saggy seat pockets

The fabric pockets on the back of our cab seats have become a little saggy where the elastic has aged, any ideas of the best way of tightening them without major surgery please?

Thanks
Liz
Lady G

Being a mere male and knowing nothing of such mysteries, I would unpick a short bit of the seam so you can get at the elastic.

Then fold and sew a tuck in it to shorten it a bit.  

In fact I may be doing that very soon, as ours has also gone a bit limp.

A sign of age I think!!   

That's exactly what we thought but the elastic is sewn in all the way along on ours so unable to do that. Thanks for the suggestion
Liz

Dammit.

Looks like a re-think for ours as well.

I'll ask the gaffer. She's good at this sort of thing! 

Is there room to thread some knicker elastic through the seam?

If so it could be stretched and sewn in at each end, and would not show from the outside.

I await your report with interest! 

Contact the company who does the upholstery for AS and ask them for advice.

Once repaired, never use the pockets again. 

Gromit wrote:Is there room to thread some knicker elastic through the seam?

If so it could be stretched and sewn in at each end, and would not show from the outside.

I await your report with interest! 

If you do that, it might make you walk a bit funny. 

My 'fix' has been in place for a few years now.  I think I can feed some stretch cord I have through the top of the pocket but not sure how to secure it at each end.

Had a go at repairing the other side.  I cut some slits on the inside of the top seam, pushed a wire through and used that to pull a doubled shock cord through.  The cord was sewn to the inside of the seam at each end and is now neat and stretchy.  The weak point is where the cord is sewm on so will leave it a few months to see how it lasts before doing the other side.

Nice one Peter. Her ladyship ordered something similar a couple of days ago and just waiting for it to arrive. Plan is to do the same thing. Will try to post some before and afters!

The problem is not just weak elastic but what happens as per Peter's 1st picture is the seams of the rear panel start pulling the side panels round towards the rear - see his right hand seam. As the seat covers are just that , a bag loosely fitted over the original van seat, the tighter you make the elastic or the heavier you load the pocket the more the seams will be strained and the cover misshapen.

Thanks kaspian, so the answer is do what else then?

That's the $50k question! Perhaps a bit of webbing sewn in passing round the front of the seat in a loop to limit the amount of movement in the vertical seams of the back panel? Or take some of the roadmaps/ C and CC big sites book / every other site book you have ever collected out of the pocket to relieve the strain !!

Finally found time to carry out this little task. Purchased some strong elastic and went to work. Cut a very small slot on each end of the fold at the top inside of the seat pocket about an inch from the end, then cut the elastic oversize. Attached a safety pin to one end and fed it through the fold at the top so an inch was spare at each end, Tucked last inch of elastic back to the very end of one side and stitched through, Tensioned the elastic and repeated the other end having stapled it whilst I did it. That way the elastic goes right to both ends and doesn't leave a saggy section. Removed the staple and stitched the small holes, took a little while but looks near perfect! 'hog is now banned from putting anything in the pockets.
Before and after pictures.
Regards
Liz