the tight corner around a wrap-around windshield. In the past we have used cloth or leather covered rod and never had a problem with wrinkles, but using vinyl and it wrinkles alot. I have steamed, stretched and cut relief cuts right up to the stitches and it still wrinkles on me. The vinyl is sewn and the sponge rod is not glued to the vinyl, in less sharp bends, stretching and reliefs work great, but this corner won't smooth out. is there something I'm overlooking or is it the nature of the beast?
 
See less See more
1
#28 ·
Hey man, I have won many grand national bestt interiors awards. So it takes a little more material to make it almost perfect , so what ! You can cut it on the Bias at 15 feet and get wrinkel free, been hhere and done that! sorry if i cant explain as Dan does, just trying to help :)
 
#31 · (Edited)
I sew windlace with a 3/4" welt foot when I'm using 1/2" sponge rod, and a 5/8" welt foot when I use 3/8" sponge rod. It comes out perfect in a tenth of the time needed to glue windlace, and the rest is just how you apply it in the car.

I never cut welts of any kind on the bias, and especially when I sew vinyl. I never want to see a seam in a welt, ever. This case was an unusual one where the corner of the car's door was on a severe angle, and of course that would be hard to do with any fabric. The point is, he got it fixed and it's fine now.
 
#35 ·
You wouldn't notice anything at all unless you tried to turn a corner, and that would still be easy with small 5/32" welts.


Bias cutting welts is done to save fabric by cutting diagonal lines and then sewing a lot of pieces together. There's a way to fold the fabric a certain way to achieve this. That doesn't work with vinyl because it would look like the devil with a lot of seams.


You mostly see bias cutting on bindings which are used on boat covers and things like that. In fact it is hard to find binding that isn't bias cut. It is supposed to make the binding turn corners better. Vinyl is stretchy enough that bias cutting wouldn't have much effect anyway when sewing windlace or welts.
 
#38 ·
Bias cutting just means cutting the material on an angle. The idea is that by cutting on the bias, the fabric will turn a corner more easily. In 40 years of doing upholstery work, I've never cut any welt on a bias, and have never had a problem.
 
#41 ·
Bias cutting may have been necessary 55 years ago when vinyl was stiff and unforgiving, but now days it's not necessary. The new vinyls are soft and pliable and have been for a long time. If you want to waste 5 yards of vinyl cutting it on the bias to make windlace, be my guest. But hey, I've only been doing this for 40 years so what do I know?
 
#42 ·
I could see by the photo it was not soft pliable material..there for my comment on Bias...All is well 2lakes...you have just another 10 or so years to catch me:D. I am sure like me, you can cut 20 feet of welt cord vinyl without any splices from 1 yard of vinyl..maybe more depending on how you fold the yardage
Best regards
Bill
 
#43 ·
No, I can't do that and neither can you, not without any splices. Not if you cut the fabric on a true 45 degree bias. How about a tutorial showing how to do it?
 
#45 · (Edited)
I did read what you wrote, you said you cut all your welts on the bias or a curve. ( "I always cut mine on a curve or bias...problem goes away" ) Sorry, I still say you can't cut 20 feet of welt or more from a yard of fabric without splices, no matter how you fold the fabric or what angle or curve you cut it on. Show me.
 
#47 · (Edited)
The reality of it is that a yard of fabric, whether it's vinyl, fabric, or Ultraleather, is 36" wide and 54" long. No matter what happens, or how you fold that piece of fabric, the largest piece you can cut out of it is a little over 63" long, cut on a straight line, or if you cut an oval around the perimeter, it would be, at most, 15 feet long. 6 feet of that would be cut straight across the top and bottom of the yard of fabric, and 9 feet would be perfectly vertical, defeating the whole "cutting on a bias" concept. I suppose you could spiral around and use up the whole yard of vinyl by marking it progressively inside of the outside spiral, but to what purpose? The tighter the turns got the harder it would be to sew. That isn't bias cutting, marking it out would take a long time, and the result would be no different than one long piece of straight cut vinyl, but it would take 5 times as long to cut and sew. Wider strips, like would be needed for windlace, would take up twice as much fabric, be twice as much shorter, and would be even harder to sew.

Say you got 75 feet of regular welt cord out of the yard of vinyl by cutting it on a spiral. (I'm sure it would be a lot less) A yard of vinyl would be around 1944 square inches, and a straight strip of vinyl would be 112.5 square inches. Again, it would not make any sense to waste all that vinyl to make a welt that isn't going to be any better at turning a corner than a straight strip.
 
  • Like
Reactions: John long
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top