Whatever works.

One of the salon cushions on our Catalina 320 tore along a center seam. I tried mending it once and it just tore again, as the fabric had significantly weakened along the seam. I think the material is Ultrafabric Brisa Original (from around 2005).  I haven’t been able to find a color match yet. It’s just as well, though, as the fabric runs around $65/yard. I’m not ready to reupholster the entire set of salon cushions yet. Soooo, what can I use for a temporary fix?

I decided to repurpose a length of Tear-Aid Type-A tape that I originally got to patch a few holes in our Sunbrella bimini skin. It should adhere well to Brisa’s polyester and rayon backing. It’s not supposed to be sewn-through, but I don’t need a waterproof seal. I simply want to use it to patch along the back-side of the rip and to strengthen and reinforce the area around the tear so I can stitch a new seam through it, about 1/4″ in from the tear.

So I gave it a shot… and I’m happy with the repair.   Now I just need to wait and see how long it holds up.  Fingers crossed!

Before:

And after…

If you’re interested, here’s a few pics as I tried the fix.

I removed the cover from the inner cushion pieces, and ripped out the old seam on all 3 pieces of fabric involved in the seam.  The alcohol is to clean the Brisa fabric backing, where I want to apply the Tear-Aid.  The hair dryer is to help me flatten out the old folded seam allowance, and also to help dry the backing after I cleaned it.

Both pieces of Brisa are torn along the old seam.  I’ll need to patch both pieces in a similar fashion before trying to sew a new seam.

Tear-Aid says to clean the application area with alcohol and let dry.  As I cleaned the fabric with alcohol, I saw that the backing material was rotted away in places.   So I removed all the non-adhered backing along the tear.  Not sure how it got in this condition.  Maybe something caustic spilled here and weakened the fabric.  Or maybe 15 years is all you can get out of Brisa.

After cleaning and drying the pieces of Brisa, I used scotch tape on the right side (outside) of the tear to hold the edges of the tear together, temporarily.  I’ll remove it after I apply the Tear-Aid to the wrong side (inside) of the torn fabric.

I cut a length of Tear-Aid Type A tape and applied it on the backing-side of the Brisa fabric along the tears.   Tear-Aid recommends leaving an inch of patch around any torn area, but I didn’t have that much of material along the old seam allowance, so I used a smaller piece than they’d probably recommend.

I removed the scotch tape from the right-side of the pieces of Brisa, and clipped the right-sides of Brisa together to prepare for stitching the new seam.  This time I’ll sew THROUGH the newly applied Tear-Aid, approx 1/4″ in from the tear along the old seam.

Stitching the seam was a bit challenging, as the adhesive from the patch gummed up the needle every 6 inches or so.  But, as long as I cleaned the needle each time with alcohol, it stitched pretty well.  I used a ballpoint (recommended for Brisa) needle, size 16, and V-69 poly thread, and I also found I had to lower my top thread tension.

There you have it.