Slip Cover Sewing Support Offered

[baileyuph]

Via phone, a slip sewer asked for sewing jobs, that is if I cut. 

My response was do your own cutting, reponse indicated didn't know how.  I suggested maybe going in another direction, not sure there is much market for the skill being offered.

Did I tell her right?

Doyle

[gene]

Howdy,

If this is about furniture slip covers, I may be able to shed some light on the topic.

There is a lady here in town who goes out to your house with a bolt of fabric. She cuts the fabric and pins it together to make the slip cover. She is pinning the fabric wrong side out  over the furniture.

She then takes this bundle of fabric pieces and pins to another lady who sews the entire thing into one big slip cover.

I have seen some of these slip covers and they are not too bad.

I recently heard that the sewing lady was getting very old and the slip cover pinning lady was getting into faux painting.

Anyway, I wonder if your caller was looking for this type of work to sew?

gene

[sofadoc]

If she doesn't do her own cutting, why does she limit her credentials to just slip covers?
She should advertise her services as Auto, marine, furniture, drapery, awning, rubber baby buggy bumpers, etc...

I had a guy ask me for a job last year. He said that he ran his own upholstery shop for 10 years. I asked him what kind of sewing machine he had. He replied "Oh, I don't do any sewing".

While most shop owners would ask "What experience do you have?"  or "Do you have references?"  My first question is always something about what kind of machine they sewed on. If they can't immediately rattle off the brand and model #, that tells me all I need to know.

My wife helped me in the shop for years. She was a wonderfull sewer, but she had absolutely no cutting skills whatsoever. Sometimes, I had to work twice as hard just to stay ahead of her.

Anyone can be quickly trained to sit behind a sewing machine and mash the foot pedal. I think you told her right.

[Rich]

Anyone can be quickly trained to sit behind a sewing machine and mash the foot pedal. I think you told her right.

Really?
I always thought the learning curve for sewing was a couple of years on average.

If her past experience was in a large shop Doyle, she may have been just a cog in a wheel so to speak, where everyone had their specialty.
I think it mostly depends on what you need.
Rich

[scottymc]

Most upholsterers in oz have not got a clue how to sew, they take it to a machinist(it's womens work) this is especially so in the cities. In the bigger shops there are tradesmen who have no idea about cutting as there is a guy to do that and that's all he does.

[sofadoc]

Sewing is a skilled trade that involves measuring, patterning, and cutting, as well as the actual adjusting and running of the machine.
Just running a sewing machine can be taught in short order. Factories hire unskilled sewers all the time.

[Rich]

Oh, I guess I just learned something new. :)
Rich

[baileyuph]

Rich,

I never saw this lady, she called me out of the phone book and asked if I knew of anyone needing a person to sew slips, she indicated in the past she did some sewing for slip covers tha a cutter had went to the chair and pinned and cut.

I told her I did not know of anyone in that type of business anymore and I suggested she might as well learn how to pin and cut (pattern).  She didn't show confidence that she could do patterning.

As a follow on question:  Do you see or hear of slip people conducting that type of business this lady said she had worked in.  Actually, she worked from her home and sewed whatever the person patterned, pinned and cut that is.

I don't hear near as much about the slip cover industry today compared to years back.  Gene is involved in slips but he does his work, all in his studio.  So, even he doesn't go to the chair or whatever the piece is to perform patterning and then goes back to his shop to sew.

Doyle

[crosjn]

Every shop does it differently.  There aren't particular right or wrong answers.  However, when I've had people come in who can only sew and can't cut or make patterns, I generally find their real experience is in garments.  They may make or have made slip covers but not as their primary business.

In my area, there is a lot of competition.  Someone who isn't familiar with the in's and out's of upholstery isn't worth hiring.  And I've learned it takes one or two bad reviews from "average" work online to do damage to my overall business.

I don't agree that anyone can sit behind a sewing machine and seam.  Not at all.  Getting the tension right to eliminate puckers, doing corners properly, etc...  Like most trades, the knowledge itself isn't hard, but it takes practice, experience and a willingness to do it over and over.

Jeff

[sofadoc]

I don't agree that anyone can sit behind a sewing machine and seam.  Not at all.  Getting the tension right to eliminate puckers, doing corners properly, etc...

When I was a kid, every woman in town either was a housewife, a school teacher, or they worked in one of the many sewing factories. There were also a couple of furniture factories.

When the factories began closing one by one, many of them tried their hand at the upholstery business. Some opened a store front shop, others just worked out of their garage. Still others got jobs at existing shops.

They quickly found out that their years of experience sitting behind a sewing machine did them absolutely no good. Our town went from having 2 store front shops to 8, and countless other home based shops. Within a year, they had all failed. Some failed before their big Yellow Pages ad even made it to print.

The point that I was trying to make in my earlier posts, was that anyone can be taught to operate a sewing machine in a week or 2. But that doesn't mean that you can waltz into an upholstery shop, and start cranking out slip covers. And if I have to block it out for them, I'd just as soon sew it myself.