Pick The Perfect Project!
In other words, let’s set you up for successful learning! A couple of things to know about upholstery, one, it’s not easy! And two, it’s a learned skill! Which means you learn by doing, then doing again and again. Building your skill base as you go forward!
I have a lot of students that come to me with a fabulous chair they want to redo! It’s a wingback, and they want to do it in a luscious velvet! That’s a lovely plan, but it’s not a beginner project.
When you come to me to learn upholstery, I have a few goals in mind.
- That you learn real skills that you can build on
- You leave with a completed project
- The process doesn’t overwhelm you
- You’re proud of yourself and your project
With this in mind, I have a couple of suggestions. Reupholstering an ottoman is a one day class and it’s amazing how much you can learn from this simple project! Check out this post I wrote, Everything I Learned From My Ottoman. In this one day class you’ll learn so much, have a blast and at the end of the day, you’ll have a fabulous place to prop your feet!
The next option is a simple chair. By that I mean, it has an upholstered seat and back. It’s usually a wooden frame with or without arms, but the arms are not upholstered and there are no loose cushions. There are many styles of chairs that can be perfect options from modern mid-century, to cottage, to French. This project teaches different skills from the ottoman class so consider taking both classes from optimum learning.
Another one day class option is a cushion class. This is predominantly a sewing class, but gets you well on the way to sewing all kinds of cushions and pillows!
So now that you have picked a project, let’s talk about fabric. First off, I’m happy to help you with a yardage estimate and I can also point you to some fabrics resources, both local to Nashville or online. And depending on where you live, I may even have other local suggestions as my favorite thing to do when traveling is checking out fabric stores! It’s kind of an addiction!😉
Let’s talk about the best fabric for your beginner project. I’m all about customizing your project with a fabric you love but there are a few characteristics of fabrics that can make them easier or more challenging to work with.
Generally you want a good quality upholstery weight fabric. What does this mean? Home decor fabrics are generally tested for durability. We’ll discuss this in more detail in class, but the testing provides a double rub count. For best durability, I suggest getting something that is at least 15,000 double rubs. How do you find out the double rub count? If looking online, this information should be in the details along with cleanability codes and pattern repeat information. If shopping locally you may or may not have this info, but good quality home decor fabric stores usually provide this information.
Other factors to consider in choosing fabric may be cleanability. Over the last decade a whole new world of performance fabrics has revolutionized custom upholstery. If you have kids, pets or messy spouses 😉, this may be a good option for you as these fabrics are bleach cleanable. Muddy paws, magic markers, red wine and spaghetti sauce are no problem for these fabrics.
What fabrics should you avoid? Some velvets can be very difficult to work with even for seasoned upholsterers. Some are great to work with, but you’re not going to know how difficult they are to work with until you try it. If you chose a difficult velvet, it will probably show on your finish project with puckers and pleats where you don’t want them.
Fabric with really large repeats are beautiful but require extra effort and more math that you may want to deal with as your learning the basics. I’d suggest a smaller pattern that doesn’t matter if it’s not matched perfectly. Another idea is to mix and match your fabrics so that patterns don’t need to line up!
One final suggestion, don’t tackle your precious family heirloom for your first project. Save that until you’ve got some skills under your belt and then do that piece and do it proud! Most of all, I encourage you to find a project that you’ll enjoy do and having in your home! And pick some fabrics that will make you happy!
