Upholstery Fundamentals

Modern upholstery fundamentals is a course based on video's tutorials and f.a.q's. You will start with a simple but yet effective exercise. A chair with a plywood seat and backrest. After that you will be building your skills up. Step by step and object by object. The course is accompanied by a competence matrix. It will tick all the boxes. If you are familiar with upholstery already this course could bring you some added value, as you do not have to follow all steps. You can also pick and choose the skill you want to learn which is listed in the competence matrix. 

In the first section of this course there will be five different ways to approach a dining room chair for re-upholstery. At the end of the first section you will find a Novel about Suzanne who wants to become an upholsterer.

What you will learn in the first section:

• Master basic upholstery skills with high quality finishings

• Re-upholster various types of dining room chairs

• Use Upholstery tools

• Replace webbing

• Replace foam

• Apply upholstery fabric

• Fold the corners of the fabric

During the second section of the course I will take you through a lot of industrial upholstery machines and tools. I will show you what they are and where they are used for. These are my own tools which I use on a daily basis in my upholstery shop. This section of the course is very handy for if you would like to start your own upholstery shop, but don't know where to start and what kind of tools and machines you should be purchasing.
Except the tools I have, there are off course many more. So if I will come across some tools or something that will be of interest for you, I will add an article or lecture to this course for you.

Below a few of the items I will show you in the lectures:

• Sewingmachines: Juki, durkopp adler - how to thread, wind a bobbin, different feet 

• Overlocker: Juki, how to thread

• Skiving machine: how does it work

• Hand tools:

• Pneumathic tools

• Bottonmachine: how does it work, different kind of buttons and dies

• Different kind of little helpers.

In the third section it's all about steel tubular chairs, which are also dining room chairs. I will guide you step by step how to reupholster various types of steel tubular chairs. You might think, well if I have done one tubular chair, I know how to them them all. Well I can tell you there are a lot of different models and various fixings. Especially on the backrest. This section also has a competence matrix and E-book which can be downloaded. The video's are easy to follow and if you have any questions you can always ask them in the Q&A. That's why I am here for.

What You will learn in the third section:

• Replace the foam,

• Applying the upholstery fabric in various ways

• How to fold the corners of the fabric. 

• Various fixings

• Solving some common problems

• Sewing a seat cover with a raised edge/boxing

• Sewing a seat cover with a raised edge/boxing and piping.

Re-cover a vintage cocktail chair. In this fourth section it's time to improve your skills by recovering a complete chair.  If you have never reupholstered a chair before it is no problem as I get you through the whole process step by step. However if you want some basic skills first, then it might be helpful for you to get through the first sections of this course first. This section also comes with a downloadable competence matrix.

During the video's I will take you through the following stages of how to's:

• Remove the old fabric.

• Create a seat with a mesh spring unit.

• Get material knowledge of the traditional stuffings.

• Apply crin and jute (filling).

• Make a jute edge roll.

• Sew a piping.

• Sew a seat cover with raised edge

• Attach the fabric.

The fifth section is about sewing cushion covers four ways. Including the build up of a spring interior and the modern way with foam. After these lectures you will not be afraid anymore to sew a cushion cover with welt/piping and a zip. The chairs are Morris style with loose cushions.

• Remove the old fabric.

• Create a cushion with a spring unit.

• Create a cushion with foam

• Sew piping/welt various ways

• Sew zippers

• Make a template

• Free E-book 120 pages for recap with explanations text under the pictures.

The sixth section is all about sewing and creating all sorts of cushions. During the first month's of 2024 these lectures will be added one by one. So please have a little patient. We have published some real easy to make throw pillows on this section.

• How to sew throw pillows or decorative cushions

• Sew with and without a zip.

• Create a cushion with foam

• Sew piping/welt various ways

• Use a template for professional looking corners

• Make a template

We have added section seven with short video's for quick and easy learning.

• How to tension upholstery fabric

• Folding the corners of your fabric butterfly way

• Folding the corners of your fabric on a high square corner

• Button repair or replacement with a deep button release needle

• Flattened old foam corner repair

• Plygrip on the back of your chair

• Creating wall panels from shelving units

• And more

So enjoy your upholstery trip and see you in class.

Greetings

Marja Kooreman