Sewing in 3D.

We own a school bus. A full length beast of a school bus. The bus lived in Georgia until we decided we were ready to bring it to California over the holidays.  We went home to Georgia on December 20th and left on December 26th for a cross-country road trip with 10 of our best friends.  Before we left on the trip we had some serious improvements to do. Quentin, his brother, and our best buds painted the exterior, did some rewiring, and engine work in the days before we left.  I packed my sewing machine in a carry-on and made a new seat cover for the bus seat while I was in Georgia. 

The original bus seat had a brown textured vinyl seat that was cracked and tired.  The vinyl was attached with staples to a very simple frame and the pieces were easily removed. I took the vinyl apart and used the pieces as a pattern for the new cover.  The seat itself is a molded foam that we did not replace.  This was my first attempt at sewing something 3D and the result was great!  The bottom piece is very tight fitting. I was able to wrap the seatback with some batting before putting the fabric sleeve on.  The most difficult part of this process was using the staple gun to secure the fabric again.  My mom helped me but we were very unskilled in the hand tool department.  I shot a lot of staples at my feet during the process. 

I considered using elastic so the fabric could be removable but we were on a serious time crunch and I didn't have time to get anything wrong. I also wanted a very snug fit for comfort.  I retained the pattern pieces so I can remake another seat cover down the road if this one fails or gets stained. I think the seat has a lot of character now!