Following advice on a previous tread, I've ordered a bunch of ultra leather. I'm pretty experienced at sewing clothing, but not upholstery. I did a practice run with naugahyde making a dog cushion (box cushion, separate pieces for four sides, top and bottom . . . haven't done the zipper yet). It's different from cloth, like you can't use pins, the material doesn't readily lie down, and you can't easily coerce it iinto shape using a steam iron.
The guidelines I've found for ultra leather
http://tapis.serveronline.net/2012Do...Guidelines.pdf
say it's more like fabric than leather or vinyl, and recommend needles, threads, etc.
In most of the photos I've found, airstream cushions have been made using a pattern that I'd describe as a tube with zipper, with rectangular end inserts . . . as opposed to a box. Doesn't seem like top-stitching is popular.
I'd really appreciate links to technical descriptions of what what is done and why.... I may end out, for sake of economy,doing box cushions with vinyl on the bottom and ultra leather on top. I like top stitching, but find it's hard to do on a vinyl box. May be easier with ultra leather. Also worried that ultra is more stretchy than other vinyl, and that could end out with measurement problems and puckers. I guess you just use a lot of those clips that are used in place of pins to avoid the problem. Yes?
The ultra leather is so damn expensive I want to get it right the first time.