Automotive / Marine Upholsterer & Pattern Maker

About the role

Vanlifer is looking for an experienced Automotive / Marine Upholsterer, Motor Trimmer, Sewing Machinist or Pattern Maker for casual prototype and product development work at our Wairau Valley, North Shore workshop.

This is primarily a prototyping and one-off development role, not repetitive production upholstery. You'll work alongside our design and manufacturing team to develop, make and test new campervan and RV soft furnishings. Once a product is refined and production-ready, the patterns and samples are handed over to our local manufacturing suppliers for volume production.

We're looking for someone who enjoys the problem-solving side of upholstery, taking an idea or vehicle, templating it, making the first one, test fitting it and working out how to make it better.

The role is flexible and could suit someone looking for work around school hours, additional project work, someone semi-retired, or an upholsterer running their own business who has capacity for extra work.

Key responsibilities

• Coming on-site to our North Shore workshop to measure and template directly from campervans and vehicles
• Pattern making and templating complex and unusual vehicle window shapes
• Developing prototype curtains, window covers, squabs, cushions and other upholstery products
• Cutting and shaping upholstery foam
• Sewing cushions, removable covers and zips
• Working with heavy-duty fabrics including 600D Oxford polyester
• Sewing magnets and magnet pockets into curtains and covers
• Installing and pressing domes, press studs, snaps and other fasteners
• Test-fitting prototypes directly into vehicles
• Working with our design and production team to improve fit, materials, construction methods and ease of manufacture
• Refining prototypes into accurate, repeatable patterns and samples that can be handed over to our manufacturing suppliers for volume production

About you

We're interested in hearing from people with experience in automotive upholstery, auto trimming, motor trimming, marine upholstery, marine trimming, boat covers, marine canvas, caravan or motorhome upholstery, canvas fabrication, industrial sewing or custom upholstery.

Ideally, you'll have:

• Strong practical pattern-making and templating skills
• Experience making squabs, cushions, covers or similar upholstered products
• Experience cutting and shaping upholstery foam
• Confidence using industrial sewing machines
• Experience working with heavy-duty fabrics
• Experience fitting zips, magnets, domes, press studs and other fasteners
• The ability to measure and template accurately from vehicles and irregular shapes
• A practical, problem-solving mindset and an interest in improving how products are designed and manufactured
• The ability to work independently while collaborating with our design and production team

Experience with digital pattern making, digitising physical templates, CAD patterns or CNC fabric/foam cutting would be a major advantage, but isn't essential.

Experience in marine upholstery, marine covers or automotive trimming would be particularly relevant to the type of work we do.

Access to your own industrial sewing machine or upholstery equipment is a bonus, but not essential.

Flexible working

This is a casual, flexible role. We're more interested in finding the right person and skill set than fitting the role into a traditional working week.

Some sewing and fabrication work may be completed from home if you have suitable equipment. However, you must be able to come to our Wairau Valley workshop when required to template vehicles, work with our team, develop products and test-fit prototypes.

The role could work well around school hours, other upholstery work or an existing business.

If you're an upholsterer, auto trimmer, motor trimmer, marine trimmer, sewing machinist or pattern maker who enjoys one-off development work and creating products from scratch, we'd love to hear from you.

Please apply with a little about your experience and availability. Photos or examples of previous upholstery, trimming, marine canvas, pattern-making or prototype work would be great to see.