The Auto Upholstery Goddess

What a fantastic day at the - fantastic weather, fab music, wonderful vehicles and great clothing. It was our first time visiting and we definitely want to come back next year!

Off to the Vintage Nostalgia Festival today at Stockton Park, Wiltshire in Manon, our 1972 Citroen D Special - should be a fab day with this lovely weather!

The interior for the 1955 Jaguar XK140 DHC is now back in the car! The job was to retrim the 2 front seats and the centre arm rest/handbrake gaiter sleeve. The original foam was refurbished/repaired, with extra padding in the seat base, and a replacement board was used for the centre arm rest. The client also had the frames sand blasted and painted.

Today I have helped my client to install all the new carpets and refit the interior. Here are a few pictures showing before and after. The client was so pleased and couldn’t wait to take ‘Betsy’ out for a drive.

Leather is Vele in Black from
Feltex and calico for the tuck and roll, plus scrim foam from
Thread from

We’re very excited to be going to a classic car show at Lulworth Castle this Sunday, 12th May put on by The Dorset Blind Association .blind

We’ve not been able to go in previous years due to it being sold out for car exhibitors. This year we got in early and managed to secure a ticket for Manon, our 1972 Citroen D Special.

Fingers crossed the weather holds!

Hope to see some of you there - it should be a great day out for a fantastic cause!

I’ve just had this fabric printed by What a fantastic service with a very easy to use website. I was able to upload an image, choose the fabric, choose how to position the image and select the number of metres I needed. All options come with previews so you can see what it will look like.

I ordered a heavy cotton drill and will predominantly use this as a backdrop for images and for advertising when I go to car shows.

Best of all was the speed of the service. I ordered on 2nd May and although the estimated delivery date was 13th May, it arrived on 4th May! Thanks

I’ve just finished the bespoke bags for my client’s Harley Davidson panniers, all ready for his road trip in a couple of weeks. I’ve used marine grade vinyl, for added protection, and the bags are fully lined with a rigid base and silver feet and come with handles and a detachable shoulder strap. The sew on patches were supplied by the client.

All ready for collection tomorrow! What bags could I do next?

Spradling Harmony vinyl in black from
Lining from .bournemouth
Thread from

It’s always nice to see parts I’ve trimmed back where they belong, this time on a Harley Davidson. I visited my client to check that the bespoke pannier bags I’m making for him, do fit, which they do, and took a couple of photos of the previous bits whilst I was there!

Vele leather from
Scrim foam from
Thread from

I’ve loved what I’ve been doing today which is a bit different from normal - designing some bespoke bags to fit inside the panniers of my client’s Harley Davidson. I’ve made great progress - the designs are done, the pattern is made and I’ve sewn lots of the first bag already.

Black Spradling Harmony vinyl from
Thread from

Here’s the next instalment of the interior for a 1955 Jaguar XK140 DHC.

This time the photos are of one of the front seat bases, showing before and after. More pictures will follow soon when it’s all back in the car.

Leather is Vele in Black from
Feltex and calico for the tuck and roll, plus scrim foam from
Thread from

I had a lovely surprise today - one of my clients turned up in their fabulous 1952 Citroen Traction Avant to show me the seats I had recently repaired for them in situ!

I did the rear seat base and front seat bases, replacing the vinyl panels and piping, but keeping the fabric, and then re-stuffing for added comfort.

The rear seat had previously been ravaged by mice so it’s quite a transformation.



Vinyl from Spradling Diamanté in colour Meteor; Ginger Coir Fibre, Hessian and Scrim Foam from ; Thread from

I’ve been a bit quiet on here recently as I’ve been so busy with multiple jobs on the go at once! One of these is the interior for a 1955 Jaguar XK140 DHC.

The job was to retrim the 2 front seats and the centre arm rest/handbrake gaiter sleeve. The original foam was refurbished/repaired and a replacement board was used for the centre arm rest. The client also had the frames sand blasted and painted.

Here are a few pictures of one of the front seat backs, showing some before and after. More pictures will follow soon, especially when it’s all back in the car.

Leather is Vele in Black from
Feltex and calico for the tuck and roll, plus scrim foam from
Thread from

The different pads for the Harley Davidson are all finished now ready to drop off to the client.

Next for this client will be some bespoke bags for his panniers ready for a trip to Europe in a a couple of months!

Vele leather from
Scrim foam from
Thread from

After a little pause on the Citroen Traction Avant interior, I’ve just repaired the front seat bases. With torn piping and discoloured vinyl along with frayed original fabric, it was a challenge to get the seats back to looking their best. However, with some repositioning of the frayed cloth and adding replacement vinyl and piping, before refitting the cover to a reupholstered base with new hessian, foam, coir fibre and calico, they are now looking great!

The client was so pleased with the rear seat and now these 2 front seat bases that he asked me to refresh the front seat backs as well. I’ll be doing these at the beginning of April.

Vinyl is Spradling Diamanté in colour Meteor from
Ginger Coir Fibre, Hessian, Calico and Scrim Foam from
Thread from

Next up is the Jaguar XK140 DHC.

I love getting photos from clients especially when the finished result looks so good! Having spent many weeks last year, working on 40+ different elements for my client’s beautiful 1955 S1 Bentley, it’s so great to see it all back in the car.

This was a very collaborative job - apart from the re-trimming, where I did everything from small straps, arm rests and replacing damaged seat panels to a complete seat, did a fantastic job in recolouring everything that wasn’t re trimmed to match the new leather. And of course the client did amazingly to get it all back in the car.

Vaumol leather in Bentley Green from
Sundries like scrim, piping, eyelets and canvas from and
Thread from

It will be great to see it at car shows this season!

I’m doing a couple of bits for a Harley Davidson at the moment. My client asked me to pick up the rest of a job that had been started but not finished.

It’s been fun making new patterns and working out how to get the best fit and finish. I’ve got a few bits left to do but here are a few photos of my progress since yesterday.

Next for this client will be some bespoke bags for his panniers ready for his trip to Europe in a few months!

Vele leather from scrim foam from thread from

I’m excited about all the car shows we’ve booked for 2024. Manon, our 1972 Citroen D Special, is currently off the road but we plan to have her up and running by our first planned show in April.

We are going to sell Clarice, our 1973 Corvette Stingray, this year and will get something else - something Italian this time like a Lancia 2000 Coupe. Watch this space!

Maybe we’ll see you on one of these dates! Make sure you come and say hello. The photos are from various 2023 shows.

I have a little helper today - one of my two cats, Ripley 🐾 Both her and her brother Hicks love to check out what I’m doing in the workshop multiple times during the day. They are very well behaved and interestingly they only tend to seek out the old covers I’ve removed, in this case from the Ford Anglia I’m in the middle of retrimming!

The rear seat of the Citroen Traction Avant is now complete and given back to a very happy customer.

Vinyl Spradling Diamanté in colour Meteor from Ginger Coir Fibre, Hessian and Scrim Foam from Thread from

There is now a little pause on the rest of this job until April when I will be restoring the front seats. For now, it’s back to the Ford Anglia retrim, which will be closely followed by a couple of bits for a Harley Davidson and a full retrim for a 1955 Jaguar XK140 DHC.

Topstitching in a contrast thread is needed for the Ford Anglia interior I’m currently working on. Getting the right thread colour, right stitch length and correct tension, especially when stitching through multiple layers, is challenging as there is no room for error! One mistake can ruin a whole seat. I’m using (Vele in Kale) and for the thread (Strongbond).

I’ve got a few jobs on the go at the moment. One of them is to do some repairs on the seats of Citroen Traction Avant.

I currently just have the rear bench seat in the workshop and this has been attacked by mice at some point in its life so needs new stuffing! I’m also very pleased to have found some similar vinyl from which is a great match with the original in terms of colour, texture and pattern - Spradling Diamanté in colour Meteor.

I can’t wait to give this seat some love and attention and get it back to the client soon. Then I will tackle the repairs on the two front seats! The client uses their car regularly, which is why this job is being done a bit at a time!

Thrilled with my new sign to go outside of my workshop - the view from the inside out to my garden is very tranquil and a creates a lovely environment to work in!

Just finished - a centre front arm rest in grey leather for our friends’ 1973 Citroen D Super. The arm rests are really hard to find and I managed to pick up a damaged one at the DS Rally I went to back in June. It’s going to look so smart in their car!

I thought I’d finished the 1955 Bentley S1 but the client realised they had forgotten to remove one final element from the boot! They posted it to me and I remade it today.

Although the piece was small, it was quite challenging to do. Double piping encased in a handle with a cut out section. I coloured all the edges of the cut leather to match, which has provided a good finish. It will be delivered to the client tomorrow.

Today is a momentous day as the 1955 Bentley S1 interior is completely finished! What started out as a job with 12 different elements to do, turned into a job where I completed 42 elements!

In addition, some of these also required the services of who did a fantastic job of refurbishing and recolouring the original leather to match the new leather, where needed.

Having already collected most of the seats and the 4 door cards a month ago, my client is coming again on Friday to collect the rest - the front bench seat, one of the rear seat backs and all of smaller pieces like compartments, straps, panels etc. It will be a little while until everything is back in the car so more photos will follow next year!

This was the last complex job on the Bentley - the door arm rests. Very fiddly with lots of different elements but I’m so pleased with the end result.

There are just a few small jobs left now like covering a couple of metal panels and making a few straps, which I’ll do next week!

Now it’s time to make a cheeky cocktail and have a well deserved few days off!

Happy Christmas everyone!

No sewing on the classic Bentley this afternoon - it was all about recovering different elements with leather and replacing anything that was broken. I have no idea where all these pieces will end up going as they were given to me all jumbled up in a large plastic bag!! At least they are all now in the new leather to match the rest of the interior.

A few more bits of the Bentley are now finished. This time mending 2 curved boxes and recovering them, then making 2 new wooden ‘fronts’ with new pull handles.

Not too much left to do now - 2 front door arm rests, 1 back side bolster to match one I’ve already remade and various wooden bits that need recovering in leather.

It’s rare for me to do 2 posts in one day but I’ve achieved so much this afternoon that I wanted to share! I remade both grab handles for the Bentley S1 and doing this task is something I’ve never tackled before. I’m so pleased with the finished result.

One grab handle was complete broken and was held together with gaffer tape and as I had to remake the strap from scratch, I needed to do the other one to match.

Arm rests are next but now it’s time for a few days off! Have a good weekend!

The Bentley S1 front bench seat is now completely finished. I changed the rear part and ran the piping down the length of the seam, which I think looks much neater than what was there previously, and I replicated the backing using a new piece of hessian and hand sewing it to the base. Now I’m about to make a start on the hanging straps which need to be remade from scratch!