The End

This past Friday was my last official day as an intern at Home Remedies.  I worked a total of 137 hours this past semester, and learned more than I could ever measure. This internship helped me to establish new skills, contacts and a basic knowledge on upholstering and sewing.  I am so thankful this all worked out, it was such a pleasant experience.  Here is what I did on my last day.

Made a lovely pillow with self welt. One of my favorite projects thus far.

Altered some cushion covers.  Removed their ties and added velcro.

A large order of cushions was placed to be finished this weekend, so my job was to measure and cut all the foam, cushion wrap it, which is an added layer of batting, and then stuff the seats.

Lots of foam to be measured and cut.

In the works.

So it's been a while since my last post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working.  The past few weeks I've been doing odd projects such as shortening pillow cases, hemming curtains, and prepping projects.  It's been great to become familiar with little tasks like these and be able to whip them out fairly quickly.

Hemming rod pocket drapes.

Prepping for cushions, and later assembled them.

Seats and Signs

Today I made cushions for a set of chairs, and a welcome banner for President Barack Obama!  He was campaigning in Portland today and drove by Home Remedies upon entering the city.

Uncovered the originals, and laid out the new fabric.

Then stapled it all together, and added the back.

Here they are.

Tah-dah

And this is the banner I made to welcome the President!

Lined Curtains

This past weekend I made a few pairs of rod pocket panel curtains.  With a simple design and straight forward measurements, these curtains were a great place to start using the hemmer sewing machine.  This monster of a machine has a curved needle that moves from side to side. It's a whole different experience than a normal machine.

Pressing the hem to secure the lining.

The hemming machine.

The finished product.

Today was exhausting!  The shipment of new fabric finally arrived and our mission was to rearrange all the fabrics to show off the new ones, and make the old ones pop.  After lifting, moving, shifting, and changing the placement of over 150 different bolts of fabric your arms begin to ache!  We had to make sure colors coordinated and that we had enough room, which made it a bit of a challenge.  This process was exciting, from the unwrapping of all the fabrics, to seeing where they fit best.

Just a few!

Spring Settings

As simple as these spring themed table settings may seem, I had quite a tough time getting the thread tension and stitching to come out just right on the industrial machines.  Since they are straight stitches on a flat surface flaws are very visible.  They came out quite nice once they were all pressed.

Reversible Placemats.

ooo-lala

And napkins to boot!

Puzzling Patterns Continued...

Got it!

Puzzling Patterns

The focus of this cushion was to make the patterning match.  This took a lot of planning to get the fabric to line up and also to be sure I had enough for the whole cushion.  This pattern in particular is very large and bold, and proved to be a little confusing.  It's still in progress now, but once sewn together should look like one continuous piece of fabric.

The tools needed to figure this puzzle out.

   

The planning...

Attempting to match it up.

Zipper Zeal

Made another cushion, this time with a hidden zipper.  Assembly was not too difficult, until I got to the zipper.  It took a couple of tries, but once I got it sewn on correctly, and did a little hand tacking it was secure and nearly invisible.

Just the fabric.

Stuffed and ready to go.

Once it's all zipped it really does hide.

Cushion Cuttin'

Using the fabric that covered the original cushions my job was to make a template and then cut the foam to make replacement cushions.

The blue and white fabric was taken from the original cushions and traced. 

We used 2" foam for these.

This monster is what I use to cut the foam.  No scissors here.

I've got a cushy job.

Working with foam, fabric and cording today I made cushions.  

Beginning with the foam, I added a layer of batting to each side, then took measurements and cut fabric and the zipper.  My first cushion of the day is to the left, the second in progress to the right.

This is how it all began.

Then I cut it up.

And started piecing it together.

Added the zipper and the self welt, which is cord with fabric sewn around it.

Attached the boxing to the panel.

Stuffed the foam in,

Tah-Dah!

A CORDial day!

This past Friday I tackled yet another recliner, striping it down to it's bare bones.  After I was done with that, I got to try something new, making cording. Also known as welting, piping, trim, etc... It's that nice stuff that goes around the edges of pillows and cushions to make them look finished and fancy. And it's a ton of fun to make.  I started by cutting out strips of material on the bias, which is diagonal.

Measured, marked and ready to be cut.

The after math, strips all cut and waiting to be sewn.

Once all the pieces were cut I sewed them together. This step was a little tricky to get the hang of because they need to be sewn at a certain angle in order for them to come out as a continuous flat strip. 

Action shot!

Final product, all set to be sewn onto a swatch of fabric.

This particular welting is meant for a small couch. I sewed a few pieces of it together, then handed it off for assembly.

Strictly Business

Instead of wrestling a recliner today I was up front on the battle lines.  I got to see first hand how to deal with customers and the steps it takes to get them what they need.  Each scenario is different and requires special planning.  Things such as how much fabric will be needed and hours of labor need to be taken into account to give an estimate and see if the customer is still interested.  Working with the customer requires patience but also enthusiasm.  A lot of the work is helping them decide which fabrics will work best for their particular need and explaining to them what needs to be done in order to accomplish their finished look. I became more familiar with cutting and measuring fabric, and also with the computer programs used to keep the business in line.  Each customer that came in needed something completely different, it kept the day interesting and helped me to learn a broad spectrum of tasks.

Chair Repair

These recliners weren't broken, just in need of a new attire.  My job today was to take apart and remove the fabric from a recliner.  In between my wrestling match with cushions and staples I got to sew some cord for the recliner's new look.  We salvaged scraps of the material to make a bias tape and sewed cord into it to give the chairs a nice edge.

In the works

The final product.

Deux Jours

Hit the ground running today at Home Remedies!  Started with another seat cushion for a chair.  It was a good warm up to go through all the steps.  It was exciting to have an order slip with my name on it, and super satisfying when the customer came in to get the seat.  After that a bunch of reclining chairs were dropped off, and I began to strip and de assemble them.  I worked on one chair ripping out staples and pulling off fabric and foam for the rest of the afternoon, with a delivery to break it up.  It was fascinating to see the many layers that make up the recliner and the way it was built.

Removing fabric from chair.

Chair deconstruction!