/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I worked at a custom auto upholstery and convertible top specialist shop for 6 years from age 18-25.
While I mainly focused on convertible top installation and frame/mechanism repair I did my fair share of seat rebuilds and ran a sewing machine every day for various things.

Chairs like the ones in the picture should be easy. They are essentially a collection of 2 dimensional pieces. The fabric is pulled tight then glued or stapled and then the edge covered by trim. There's a technique but it isn't difficult.
The only sewn section is the cushion and it's very forgiving because only the front seam is visible.

Upholstery requires extreme patience and attention to detail. It's a very difficult trade to make a living in the USA because very few people are willing to pay the true cost of labor and materials, since all upholstery and textile production has been done in Asian sweatshops for over a generation now.
However if you really apply yourself you can become an artisan craftsman and produce beautiful work and build a clientele of people who are willing to pay, and you'll become known in those circles.
The community of people on that level is very small.
Ten years later I still get phone calls asking if I'm in the buisness or interested in doing a job, and I was merely the assistant to an artist level craftsman.
Get your own industrial machine ASAP and practice in your spare time with scrap. Start buying worn out stools and simple chairs and recovering them.
Sell them to hipsters for profit.

Good luck.

I am sad that OP abandoned his thread. I was hoping to talk professional upholstery. Just today i saw a restored Karmann Ghia in a grocery parking lot and spoke at length with the owner about his experience doing amateur restoration on the interior himself. It was fun speaking that language again after so long.

He wont be sewing. To become a good upholsterer is almost impossible. To be a bad upholsterer is very easy. All you have to do is: make it look good. and do it faster.

>>1797488
it is easy, just don't staple yourself to the furniture.
or anything else. or shoot a staple in your finger or hand. that shit hurts.