Help please! Upholstery - where to start?

[OmicronPersei8]

My lovely dad wants to start up with upholstery, beginning with some of my chairs. He has been faffing about getting nothing done because he doesn't know where to start, and spent the day yesterday getting really disheartened and ending up resorting to stuffing a cushion into a chair and banging a bit of plywood in.

I know he'd really like to learn to do this properly, using a book as a guide, and I think he'd get a great deal of satisfaction from it. He retired this year and is in desperate need of a hobby to help keep him busy!

It's a bit of a long shot, but do any MNers upholster? Does anyone know of a good book to start with, or somewhere to get the necessary supplies? We're based in London. I'd really appreciate any help on this, I've had a look on amazon and I'm a bit bewildered by the choice of books. TIA

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My dad is an upholsterer. I am not sure about books but I would think a good place to start would be an adult education college. They usually run courses.

Thank you - I think I've accepted that MN are too busy to be upholstering though! I've ordered a couple of book from Amazon, will see how my dad copes when he realises that it is going to be a) time consuming and b) expensive what with all equipment, webbing, padding etc.

Thanks cece, I'll see if anywhere near us do courses. My dad's a bit funny about doing courses - he's taught himself most of what he knows, including painting and playing the guitar most recently. I've offered to get him classes before but he always turns them down.

Maybe this will be the thing that gets him out doing one though - I think it'd be good for him to meet new people and have a proper hobby. He's starting to drive my mum up the wall now they're both retired, for one.

Equipment wise (off the top of my head), you need a special upholsterer hammer, curved needles, sewing machine, staple gun and some trestles to hold the furniture at the right height. What has he started with, probably a stool or some dining chairs are easy to start with?

Also use the old cover as a pattern for cutting out the new fabric.

He's started off with my bashed up old dinning chairs. They had cracked vinyl seat covering that was coming off, with all the lining stuff coming out. I've just googled courses, there aren't many in London but one is just around the corner from where he lives! I've printed out the details for him, I might give them a ring tomorrow to check if they have places available for January.

well for that he just needs a staple gun or hammer and tacks, piece of fabric and some stuffing/foam/webbing. Pretty straight forward really.

Quick reply (not sure if you're reading thread still?) but I would totally recommend doing a class.

I do one now and when it started the tutor asked if anyone had done some upholstery before. Well I had, out of a book, and had been quite proud of it at the time. Two weeks into the course and I realised how terrible the work must have been! Nowhere near enough tension in my calico for one thing...

Did your father join the class then? I hope your dining chairs are looking good! Tools can be expensive but often get shared around the group until everyone is 'tooled up' and are a good source of present ideas for birthdays/christmas/etc. It's a great hobby, really satisfying.