McGrew Studios

Specialty Costumes, Production Design and Fabrication for the Creative Industries

Specialty Design, Fabrication & Production for the Creative Industries

Aviation

Piper Pawnee PA-25 Custom Slipcover

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This is a new custom slipcover made in Sunbrella fabric for a Piper Pawnee PA-25 glider tow plane.

For Elk Mountain Soaring. Morgan County, UT airport.

Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover

This plane belongs to the Elk Mountain Soaring Club and its home is the Morgan County Airport in Morgan UT. This Piper Pawnee PA-25 is about 30-35 years old and has had a number of previous owners. These airplanes were designed for aerial applications, including cropdusting. Agile, powerful and fast, they are used worldwide as GREAT tow planes for launching gliders.

Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover
Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover

Our one-piece custom slipcover protects all the fabric-coverd parts of this airplane’s tail.

We installed front and back zippers into it, with a long vertical zipper down the back of the plane’s rudder and a shorter zipper down the front of its vertical fin. Webbing and five small fastex buckles quickly secure this slipcover to the plane’s frame.

We created “bonnets” that encapsulate the tail’s horizontal stabilizers and elevators (which are always locked in a raised position when the plane is parked and tied down). Bungee cords run through casings underneath and cinch up snugly. Cord locks make all fit adjustments fast and easy.

We also stitched soft leather inside this slipcover at its very top tail area, because this is a wear point which sun, weight and gravity will take their toll on over the years.

Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover
Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover
Stan McGrew, left, with McGrew Studios' First Hand Sara Lowry, right, during our initial patterning/ drafting/draping in a plain utility fabric.

Stan McGrew, left, with McGrew Studios’ First Hand Sara Lowry, right, during our initial patterning/drafting/draping in a plain utility fabric.

Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover1

Project overseer. Hard at work.

Piper Pawnee custom Sunbrella slipcover

Sara Lowry, left with Jennifer McGrew, right.

Learn more here about soaring in Utah and the Morgan County Airport!

Slipcovered Head Rest for Schleicher ASW 20BL Glider

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If it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it. Slipcover it.

New custom slipcover for a head rest in a Schleicher ASW 20BL glider. Owned by Dan (you’ll really enjoy his YouTube videos:).

Nice, new neoprene cover laces closed on its underside.
Grommets and lacing work much better than a zipper, (yes, already tried it).
A zipper wouldn’t allow enough stretch to put this on and take it off.
It’s cool, moisture-wicking, stretchy and washable.
The only way to fly.

Read the basics about this fantastic German-made glider here…

More specific data and statistics about the ASW 20BL Glider here…

The original upholstered head rest had some wear-and-tear. My dad, Stan McGrew, performed some baseball stitching repairs a few years ago. The head rest is still very structurally sound and in good shape.

Repairs on the original leather upholstery: the baseball stitching keeps these split seams together. The head rest is still holding up well, so we are gonna slipcover it!
Glider season starts here on or about April 1st here! Coming soon!

Info and details about the Morgan County International Airport here- – haha!

B-3 Leather Bomber Jacket Alterations

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Some surprises revealed inside this WW II era B-3 bomber jacket while altering it for our famous military museum client.

 

 

Before and After: A size 48 B-3 bomber jacket shortened 4 inches.

A beautiful jacket in outstanding condition. I altered its length for a military museum client on the east coast.   The Heddels company provides a nice historical overview of jacket types created during WWII and other campaigns. Check it out. Good summary of various jacket designs and adaptations for particular uses.

 

General Patton in his B3 bomber jacket. Pic from the Heddels site.
And check out General Patton here in his B-3 bomber jacket! Pic from the Heddels site.

Before alterations: Our client taped the back, indicating the position where he wanted the horizontal top-stitched trim pieces to be moved. B-3 bomber jacket in really amazing condition. It’s rare to find vintage pieces this nice. A pleasure and an honor to work with such a cool piece of history. 

All the lower pieces needed to be removed, then carefully repositioned about 4″ higher and restitched through their existing holes. I ordered some specialty thread from Germany and waited about five weeks before it arrived to do all the new top-stitching.

The factory that originally made this bomber jacket ran 3/16″ green cotton cord under every top-stitched trim piece! Its color made me scratch my head a little- pretty interesting. Functionally, the cord fills in the ‘ditch’ created where separate pieces of sheepskin have been sewn together.

Map pocket on the lower front left also had to be removed, then repositioned 4″ higher and reattached.

A 1″ x 2″ leather tab is top-stitched for reinforcement at the base of each side of the zipper, next to its pull and stop. These tabs had to come off and also be repositioned and restitched 4″ higher.

The horizontal leather trim pieces now are repositioned and stitched directly under the tape line. The jacket’s almost ready for me to turn its lower edge up to top-stitch.

Vintage separating zipper in great shape. No rust or broken teeth. The whole zipper had to be removed and repositioned. I shortened it from the top, actually cutting it after removing several teeth. then prying off its top brass stops, then re-crimping those into their new positions. Some dicey surgery. I searched high and low for suitable, shorter replacement zippers, but alas. There were none I could buy anywhere online or in person. Superb that this original zipper was in such great shape!

Lower front left looks naked without its map pocket, now removed.

B3 bomber jacket before and after its alterations- shortened about 4" total.
B-3 bomber jacket before and after its alterations- shortened about 4″ total.

 

Meanwhile… over at the American Rust Company in Salt Lake City, another B-3 was there, longing to go home with a loving new owner! If that’s you and you’d like me to give it some love, I’d be thrilled to work on another of these jackets. I still have the matching specialty thread plus the industrial machines to sew it. This jacket below needs some good leather reconditioner, some stitched repairs plus a new zipper. Rust never sleeps!

 

Here’s another jacket I spotted around the same time- at the American Rust Company in Salt Lake City. It’s small- about a size 38.

Tattered map pocket needing some TLC and restitching. I reached inside and found a pack of vintage filterless cigarettes!

The American Rust Company features in-store items every day on their media sites! They accept credit card call in, PayPal and Venmo as well. They even do shipping and curbside pickup! Give them a call at (801) 671-3882.

 

Spendy spendy- but eager to go home with a loving collector! Let me know if you wind up as its proud owner and I’ll give it the repair and restoration attention it deserves:)