Post 3: Upcycle Progress

I have made significant progress on the preparation stage of the upcycle project. This progress includes the planning of the overall construction, or more accurately, the method of reupholstery that will be used on my vehicles sun visors. I’ve homed in on a simple concept in reupholstery that applies to fabric encasements like the ones I want to make. You start by collecting your two pieces of fabric (or more if the object you’re encasing has a more complicated geometry than a flat sun visor) and cutting them to size. The offset that I set between the stitch line and sun visor body is critical, especially since I want the final product to look as clean as possible with minimal sag. Additionally, I must start with the encasement inverted so that most of the stitching ends up out of view. This also means I need the ability to turn the fabric encasement inside out, so Ill have to plan to leave one side of the roughly rectangular encasement to be open after machine sewing, and hand stitched once it turned inside out. Lastly, I have the challenge of incorporating the old paper-like signage that the original sun visor has, the approach to which I haven’t fully decided on. I could stich these “panels” of paper into the body somehow, or I could use contact cement to adhere them with a fabric frame after the main body is constructed. I’m leaning towards the latter because not only do I think the aesthetic of this method may be better, but it should also be a more straight-forward method with less chance for failure. Either way, I’ve came up with a drawing that depicts my general plan and thought process, as seen below.

In the upper portion of my drawing, you can see the overall construction of my fabric encasement that will hopefully serve the task of reupholstering my decrepit sun visor. It’s a rather simple process, with my main concern being how tight I can get the fabric encasement to fit to the sun visor. If it sags noticeably from the body of the sun visor, I anticipate feeling unsatisfied with the final product and would probably revise the fit. Below this you can see my first design for incorporating the signage of the original sun visor. It involves treating the signage like fabric and sewing it into the main body of the frame, since I plan on cutting it off the sun visor with the fabric still attached to the paper that holds the text. Lastly, my second method to choose from for mounting the signage involves adhesive as opposed to sewing, although the frame like appearance remains the same. I’m leaning towards this second method for simplicity, but I may change my approach if it seems appropriate or better to do so.

To get physically started on this project, I must first remove the sun visor. This is easily accomplished by removing the three screws that mount it to the roof (seen below); the other side just pops out of its pivot point.

With the sun visor removed, I can put it next to my material and really start to get an idea of how this project will come together. In the picture I’ve taken below, I put a pair of jeans that I think have the closest color to the original sun visor and am happy with the potential and practicality of this idea. I’m looking forward to seeing it progress, which should be quick since I plan on doing most of this work in about a day.