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Beginner Lessons

05:04:16

Plan: Beginner

If you're new to the world of upholstery and furniture making then start right here. The Facelift Academy beginner lessons will help you get familiar with the tools, materials, skills and important health & safety practices before we dive into some practical workshops

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What you will learn

The beginner lessons start out in the 'classroom' with some important knowledge on all things upholstery and furniture making. You'll get business advice from an expert that has walked the walk before we show you how to work safely and ensure your finished pieces comply with regulations.

We'll bring you up to speed with the tools and materials that you will get your hands on in future lessons and show you how to prep your workspace and your equipment.

Practical lessons within the beginner course will show you how to fill cushions, reupholster a dining pad, strip down a sofa and set you up with some basic sewing skills. These lessons are aligned with what you will learn if you were to start out in the industry and prepare you with the basic skills to stack more advanced techniques as you work through our lessons.

Choose Your Lesson

1. Three Pillars of Upholster

If you want to learn to fully upholster a piece of furniture, you need to learn all three skills

2. Starting Out Tips

If you're learning upholster as a hobby on the weekends oy you'd like to start your own business, this is my advice on starting out.

3. Health & Safety

Please make sure you watch this Health and Safety video if you're new to upholstery and before going any further in the academy.

4. Fire Regulations

We take you through the furniture and furnishings fire regulations for the UK. Please do your research if you are outside of the UK as your fire regulations may be different.

5. Knowing your Fabrics

We'll take you through the different kind of fabrics you can purchase and their suitability. You'll learn the difference between upholstery, curtain and contract fabric.

6. How to Strip (Tear) Down a Sofa or Chair

In this video we show you how to remove the fabric and the foam using different techniques and knowing whether the foam is re-usable.

7. Tools for Beginners

In this video we take you through the tools I recommend for a beginner to purchase at the start of their upholstery journey.

8. The Importance of Covering Your Workbench

You'll learn why you should always cover your work bench with fabric when upholstering any furniture and how to cover it.

9. How to Threat Your Sewing Machine

Threading your sewing machine for the first time can be overwhelming so we show you step by step how we thread our industrial sewing machine.

10. Sewing Basics

We'll show you how the components of the sewing machine work and what they do. We'll also teach you some upholstery sewing basics for absolute beginners

11. How to Measure and Order a Cushion Interior

I'll show you how to measure a seat cushion cover to order a new cushion interior. This is a ver basic lesson that you need to learn early on in your upholstery journey

12. How to Fill a Cushion The Right Way

In this video you'll learn the correct way to fill a cushion so you have an expert finish to your furniture every time.

13. Making Padding & Filling a Cushion Interior

This technique can be applied to any shaped cushion including square seat cushions so don't be put off by the shape of the cushion in this video.

14. How to Fully Reupholster a

Drop-in Dining Pad

You'll learn how to pad the sides so that it fits perfectly into the chair with no gaps and also how to finish those pesky front corners!

15. How to Put a Bottom (Dust Cover) on a Sofa

In this video we show you the techniques I use to put a bottom on a sofa to make sure it's ripple free. This is one of the easier bottoms to apply as there are no legs to cut around.

16. How to Cut and Sew Single Piping

You'll learn how to join your fabric so that you will have one long continuous piece of piping and also how to sew up your piping cord.

17. Upholstery Component Names and How to Measure a Sofa for Cutting Fabric

You'll learn the names and abbreviations of each component. We'll show you how to draw out a cutting plan and how to measure each component.

18. Guestimating a Fabric Meterage or Yardage from a Photo

In this video you'll learn how to guestimate how much fabric you'd need to order if you do not have the piece of furniture in front of you.

19. A talk through of How to Change the Look of an Arm on a Sofa

In this video, I will walk you through my thought process on this sofa and discuss why and how I changed the armed to a completely different style.

20. A Deep Dive into Bench Seating

In this video I talk you through seat heights, back heights- different styles of backs, allowances you need to make on flute sizes, taking templates when you have a curve or unusual shape, mistakes to avoid, how I go about building the bases and much more!

21. A Quick Guide to Pattern Matching

In this video I will take you through the principles of pattern matching, where patterns need to match, what to think about when planning your patterns and more.