STEPS IN THE PRODUTION OF AN UPHOLSTERY
Upholstery: is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, spring, webbing and fabric or leather cover. A person who works with upholstery is called an upholstery.
Upholstery is of four types
- Traditional upholstery
- Automobile upholstery
- Commercial upholstery
- Marine upholstery
STEPS IN MAKING UPHOLSTERY (INTRODUCTION)
Raw Material: the frame of any upholstery work is made most often with wood, through newer options include steel, plastic and laminated boards or a combination of the above. Kiln dried maple wood deemed free of knots, bark, and comprising defects is used under the upholstery. The show wood of the legs, arms and back can also be maple, but sometimes mahogany, walnut or fruits woods are for carved legs or moldings.
Padding is primarily made from animal hair, particularly hog or horse. Other padding, used in mass production are foam and polyester fiber warp some preprocessing may be necessary as with pre malted rubberized hair where animal hair is arranged and bonded into shape with glue.
Cushions are fashioned from polyurethane foam, polyester fiber, down, cotton, later or cotton wrapped spring. An upholstery may be covered with any choice of synthetic fibers but cotton, acetate, rayon and polyester have their own functional properties. Exterior fabric may be finished with a protective anti-stain coating.
Design: Upholstery comes in three major sizes. The full size is about 84 in (2.13m) wide, smaller versions like the two and love seat range sealers and love seat range between 60-80 in (1.52-2-03m) variations on the standard upholstery include modular item and upholstery with special use such as daybeds or convertible beds ornamental designs are not necessarily less durable but they do not invite casual use. The design of upholstery can be adjusted to the use that will be made of it and average size of the people who will use it must. A deep sent for instance is good for taller people but does not easily accommodate shorter individuals.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
SORTING LUMBER: The lumber comes from supplier around the world it is carefully selected for hardness, size, color and wood grain
PROCESSING LUMBER: Once the lumber is selected, the lumber is processed. The appropriate processing machine is chosen as to increase efficiency.
FRAMING: first, the frame is constructed from wood that has been found clear of any defect. The thickness of the wood should allow for heavy tension webbing to follow. If the frame is not sufficiently strong, it will not bear the weight redistributed into it by the webbing whenever someone sits down, arms, back or back sections, seat and legs are attached. The preferred method is with clean-cat, fitted double doweled glue joint reinforced with corner braces, glued and also screwed into place. Each major part of the seat will have springs attached separately and also be padded separately.
Consequently, they are “framed out” with reinforcing slats arranged around the seat section
WEBBING AND SPRING: the foundation is then set for padding. Jute, a kind of burlap is used as webbing. Strips of this material are interwoven, stretched across the frame and tacked down. Flax twine is then used to string onto the webbing. Two lines of twine are tacked into position and then tied around a springs back to the front. Another pair of lines will run side to side on each row of springs after all the spring have been lashed into position individually.
This process is repeated for the back with special attention to the springs at the base which are treated like the front row of seat spring. Each part will be wrapped in its own sheet of burlap after being completely fitted with secured springs, the burlap is cut to size for each part, tacked into place initially and then tightly lashed to the spring to minimize movement. This is to prevent the spring from wearing through the burlap overtime.
PADDING: Each part is separately padded as well with layers of burlap and horsehair or chosen synthetic material. The padding is placed in a burlap envelopes arranged on the edge of the seat, pinned into place, and stitched down.
The arms are done next in the same basic fashion in layers of padding and burlap are fixed in succession and tapped with muslin the arms also have a front edge of extra thick padding. Once the arms are properly shaped the back or back section may be padded if there is more than one part to the back, the centre is padded first up until the second burlap layer then the two planking sections are padded up to the point to match the center in size. The edge roll is formed around the top and back of the crest rail or uppermost part of the frame, or corresponding area of each of the back parts, each of which must be kept parallel of the others.
(5) Fabric: Every price and panel that will be fabric covered must be measured and recorded in a cutting list. The fabric is purchased in one piece or lot the panels are then plotted out in chalk so they match wherever their seams will meet when finally applied. If any of the panels and piece need to be sewn together before being attached to the padded frame, this is taken care of first. The seats is covered with panels for the platform and nose and hand stitched into place along the break between them over a layer of cotton batting. The nose is then covered first to check if the pattern continues along the front properly. The covering is filled over the back or platform end and secured. The arms are covered neat after being prepped with their own layers of cotton batting.
The fabric is folded into place around the front roll, in a series of pleats that looks like an opened pan when finished. A series of strategically placed cuts may be made, so the fabric clears all obstructions presented by the frame. The top bottom, back and pleated front are operated on in succession. Temporary tacks are replaces one by one with permanent tacks.
(6) other parts to be covered, like the back or its sections, may require machine sewing and attachment of pull tabs that will allow the fabric to be stretched between frame slats and secured. Cotton batting is layered on as well and the appropriate panel of fabric laid down, basted, stretched fully into place, and fixed with tacks. The outside is the last part to be padded and covered, starting at the arms, the open area is covered with a layer of burlap, an outside cotton padding and finally the finishing fabric. Covering is fabric on top and tacked into place on the bottom, front and back. The largest panel left open is the outside back. If the webbing has left any gaps between frame slats, these must be stuffed. Padding should be basted over the gaps along the whole outside back. The fabric panel for this section may be welted, or edge with a decorative strip made of stuffing cord covered in matching fabric. The covering is basted, then sewn at the top and tacked at the bottom as with other parts.
ASSEMBLING AND FINAL ADJUSTMENT
Upholstery: Attaching the upholstery to the wood frame. The method of attaching the seat, back, and armrest material to the frame varies from chair to chair.
Woven tapes are crisscrossed on the seat to create flexibility and body a cushioning material is placed on the wood frame. The leather is this process may seem simple, but it requires expert skill to match the stretch pattern evenly where adhesives are called for glue is used the curved sections are accomplished by scissoring small slits into the fabric is dry, it is flattened with a hammer to smooth it into a solid line.
Assembling the chair parts. They are put together so as to match the pattern and switch work.
