Fitting slipcovers in a customer's home

[bobbin]

Do any of you who make slipcovers fit them in a customer's home?  It's not my first choice by a longshot, but I see it as a necessary evil.  I've now done 3 that way.  I'm pretty organized in general, but working "in the field" certainly reveals chinks in the armour pretty quickly. 

Results have been good, but the pin fitting is time consuming any way you slice it.  Any thoughts on how to streamline the operation?  I have precut blank pcs. and cut on site; I prefer the former. 

[Rich]

I don't do furniture slipcovers, but I've patterned many healthcare chairs and tables on site. What material are you using to make the pattern?
Rich

[bobbin]

Rich, I use the slipcover material itself.  I cut pcs. that are roughly the size of the panels I've measured and I pin fit and mark those on the piece in question.  It takes a fair amount of time but it does eliminate the need to pattern and then transfer the pattern to the slipcover fabric. 

I don't particularly like having to cut pcs. on a customer's floor, nor do I really like working in front of an audience, but sometimes the logistics of transporting furniture to my shop are impossible. 

I haven't had to travel too far thusfar, but am toying with the idea of a basic charge to pin fit in a customer's home.  Any thoughts on this?

[sofadoc]

I haven't had to travel too far thusfar, but am toying with the idea of a basic charge to pin fit in a customer's home.  Any thoughts on this?

Are you talking about an EXTRA charge for pin fitting?

If so, what if the customer says "I don't want to pay the extra charge, so you can take the furniture back to your shop"?

[byhammerandhand]

"I don't really have the means to take your sofa back to the shop and store it for free, but feel free to bring it in to me.  I will call you the day when you can pick it back up for return." :D :D

If so, what if the customer says "I don't want to pay the extra charge, so you can take the furniture back to your shop"?

Seriously, I do 98% of my work right in the customer's home (I do upholstery repair, wood repair, frame repairs, mechanism repairs,  cleaning, etc.)    Most of my jobs last less than 2 hr and most of those are 1 hour or less.   It simply makes no sense to have an additional 2 hr in travel time (1/2 hr each way * 2) and risk transit damage.  I"d also need a bigger vehicle and a helper. Yes, I'm less efficient having to haul in tools and materials and sit on their floor doing the work than in a shop, but not that much less efficient. It is just part of the overheard and built into my service charges.

A lot of trades -- painters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC and appliance people have to work onsite and have similar issues.

A small percent of customers do "hovering."    I've gotten used to this.  I actually had to ask a woman once to have her move her elbow so I could spray a bit of lacquer on a table top.

[baileyuph]

Regarding doing furniture work in homes or away from the shop, I find it is more efficient doing them in their place because to pick it up and return it usually takes longer than doing the repair. 

What I do is gang that work together and do it in one mobile run.  I have a set of tools dedicated to that repair work stored in the service van. 

I don't mind doing mobil repairs at all, very lucrative part of the business these days.  There is a negative, negotiating the winter weather or heavy traffic during rush hours.  I know, some tell me they don't like mobil work either. 

Doyle

[baileyuph]

Back to the thread;

The more fitting you do in the home, the better you will get at it.

When I started in the business, we would fit several pieces in a day and then spend a day sewing in the shop before installing.

We used folding tables and that made the work easier.  Sometimes a portable machine was taken along.  It can be made to work.  Penny's and Sears, plus big department stores used to do a lot of slip covers this way.

Today, not as much is done in the home, gosh people are never home since everyone works. 

Doyle

[bobbin]

I have determined my hourly rate based on what I need to earn to live in the "style to which I've become accustomed".  I prefer to work in my shop (obviously) and a lot of the work I do must be done here (drapery work, cushions, canvas repair work/zippers).  I see skilled slipcover work as an area that offers potential for growth, but price is always going to be the deciding factor for a customer.  With the piece in my shop I am free to "tweak" fit before calling a customer and scheduling pick up/delivery.  Not so when working in the field where "tweaking" requires considerably more time and inconvenience.  The point of the exercise and this discussion is to refine my procedure enough to reduce travel time to two trips.  And then simply charge adequately for it.  (and keep a mileage log! which I don't presently do because the the "road show" is new to me). 

As Doyle pointed out, with experience comes the ability to sidestep common pitfalls.  And so it has been for me.  I will deliver another slipcover either this weekend or early next week and I will be interested to see how modifications to my pin fitting procedure pan out.  The project is a very heavy sleep sofa and the fabric is a handsome toile, requiring matching on the panels for the inside and outside back, as well as the deck. 

[gene]

I do not do slipcovers in the home. I bring the furniture into my studio.

However, I learned to make slipcovers from Karen Erickson's DVD's at http://slipcoveramerica.com.

Their server is down this morning. I don't know what that means.

Anyway, she has a great system for making slipcovers in the home. Here's a part of her system that she put on youtube, for making continuous welt cord. I use this technique when I make slipcovers in my studio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTWbRPv9HZo

gene

[Rich]

I haven't had to travel too far thusfar, but am toying with the idea of a basic charge to pin fit in a customer's home.  Any thoughts on this?

I once had a custom counter top made and the guy told me there would be a charge to come out and take measurements but that it would be applied to the work if I agreed to have it made. That sounded fair and that's how it was done. Nobody should work for nothing. I am assuming however, that since you have the customer's material to fit that you've already signed her up for the job. The time you spend fitting and travelling then would be built into the original estimate.
At a marine workshop years ago, a means of taking digital photos was explained which could then be uploaded to a computer and sent to a wide printer for making a paper pattern. I'm sure the technology for that is improved now and it probably means you'd have decide if the amount of work you're anticipating warrants the outlay in equipment.
Rich

[gene]

I recently saw a slip cover on a grand piano. Absolutely awesome! It had a matching slip cover on the piano bench.

Do you think it would matter what kind of fabric to use, in regards to scratches? Would it require a lining in regards to scratches?

gene

[bobbin]

I would probably line it with flannel or something similarly soft.  Was it corded on the seams?

[mike802]

Where I live most people have pickup trucks, or know someone who does, so getting the furniture to me usually is not a problem.  I prefer to work out of my studio because I do not have a dedicated vehicle outfitted with all the necessary tools to complete the job on site, nor do I get enough request for this type of work to make that kind of investment pay off.  I have found that when I am at the customers home, I always miss customers coming to my studio, it never fails, I can be dead for weeks, but once I leave to go on a call someone stops by. Contractors hire an answering service to deal with customer calls when they are out, another added expense.  Travel time can add up quickly, especially if you do not have the necessary tools and you have to go back to the shop to get something.  So I would say if someone is going to be serious about in home anything, they must have a dedicated service vehicle fully stocked with all necessary tools and materials, otherwise its only going to be a lesson in frustration.  The cost for doing work in someones home should be more than in your shop to cover travel expenses and vehicle maintenance.  Also theoretically if you could do 5 slip covers a week in home, you could possibly do 7 or 8 a week if all work was done in the shop and you could jump right on the next one.  I know it really sounds like I am against working in the customers home, but I'm not really, I just think you have to have your system all set up and the bugs worked out for it to be profitable.

[Joys Shop]

I found this on youtube
I prefer her way to make bias binding

admittedly, she is trying to sell her continuous binding guide, but it IS a good technique



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZfEKDvXPU

forgot to add the website

[bobbin]

Not at all, Mike.  I don't particularly like "takin' it on the road", but it's not because I'm not an organized worker and methodical.  It's more because, you can try something on to check fit if the chair is in your shop, you can't do that without adding a third trip when you're fitting in someone's home.  I have no desire to actually sew in someone's home so I pin fit, mark the pcs. and bring them home for assembly.  And like so many of us, there is usually something I wonder if I should change.  ;)

Your perspective is a good one, esp. your observation on economies of scale: in line, in the shop, means you can crank 'em right out, "no fuss, no muss".   Travel time, fuel/maintenance, and weather vagaries all add extra planning/time and that really does have to carry an extra charge when carefully considered and to quantify increased business expenses.