This evening I produced a prototype quilted doorcard cover. The following pictures show the result:
As a bit of background my business is to produce quilts (for old ladies mainly!) with my 14ft long computer guided longarm quilting machine (called Matilda!). Most my work is using cotton fabrics (patchwork, like your granny would do) but I was given some black PU leather by an upholster friend of mine which was leftover from when she did the interior of a VW campervan. So I thought I would try to quilt it using Matilda.
I'm really happy with the result and will try a few different quilting patterns. I produced both plain quilted (approx 1" squares on point) and also one with the retro Madza logo on it.
Would there be any interest in buying these? Obviously I need to price up materials and my time which I hope to do in the next few days and then I could work out a price for a pair of doorcard covers (you fit them over your doorcard boards).
I could produce some standard designs but would also be happy to look into custom designs too, including different coloured PU leather, different fabrics, different coloured thread, add-ons like the Mazda logo etc. Suggest some things and I can work if I can do them.
I'm also looking into working out how to produce interior trim parts like MX5Parts sell...future project!
Please let me know what you think, I'd appreciate feedback (positive and negative).
Nice idea Perhaps would look better without the diamonds through the circle/m though. I'm sure there'd be a market for them given the number of people who post looking for material suppliers. I think they'd need to be special though, in terms of quality or design, to cover the inevitable premium they will likely be over and above some cheap fake diamond quilted vinyl from ebay.
randomfactor. I can reproduce the the retro Madza logo without the diamonds running through. It just takes more time to do and i wanted to finish by dinner time
These look great and clearly there is scope for other designs. I think everybody wants something either typical (diamond stitch), imitative (to look like something else) or bespoke (own design) but I think the diamond-stitch pattern has been done a lot lately. Tramlines following the lines of the door handle perhaps? either horizontally or at angle, part stitch/part plain - the scope is endless. If you google - I dunno - Alfa interiors for some inspiration as they knock out some beautiful designs. really interested to see what you come up with. Love the idea of the Mazda logo stitched into the diamond pattern because it's different - no-one to my knowledge has done that before. Just how much of an intricate design can your machine accommodate?
Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 26, 2016 12:47:02 GMT
Love the idea of a bespoke quilting service, the M logo looks great! You could have a lot of scope with this setup. Do you have a template file we could draw the design on for you to reproduce?
I agree with you ghostrider that diamond (or squares on point to be precise) has been over done BUT it still looks good. I like your ideas and they are similar to things I have been trying today but only in the drawing stage. I have also recreated the panel outline more accurately to fit better with the hardboard panel used on NA doors.
I'm really pleased that the Mazda M logo (from the early 1960s) is liked, I like this design. I also like the earlier 1936 "wavey" M logo which I might try to incorporate somehow.
myothercarsa2cv - For custom designs to be quilted the simplest way is to provide a JPEG image. The reason being is the quilting software is a proprietary CAD system and doesn't play well with other software. O can however import photo images into the system that I then trace using line, arc and curve tools and to finish off node editing. That is how I produced the M logo. Once I have the quilting pattern created I can change the scale to reproduce an size stitched design.
Once I have stitched out a few more designs I will post some more pictures. I'm also waiting for a contact to buy PU leather, leather and other quality fabrics for car interiors.
tatami pattern like the mk1 seats rising sun / the banzai flag - lines away from the speaker hole, maybe ? would work well. hokusai's great wave at kanagawa in stitch
I've started working on the Banzai / Rising Sun design today. I centred the sun just above the speaker hole... I have a pattern that is very similar to tatami design, I could modify this to see how it stitches out... I really like the idea of the great wave but not sure how this would look stitched out...
One thing to keep in mind is that the designs need to be fairly simple because of the way that the needle perforates the PU leather it can make the fabric rip...
I have been working on a few quilting design patterns to stitch out in the next few days (in between work of course )
These are images of the quilting designs that I will run through the machine so the final quilted PU leather could look very different.
Firstly, the quilted panel from the other day trimmed and duct taped to a door panel blank:
Now for a few designs....
This is a plain square-on-point cross hatch quilting pattern with no logo:
This is plain diamond crosshatch (see the difference) with no logo:
The following are variations of square crosshatch with the retro Mazda logo (the bottom one is the one fitted above):
The next 3 are Rising Sun (Banzai) variations:
The last one is something a bit different, I call it Blobs on Sticks! :
You can see that I have now included the cut-outs for the speaker, manual window winder and armrest mount point all of which are on NA door panels, these of course can be left out for panels that don't have these requirements.
I soon as I have quilted these I will post photos.
(Still waiting of material costs...so can't provide costs yet...soz!)
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atlex: at least you can get new crank pulleys!! :-)
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Zed.: there are other ways to repair, how bad is it?
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