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By H2814D
#13735
Hi all. New member here.

I am working on a motorcycle seat that has four buttons installed as tufting decorations in two separate seat cushions. One cushion is for the primary rider and the other is for the passenger. After taking the old upholstery fabric off of the cushioning, I notice there is some sort of orange-ish colored, semi-hard material, about a half inch in diameter, surrounding the button holes in the fabric. It is obviously there to prevent the holes in the fabric from widening or tearing from normal use. It appears as if it may have been melted onto the fabric cloth backing. It will not peel off and it is securely bonded to the fabric material. It sort of feels like some sort of a plastic material.

I would like to use the same material for the replacement fabric coverings for the same reinforcement reasons, however, I have not been able to find out what it is. Can anyone tell me what it is called or maybe a source for the product please?

Thanks in advance.
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By John
#13738
Hi @H2814D !! Welcome to the forum!!!!

I have never seen that before. Looks to me like something done at the factory with specialized equipment. Probably won’t be able to reproduce it.

Honestly I’m %99 percent sure you will be fine with out it. I have done button tufting on a few restaurant booths and have never had an issue with the button ripping through. Restaurant seating typically gets more abuse than motorcycles.


Hope that helps!
By H2814D
#13740
Thanks for the input, John. I did cut a piece of the same fabric material in a diameter just smaller than the button diameter and have used contact cement to adhere the two faces of the material together. I then punched a hole in the middle of it for the string. It will be on the button side, directly under the button, rather than the underside of the upholstered seat. I will see how that goes.
By H2814D
#13769
Ok. All done. Here are the Pics. Understand that this is a first time project for me, so I will take any criticisms and learn from them. Thanks in advance for any of them.

There are some sewing flaws, but once the seats are mounted on the motorcycle, unless you were looking for them, they wouldn't be apparent. Oddly, after doing this project, I now notice myself now looking at other upholstered seats and chairs for flaws.

The pic with the three seat portions next to each other were the originals. I ended up using round pieces of the fabric material contact cemented to the button holes, fabric side to fabric side for the button hole reinforcement. I then punched a hole in the reinforced areas to run the button strings through to the hard plastic seat frame to secure the buttons. I think this will work, based on your suggestions and input so far. Thanks again.
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By H2814D
#13829
Thanks John. Yes, they did come out pretty good. I've never even tried anything like this before, but they looked pretty good when I was done. I was shocked. :-) Here is a pic of the final product installed on the motorcycle.
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