*Most* modern ones won't. I've got a turn of the century Singer bought for a fiver that will with leather cloth type materials. Would be hard work with leather, though, although I doubt it would damage the machine.
I have got a Haynes manual which goes into quite a bit of detail, it certainly helped me when I started. Well worth the money.
I was quoted £600 to do a set of Kitten seats. In the end I bit the bullet and stripped a seat. It wasn't as frightening as I thought and I was able to weld a broken frame and rebuild with my new covers. It is *just* possible to sew on a dometic machine, but they don't like the proper thread or vinyl sewing. I ended up buying a secondhand industrial machine which does the job wonderfully. As it only cost me £150, it was still better than commercial work.
For a bit of sef confidence, get any old scrap seat and take it to bits to see how it's made. Then split the seams in the cover and make a new one from heavy denim or suchlike to test the capabilities of you and the machine. I would doubt that leather will be possible, but try it on some scrap.
Supplies of material can come from local fabric merchants (low range of suitable vinyls in stock) and specialists like Woolies etc.
Give it a go, you might surprise yourself. However, do ONE seat at a time, that way you always have an example to work from.
I imagine all Fiat 125s are scraped (sic) by now! Seriously, I did my own seats many moons ago but not in leathercloth. I used brushed nylon upholstery material which went through the sewing machine a treat. I am about to repair my current leathercloth seats and have bought the proper hand sewing awl from Frost Auto Restorations
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It'll be hard work doing new covers with that, it's really only practical for repairs. Alternatively, if you are not constrained by originality why not get some better seats from a breaker's yard?
I am looking for information about do-it-yourself seat covering in leather or leather-cloth/vinyl for my Midge kit-car can a domestic sowing machine cope with the job. If I get a pro do the job it will cost 400.00 GBP As I have scratch built the car with parts from the breakers all work has been done be me up to now I would like to complete the car my-self but I need some know how please help the seats that I have used are from a scraped Fiat 125
well Les the 125 seats are small enough after I butchered them to fit into my midge (it's a very cosy two seater sports car after the style of a 1932 MG Midget) I do not know of car seats that are that small, now there aren't that many 125 around!
hi Andy just a quick thank you for the information that you gave me I went to Woollies and had a most interesting talk with them there was a pro in the shop and he gave me the same information that you did so I purchased some off-cuts of vinyl and the Haynes I then purchased some leather needles and had a go it all worked with no problems at all just need to practice sewing skills so thank you again for giving me the nerve to have a go regards pete (biggles)
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