Have you got some bits and no idea what to do with them or have you got nothing and wondering what some of the essential you might need to start upholstering yourself? Some upholstery equipment can look some what torturous... fancy a quick tour of my fave tools??
1- Upholstery Skewers, handy little fellas, like long thick pins that can help you mark out stitching as well as holding heavy weight material together.
2- Springing Needle, this slightly brutal looking needle is for tie-ing in springs onto webbing, mainly used in traditional upholstery but has a sharp chamfered point that cuts threw the webs.
3- Pincers, little grabbers especially good for pinching out broken staples, you need ones with a flat top that can get super close to the frame.
4- Buttoning Needle, long needles that can get all the way threw a sofa or chair and pull the thread that holds the buttons. You can get a variety of lengths depending on what your working on. Can also used for stitching threw hessian and fibre on traditional work.
5- Slipping Needle, lovely curved needles, used for finishing off edges with a slip stitch, comes in a variety of thicknesses and sizes.
6- Snips, these where something I thought I could do without and didn't buy until recently but they are a game-changer when it comes to making small accurate cuts on thick fabric, great for corners when making cushions.
7- Magnetic Hammers, this pick up tacks, so you can hold fabric in place with one hand and pick up and hammer in the tack with the other- kinda an essential basic bit of kit especially with traditional work.
8- Tack Lifter, using your mallet you knock the tack lifter into the shaft of the tack to remove from the frame, always try and rip to the grain of the wood to avoid damaging the frame.
9- Staple lifter, again this is in combination with your mallet to lift and remove staples.