Dave’s Holiday 55

The padded dash on my 55 Super 88 has decided that the upper half should no longer be attached the lower half. I think the thread connecting the two is no longer up to the job of keeping things together. I tried rejoining them with a curved needle and thread (which turned out to be a close, but no cigar match). It was very difficult to get the (new) needle through the leather (?) and I may have pulled even more of old stitching out struggling with the needle. I have a local place that works on those kinds of those things but I’m afraid they would be pretty pricey. Nothing is too good for my car, but the wallet does have some limits. Any ideas? Does the whole padded dash covering come off easily? Looking for a little magic here, I fear.