Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Upholstery Class ~ Part 4

Good Morning Class!

Today we will cover Flossie's Bottom.


Use your foam as your pattern.  Lay your foam on the wrong side of your fabric, and trace around it, adding 1/2 inch all the way around for a seam allowance.

The first thing you need to do is to sew the cording around both pieces of the seat pattern.  Clip the cording to ease around curves.  Like this....



Now we can add the banding.


You should clip your curves after you've added your banding.

This next photo isn't the best, so I'll try to explain in great detail...
  This little trick will help you to match all of those corners and curves on the top and bottom pieces.
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Take the piece that you've added the banding to, and place it on top of your foam, right side up.  Fold the banding down over the sides, so it will be out of the way for the moment.  It should look almost like the finished product at this point.  Place the bottom piece, right side down, over the top piece, matching all of the corners and curves. 


I temporarily pinned my pieces together.


When I pull the banding strip back up, you see that  makes it much easier to match all of the corners and curves.  Pin the banding to this side of the cushion  now.



See how nicely those corners and curves match up? 


Remember to leave an opening to insert your cushion.
Stitch it up, clip your curves and corners.

This is not necessary, but I like fat cushions.
I add several layers of batting, so the corners are more rounded.




Now this next little tip isn't necessary, but is something I like to do.  If you have ever tried to wrestle a fat piece of foam into a cover... you'll appreciate this.

Before I insert the foam, I like to cover the foam with another piece of fabric. 
Use an old sheet if you want to. Just hand baste it all the way around.  Your stitching here doesn't have to be perfect, no one is going to see this.

Think of it like this....
You know how, when you wear a slip, your dress just slides on effortlessly?  This is flossie's slip.  You will thank me for this later on.



Now you can insert the cushion and stitch her up!


A curved needle makes this SO much easier. 
Again, use long stitches.  About 1/2 inch long stitch in the cording fabric, and then 1/2 inch long stitch in the banding fabric.


YEEE HAW !!
Flossie's lookin' good!

We'll have to do the skirt tomorrow class.
Teacher's dryer kicked the bucket - gotta deal with that.

Any questions?


4 comments:

  1. Hey Teresa... That is so cool that you are doing this for people. I have done some upholstery in the past and you are so right about that tip to get the curves to lines up properly. You are a master. That chair looks showroom. I love the bright cording. Gosh, I wish you were near. I have a big round red ottoman I would pay you to do. Damn!

    I am going to look back at your other lessons. Love you and miss you of course.

    Jewells.

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  2. Oh my -- i'm going to have to go back and reread and save these great instructions! Very cool chair!

    Janet

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  3. Thank you Boo! And thank you Jewells! Give it a try. I taught myself, and I can teach you too. I'll be right here if you get stuck.
    Love you Chicks!!

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  4. You are kidding, Flossie's lookin' good!

    I played hookey yesterday, Teresa, so I best go catch up! I loved today's post. And thanks for the tip on the slip.

    XO,

    Sheila :-)

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My Grandmother always told me, "If you hang around with skunks, you're gonna get some stink on you."