Upholstery class Week 5

I decided to do the sewing of my skirt and the strips for my welting at home before class.

There are limited sewing machines and I figured there would be waiting going on while we shared

so I figured I'd get done what I could in advance.

It was a good decision.

There was an awesome tutorial for sewing bias strips that I used and it worked like a charm.

tutorial

(I originally found a youtube video that showed it but now I can't find it to save my life!)

Unfortunately I tried to help another girl in class to use this same method and we screwed it up.

So I felt bad because I basically caused her to have extra work instead of less work.

DOH!

Traffic was unbelievably bad this week.

I left my house around 3:30 and planned to run a few errands and do some shopping before heading down to Boston.

After it took me an hour to get to the exit to head up to my shopping, I decided to go straight into the city.

It was an awful drive.

I saw 3 or 4 accidents on the side of the road

I had 2 different police/rescue vehicles come past me (in the bumper to bumper traffic) 

and I saw 2 very near misses as far as accidents go.

Crazy.

And it wasn't raining or snowing or anything!

It was bizarre.

But I arrived safe and sound and about 15 minutes early

(having left my house 3 hours before)

One thing I haven't mentioned is that, due to the spot I chose for setting up my work area,

I somehow was chosen, week after week

as the "example" piece. 

I think my location was just convenient to the spot where the teacher set her bags

and I'm also sort of in the center of the room.

Anyway, when she wants to show us a new step or skill she tends to choose my project to show it on.

Plusses:

 I get to see, on my own project, how a professional would do it

I often get to go first when using a tool, since she starts on mine

She has done some of the work for me

Minuses:

She has done some of the work for me, so I'm not doing it myself and, therefore, learning

Sometimes when she's demonstrating, she's also talking and I think she's sometimes rushing a bit...so I feel like I get a slightly lower quality than I would if I took my time myself.

Occasionally she does the whole thing as she demonstrates it, and I have nothing left to do.

Again, I'm here to learn so that's not really that helpful to me.

Soooo....

since I arrived early this week I got set up at the sewing maching to make my welting and sew my skirt together.

She starts doing it to "show me how"

but people start trickling in

and so as each new person comes in she just keeps demonstrating

and she sewed the whole thing.

I didn't even touch the machine.

I got a few cracks from other students about me getting my project done for me

which I understand... but I really wish it hadn't happened!

Anyway, she actually sewed the welting together and attached it to the skirt all in one step,

which was pretty cool.

After that I attached the skirt to the project.

Tacking first to hold in place and then stapling like mad.

Here she is showing me how

A view of my tack holding it in place, followed by staples.

The final step is to cover the bottom with black fabric to hide the bottom and make it all look finished.

and then to put cardboard strip along the edge.

this also covers the edge and I think helps give the skirt a crisper look.

I had to do some piecing around the legs

 Finished leg area and cardboard strip.

And the finished product

(except for some steaming)

I have already signed up for the next class.  It starts in January and I'll be bringing in my own chair.

We'll strip it down to the wood frame and build it back up!

I'm pretty darn excited.

I do have one more week of class, but I'll just be "helping" other people finish.

I left my project there so we could take a group photo when we are all done.