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When you are reupholstering furniture with a trim between the fabric and the wood, What type of trim should you use. This article will give the pros and cons of each type of trim.

Gimp Trim

When I worked with my dad years ago we stocked many colors of gimp. In that case, it was always there ready to go.

One of the most important tools of any upholstery shop is a cutting table. A cutting table is used for many things beside just cutting fabric. Here we will look at some of the ideas behind the sizes and how it is used. Because the tables for upholstery is very specific, and it's not very easy to find one the right size, most upholsterers build their own tables. But, how big should you make it?

Upholstery is one of the trades that can be operated from many types of buildings;

• a retail store building
  
• A commercial type garage
• your home
• your garage
• from an outside shed
• a temporary building
• a mobile home

In this section we will discuss the layout of the shop and the fixtures and machines that are used in an upholstery shop.

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Have you thought about making a website for your upholstery business? Having your own website is extremely rewarding. However, be forewarned, making a decent website takes a lot of work. It doesn't go up by itself.

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How do you find a good upholsterer? What is a good upholsterer?

It takes work to find a good tradesman in any profession. Upholstery is no different.

If an upholsterer has been in business for many years, there must be a reason why he is still in business. That is one good sign.

When trying to decide upon a name, I'd like to give my thoughts about how names fit on signs and domain names. If you are putting a name on a sign, the more words you have in the main part of the name, the smaller the letters will have to be. I'm going to be a little bit overly rediculous, just do show a point. And, so that we don't get distracted by the name, for this example, I'm going use a
completely different name.
First Example:

If you are starting or refocusing your upholstery or sewing business, you may be trying to decide exactly what you will be doing. For example, will you only be sewing cushions, or only making slipcovers, or will you be doing all phases of upholstery. This is important to decide because it affects what you will be writing in your advertising.

Upholstery is a very specialized trade. We often take on a wide variety of projects. Sometimes those are one-of -kind projects that we are creating from scratch, or we might be making a number of the same type of furniture items, such as cushions, church pews, or restaurant booths. Other times we may be altering the frame, the style, or the cushions on a piece of furniture.

Creating Text

First, you must register and log in. Once logged in, You have several ways to enter text.

Recently I had a  client vist the RV Cushions page of my upholstery business website.
 She said that she had some RV cushions that she wanted me to make. Since I've never done any work mail order before, I'm trying to work out the details. I'm wondering, is mail order too much trouble, or does it have great potential to add to my business.

Getting Correct sizes
1. Client to measure the cushions

(note: you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

The situation, you have a lazyboy recliner and you need to move it.  Because of their unique recliner mechanism, this proceedure will only work on Lazyboy recliners. Lazyboys are built to come apart easily. Turn the recliner around so that you are at the back of the recliner.

Quality Standards and Expectations vary according to skill level.

When we pay someone to do a job, we expect a high level of qualilty. When we pay for a professional, we expect professional results.

Beginners are not held to the same standard as experienced processionals. The stand level of a professional would be impossible for a beginner to achieve on the first effort. If all beginning upholsterers had to do it perfectly the first time, no one would ever succeed.

When sewwing a braided rope trim on to a cushion/or pillow - I would like to know how to finish the ends so that it looks like one continual piece???

I have sse it done - but, do not know how??

I would appreciate your help...

Pam Lawrence
Slipcover Sensations & Custom Window Creations

Winnie; the Life of a Wing Chair

by Faith Winters

Should An Upholsterer Pay Referal Fees?

Should an upholsterer pay a referral fee from a decorator or another business? When an upholsterer is first starting out, or low on work, he may desperate and be willing to accept almost any conditions, just to have work to pay the bills.

Look at it from the client's point of view. Is a paid referral really unbiased? If a decorator or other business is getting a kickback from a particular upholsterer, will the client get the best service?

When you are considering having a antique reupholstered, there are a number of factors that need to be considered. What is most important to you? Preserving the frame, restoring to original, just making it usable, keeping the cost down, etc.?

Recovery -vs- Reupholstery -vs- Restoration?

Some people who bring in antiques to recover just want the cover changed, they say everything else (under the cover) is just fine.

Using Leather in Upholstery

This drawing* shows how the different parts of a leather hide are used in upholstery. The A Section of

This article was started because someone asked me a question of, as he approaches retirement, how he would get started in upholstery as a second career. I'll be adding to this bit by bit as I have time and remember. For anyone reading this, feel free to post questions in comment section below. That will help keep me motivated to continue working on this article.

Planning Where to Cut

Various upholsterers use different methods to plan out how to cut their fabric. Some do a layout on paper, some just measure the sizes they need and cut from that (without making a layout. A few don't even make a layout, they just cut. For myself, before I start cutting the fabric, I prefer to plan out how I'll be cutting it. Here is an example of one of our layouts.

Being in any type of business, you may occassionally get "suggestions" from friends and aquaintances to do free work. When these requests come, it is helpful to think it out in advance and have a ready response waiting. Here are some suggestions.

Modern Upholstery Paddings

Cotton

Upholstery cotton comes in rolls of about 27" wide, about 1" thick, about 1 yard per pound, 18 to 22 pounds per roll.

Upholstery cotton is generally available in three grades:

Smoothing Out Cording on Curved Pillows
The solution can be fairly simple, however you may need to experiment a little with some scrap fabric.

Others may have different solutions. This is my suggestion. The solution has several parts. Read all the instructions before beginning.

1. Summary.

The project was an upholstered cornice, with a 3/8" welt along the top and bottom edges. The instructions were "Match the welt as best as you can". Normally cornices that have shaped bottoms with striped fabric have the welt made in a contrasting welt, or have the fabric cut on the biased. In this case we decide to experiment to see what could be done. The result was that the welt matches the bottom of the cornice, even around the curves. Read about how we did it.

Many types of cushions, for the seat and backrest, of sofas, loveseats and chairs are available. Some of your choices are listed below......

Have you ever been in the middle of a job and realized that you needed the some edge roll for the front of your spring deck on the sofa job? It would take several days to order it in, and it is holding up the whole job. What do you do? Put the job aside and work on another job? Should you call other upholsterers in the area to see if you can scrounge some up? Why not just make your own. It's fast and easy, and you probably have all the supplies at hand:

Working With Customer's Own Material (COM)

Which side to use?

When a client has purchased her own fabric, ask her which side of the fabric she wants to use. Sometimes there is an obvious front side of the fabric, and an obvious back side, such as when the fabric has a glue backing. Sometimes there is a type of fabric that could be used either side up. How does the upholsterer tell which side to use?