How Did You Get Your Start Upholstering

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Morning to All!

Have been reading the newby posts and it gave me pause to wonder how y'all got started upholstering?

Me, I had just started Sew & Sew.  I thought I would be doing general sewing, formal wear, machine embroidery and the like.  I was still working my cr*p job in Alda.  I got home from work one day and hubby told me that Sew & Sew had gotten a call about doing upholstery.  I went and looked at the job na it was doing a restoration on a 1912 EMF.  No fear has always been my middle name so I researched the figures and bid on it.  Was given the project and that's when I discovered that I needed an upholstery machine.  the gentleman who I purchased the machine from gave my name to a restaurant needing their bench seats replaced.  3 months later, hubby & I decided it was time to pull the plug on my "real job and dedicate myself to Sew & Sew.  I haven't looked back and certainly have no regrets.

Virginia

[sofadoc]

Most of the old-timers on this forum have told their stories before. But there has been a turnover of members, so I guess it's time to tell them again.

In late 1957, my uncle beat up a man outside a bar in Houston. He may have killed the man, but he didn't hang around long enough to find out.

The family, consisting of my grandmother, uncle, brother, and mother (who was pregnant with me at the time) loaded up what little they had into an old station wagon and fled town in the middle of the night.

Their money only got them as far as Dallas, where my grandmother met and married her 3rd husband, who just happened to have a brother-in-law that owned an upholstery shop 50 miles away in Greenville. One minute, they couldn't even spell "upholsterer", the next minute they were one. My grandmother eventually divorced the husband, but she kept the upholstery shop.

And as Paul Harvey would say "And now you know............"

[kodydog]

I met a man who was the plant manager for Hickory Business Furniture in Hickory NC. I told him I needed a job and he offered me one as an apprentice upholsterer in his fast growing and fast paced company. That was 31 years ago, I was 25 years old

The coincidence is my grandfather worked for Sligh Furniture in Holland Michigan as a wood worker and his brother was an upholsterer. But this had little influence on my life. My grandfather rarely talked about his job.

[Darren Henry]

My story is pretty boring compared to Dennis' , but I'll re tell it too.

In the spring of '94 I got laid off from my job as an orthopaedic shoe maker for lack of work. That left me with 5 or 6 places in Canada to apply to of which only 1 or 2 interested me and I loved Kenora so I hung up my apron. I spent that summer working on the lake with my buddy Jerry. By march of '95 things were getting a little thin and ice out was a couple of months away so I was doing some sewing for a lady I knew who had a small business making bags and purses etc...One day in early March I was out at her shop which was over top an upholstery shop, and we went downstairs for coffee with the rag tackers. She introduced me to the owner and we talked for a while.. Turns out one of his guys had just given his notice. We made medicine, and I was there for 5 years.

I spent a year working for friends who had a sign shop while I got my business up and running after I decided to move on, then slit my own throat by undercharging and had to take a day job and work out of my 7X12 uninsulated workshop at home if I was in town. When that job petered out I took this job here in Brandon to be closer to my family. I wish it had come up a little sooner---Mom died the week before I was to start. That'll be 5 years come May.

[cajunpedaler]

I am an only child of an only child (my mother).  On that side of the family, it was all girls..and everyone sewed. The matriarchal aunt could look at you and whip up an outfit that fit perfectly without a pattern.

On my dads' side of the family, very mechanically inclined relatives.  Could make a cardboard box run like a Rolls Royce.  
We were all poor, so had to sew and fix everything ourselves.  I did not know that someone could call an outsider to repair something.  My upbringing said you tore down the broken item, discovered what was wrong and fixed it yourself.

Fast forward, in my younger days, I worked for a dentist for nearly ten years. (I got the job because on my application I listed sewing as a hobby and it indicated to my boss that I would be detail oriented)  One night at a company dinner, all the wives were sitting around gabbing and one woman said "need to get home and make some Cabbage Patch doll clothes.  I blurted out (without thinking) "ugh, that's too small, I want to make BIG things, like...sofas" On the drive home, I pondered why on earth I said something so STOOPID, a sofa? com'on Perry...So I followed my curiousity.  

Found an older established upholsterer in the area...walked in and explained my interest.  For a solid year, he let me sit and watch at his shop.  I never apprenticed, or helped, just watched. That was in the eighties, and in South Louisiana, industry tanked, my dentist boss lost patients and closed the practice.  After that year, I took out on my own, worked out of the front room in my house...and the rest is history. Here I am nearly 30 yrs later...still at it.  Still learning.

Interesting aside..Had I known my first marriage was going to fail soon, I would have followed my dentist boss, but I didn't so I all of a sudden was a single mom, scared, broke and hungry and here I am world!  Hear me roar (whine, cry, complain, etc)

From the upholstery trade, I discovered that I also had some talent for carpentry, so I've bought sold flipped a few houses and built both of my own houses that the current husband and I live in.  I go back and forth between needle/thread and sawdust.

Neither of my girl children have picked up the interest, desire or skills to sew...damn electronic media captured them and so I fear the knack will die out with me.

[MinUph]

Some good stories here. I guess I can add mine to it.
  When I was little my father was an Upholsterer. He worked as a cutter at a shop in our downtown area. I would go there after church school (grammar school age) and hang out till we went home. He started working on the side in the basement of our house. Where I would watch him tack rags on frames. He would let me pound tacks into a board once in awhile. When I got a little older I didn't much care to hang around the house, I wanted to play and we all did outside for the day. When I got out of High school in 69 I met with a guy to get into the high voltage trade as an electrician. I did't follow through with that. So I did menial jobs, apprenticed at cutting up cows and chickens, painted houses. Until I got the nerve to say to my father "I want to learn this trade" He never wanted me to it was too dirty of a job he would say. He was right back then it was. Hair, straw, dirt. And when I asked him this he said no. So walked away. Went back and told him if you won't teach me I'm gonna learn somewhere else. So he gave in. That was 46 years ago. I worked for like 50 bucks a week for what seemed like ever. But we had fun and it was all good. Now I make a little more but not a hell of lot more lol. But I love the work and plan on doing it for as long as I can.

[Mike]

mine went like this .
I worked for my fathers construction company 1989 he had a accident and was paralyzed and was home with nothing to do so he started messing with my moms ( who died a year earlier) sewing machine fixing cloths and such then he asked me to take thhe canvas off his boat so he could copy it making new he did and decided to open a little shop down at the bay on the lake and did repair to boat canvas's  he hired a kid to help him when he got more work and boats needing covers so id stop by his little shop on my way home from working to see what he was up to that winter not working construction I hung out at the shop using the machice a used walker he bought so come spring I was sewing well and my dad decided he could work on boats and I took over and never went back to construction and it was the best thing to happen ive never been out of work since 25 years has just flew by

[sofadoc]

So me Mike, and Paul were all exposed to the high-flying world of upholstery by our parents. Ed had it in his blood, and just didn't know it. I think Bobbin learned her early sewing skills from her mom as well. Chris and Gene probably learned it in prison. They could've very easily chosen to press license plates instead (just kidding guys.......I'm sure that you were much more concerned about not dropping the soap).

Like Virginia, I have 2 daughters that have zero interest in learning the trade. So just wondering, anyone here passing the torch? Or do you personally know any tackers that are grooming a descendent?

[Darren Henry]

anyone here passing the torch?

My step sons both got sucked into that same mind numbing vortex as Perry's girls. If it doesn't have a keep pad or voice recognition they're hooped. It could be genetic too---their father is mechanically challenged, and I had to take their mother's scissors privileges away before I gave up trying to train her.

[Mike]

my dad was just trying it after he was in a wheelchair and he couldn't do it.   my son came to try it after I had a stroke but he had no interest in learning it wansnt what he  though it was going to be  and left , its a shame he would be better off.

[Mojo]

Prison ??????

You been doing background checks on me again ? Sewing back then sure beat spending time with Big Bubba.

:)

Chris