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Make Cover for Bakkie Tyre with UV Resist Sublimation and Leather Protection Sleeve
A customer recently approached me with a unique project: creating a custom tyre cover using materials they provided. The cover needed to feature a specific image they sent over, and it also had to be designed for outdoor use, complete with UV protection.
Step 1: Preparing the Image
To begin, I added a circular border around the customer's image. This border serves an important function: it provides a guideline for stitching and helps maintain the cover's shape when attached to the car, preventing it from flapping around too much. The border will eventually be cut off after it is hemmed and overlocked with a stiffener.
Step 2: Printing with Sublimation
Next, we moved on to the sublimation process. Sublimation printing is ideal for this project because it allows the image to be transferred permanently onto a material. However, it's crucial to select a UV-resistant material for outdoor use. Common materials like mini-mat, peach skin, or microactive may not offer the necessary UV protection and could quickly fade in the sun. Instead, we chose a poly-coated interlock, a durable, easy-to-clean material with excellent UV resistance. This material is often used for items like gazebo covers, making it perfect for the tyre cover.
Step 3: Constructing the Tire Cover
Once the sublimation printing was complete, we moved to the construction phase. For the front of the tyre cover, we used leather provided by the customer. After cutting the necessary pieces, we stitched them together, ensuring a snug fit around the tyre.
We then cut the front circle out of both the leather and the sublimated material. To add rigidity to the cover, we attached a stiffener to the back of the printed circle. This piece was overlocked and hemmed, removing the black border that had been printed earlier. A straight stitch was then hidden within the overlocked edge to secure the sublimated image to the leather.
Step 4: Adding the Finishing Touches
After completing the front of the cover, we moved on to assembling the outer rim and back piece. A separate piece of material was sublimated to create a durable substrate for the ripcord, which allows the cover to be tightened securely around the tyre. This material had to be tougher and more synthetic than the leather to withstand wear and tear.
Final Thoughts
With the ripcord and all pieces in place, the custom tyre cover was complete. The final product is not only durable and UV-resistant but also visually striking, with the unique image requested by the customer. The cover fits snugly around the tyre, secured by the drawstrings, ensuring it stays in place.
I had a lot of fun creating this custom tyre cover and hope the customer enjoys it just as much. If you're interested in more projects like this, make sure to hit the bell icon and subscribe to get notified about our next video!
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