My DH, having convinced me that camping was a better vacation choice than, well, *not* camping, has agreed to give me full discretion on our Trillium re-do's for my best comfort and enjoyment (which basically means a nice bed and a big coffee pot ).

I took out all the foam seating/bedding that's been in our dear El Guaco (le trillium '76) since it's inception with the funky orange and brown plaid print textiles (completely retro and I love that but waaaaaaaay too thin) and have gone hunting for replacements.

Thing is, I'm really stuck on a certain fabric at a local store so if I customize the covers I may as well customize the foam with 5" medium royal foam (bouncy, yet firm!).

My enjoyment is at stake here!

I went to The Foam Shop with measurements in hand and was given a quote of $1,500 including covers made with my own fabric, stuffing, cutting etc.

There has GOT to be a less expensive way, what have all you other sewing-disadvantaged handy people done?

Cheers!

Try here.

Custom Foam Source.

http://www.foamsource.com/shop

Even with shipping it shouldn't be that bad.

Another option is to take an upholstery class. They often have them in community colleges; you can use their equipment, and do the cushions as your project. Then you just have the cost of materials.

Foam (quality stuff anyway) is getting very pricie and IS directly tied into the Oil Market, so IF you're going to 'do' something like that, DO IT NOW.

Wait a coupla weeks and check out what we've done...
This is a small shot of what $1500 will get you at a custom upholstry shop in the lower mainland of B.C. Foam is of best quality and same for the fabric.

I took the cushions from a friend's Burro in to the local auto upholstery shop to see about having the back sides of the covers replaced. (The fronts are plaid fabric, but the backs were cracked and deteriorating vinyl.)

He said that he'd probably have an hour in each one, and at $100/hour, that'd be $600 for the six cushions I had in mind.

We bought our foam at Ikea, went in and tried the different mattresses, found one we liked within the thickness we wanted (needed), cut the mattress using an electric kitchen knife (learned about that here). We bought the double size, and used extra from width and glued it on to the end to make it long enoungh. It is meant to be a mattress to sleep on, we find it better than our home mattress. Ikea just had them on sale for up to 50% off, not sure if they still are.

We also bought our own fabric (local discount shop), read sewing sites on the internet, talked to people at the fabric store, the local foam store (who charged $90/cushion) to get tips about how to sew cushions, and another good tip was from the upholstery place where I bought the zipper, they also had good tips.

If you go this route, one of the best tips we got was to make your foam 1" longer and wider than the cushion, then when you put the foam in, in expands the fabric out nice and tight.

If you have the original fabric and cushions all around, it is easy to pull them apart and use as templates to cut new (and to see how it all should be put together). We had bought a trailer where the rear foam was replaced, but not cut to proper size, so we had to figure out all our measurments on our own, I had to sew, put in place, find out a little too big, cut the foam, cut the fabric and re-sew a couple of times, it was worth it though, they turned out fantastic.

Oh, price wise, around $200 fabric/zipper/thread, and around $200 for foam, front and back.

We just bought the fabric at Fabricland for our trailer cushions. Was on sale at $2.99 a yard instead of $17.00.
I rrreally like being thrrrrifty.

Danielle.....
I used to make cushions for boats and this is the supplier i got it from..... they are much more reasonable than anyone else around and have alot of other useful stuff you may need.
So if you want to try to make your own cushions try this link:
http://www.rochfordsupply.com/product_list...A_ProdID_E_3310

Joe

Beings I am not a seamstress and hate to sew.. i payed about $450 for just the bench cushions, with new foam and fabric ( microfiber) It was about the same for the top bunk ones.. but the foam was still good... I use one of those toppers on top of them for comfort....
broke the bank... but it was worth it to me.... they werent done at the same time... had to save for the bunks to be done.

I just took an upholstery class this past weekend to brush up my skills before starting on new cushion covers for the dinette in our Scamp. I don't particularly enjoy upholstery work -- it's a bear to do it right and that's probably why it costs so much to pay someone else to do it for you.

Another option not mentioned yet is to find a "free lance" seamstress to do the work. Ask around, check craigslist, look at the local penny ads, check the services available board at your local grocery store, etc. Independent seamstresses will often charge much less than a store will. You'll still have to pay for all of the fabric, foam and supplies but you might get the labor costs down quite a bit this way.

--Lynne

Hi: I guess we really lucked out as we ordered new covers from Scamp that fit our '77 Boler with slight adjustments. Set of covers complete to cover 4" foams $265+S&H. I had to re pad the top bunk to make it 4"thick cost $55. 3" med density foam(22"X88" Slab $35.) 1" Tereleen and spray adhesive to glue foam( cut to plywood backing board with an electric carving knife) to size. Other wise we steamed the old foams and re used them. All in all less than $500.
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[quote name='Danielle Doucette' date='Apr 27 2008, 10:39 PM' post='270533']
My DH, having convinced me that camping was a better vacation choice than, well, *not* camping, has agreed to give me full discretion on our Trillium re-do's for my best comfort and enjoyment (which basically means a nice bed and a big coffee pot ).

I am also working on achieving a really nice bed--having had to throw out all the old cushions in our new Trillium. So I need to get cushions and to make covers. Thanks for all the tips...doing foam and mattress research now. We want to be able to convert from dinette to bed, so there's a lot of sewing to be done over the winter.

Darren H. did a great job on his cushions (especially the velcro closures...I'm going to use that!) Click me

My question is...will 6" cushions work? I think they would be more comfortable, but I'm wondering about clearance for sitting at the table. I want the bed to be really comfortable (and the coffee pot really big).