Upholstery Method - HOW TO MAKE A BOXED AND WELTED CUSHION FOR UPHOLSTERY

[Music] hi today we are going to walk you through the whole process for sewing a boxed and welted cushion now there's all kinds of variations on how you can do this but we hope that you'll find this particular method relatively straightforward and easy to follow even if you're somewhat new to sewing for upholstery so let's go ahead and get started the first thing we need to do is determine the finished size for our cushion our sample will be 20 inches wide 22 inches deep and we'll finish the boxing at three and a quarter inch for a nice snug fit on our four inch foam once we know the finished size of our cushion we're ready to plan a cut list our cushion has four basic parts the face panels the boxing the zipper panel and the welt cord for the face panels We'll add a half inch on every side for seam allowance making them 23 by 21. our boxing will get one half inch top and bottom for seam allowance and we'll add the front and sides together to determine total width we'll cut two pieces for the zipper panel the same height as our boxing for the width we'll use our cushion width plus 12 inches for welt cord we'll need two strips one and a half inches wide and enough to go around the cushion plus about six inches it doesn't hurt to have a little extra once we have all the dimensions it's time to plan a cut diagram we'll give you the layout for our sample cushion but it's really important that you learn to do your own diagrams grab some graph paper a cup of coffee and start pushing those pieces around until they fit you'll have to decide the direction of your fabric whether or not you want to bias cut your welt cord and if you want to save fabric by joining your boxing in multiple pieces like we did because there are so many variables every cushion really is a little different and that's why it's important that you learn to do your own layout if you plan on making lots of cushions one tool I would recommend is the one and a half inch welt cord ruler from fabric Supply in Minneapolis it really does speed the project up as you cut out each piece label it on the back on the front edge so you'll know what it is and what direction it goes okay so to find the front of my cushion I'm gonna flip it around so we're starting in the back with the face of the fabric up I'm going to find the end of my welt cord I want to give myself about a two inch tail past the center notch and I'm going to start stitching about two inches this way too so how that tail loose for later when I want to come around and join it I'm going to get that under the foot and I'll be stitching just right on top of my stitching from before hang on to our threads sure I don't have to back stitch because I'm going to come across it again but I am going to keep my edges together as I go [Music] and that will give me should give me a nice even half inch seam allowance now as I get to the end I'm going to find like a half inch back so I'm going to turn my corner let's make a little Notch there and that will help me pivot but I'm also going to go ahead and give myself a little notch on either side and that's just going to give it a little bit more Flex so when I come to the corner I'm going to sneak it in just a little bit to round my corner off and when I get there I'll drop my needle lift the foot and pivot all my pieces so I can go ahead and bring my welt cord to the edge again you say to round that off just a little bit continue on my Merry way okay so here we go again I'm going to clip at about a half inch back and then also a couple Clips before and after just to help it Bend as I come up I'll go ahead and just swing my weld cord in just a tick drop my needle lift my foot and pivot all those pieces bring my welt cord back around and keep driving and you can barely see here I do have a tape here for my half inch guide it's going to help [Music] now let's look at there's lots of ways that we can end this here I'm just going to show you a really simple way today [Music] you can explore other options so right at that Center Notch can you see I clipped these down let me even clip them down just a little more so we have maybe each piece about an inch past Center and for this join that doesn't have to be precise I'm going to open this up and pull my fabric back and then I'm just going to cut my welt cord blush with my Center Notch I'm going to do the same thing on the other side and cut that flush with my Center notch and then I'll go ahead and pull my pieces of fabric back down and all I'm going to do is just swing them down to catch them in my Stitch line see that so they kind of spiral together this one down this one on top and the fabric tail down so you just Stitch right across there I'll take a look at it and see and now I will back stitch to lock everything up that gives us just a little spiral joint and it's very visible um but it doesn't look bad and it's in it's a really simple way to join that so if you're new to sewing um you know maybe just try that one for now and then as you get more comfortable you can try some of the more complex ways to close the back of your cushion all right so we're going to start we have our face panel and we have our front with our notch and we're going to take our boxing I'm going to line up notch to Notch and that's where we're going to start all those edges together I don't need to nope I don't need to back stitch this time because I'm going to be back here again but I just do need to line up make sure my Center notches are lined up okay foreign foreign I get close to the corner I'm going to find really my Pivot Point and it's a little bit of a soft curve but I want to find the center of that pivot little clip bold and now that notch is going to be carried to the other side so the notch that I have to turn the corner here I also have a corresponding notch on the opposite Edge and that's going to help me line up my bottom face panel when I come around so now just like we did with the welt cord when I get to that Notch I'm going to drop my needle lift my foot and pivot my pieces re-stack them up so that my edges are together and then continue down the side and I'm actually going to go only just a little past halfway and I'll leave this hole and just flapping there okay and you can trim threads as you go or when you get back around to them I'm going to flip this whole thing and start at that Center again so now I'm just going the other way start at my center Front go one way and then go the other and I'm overlapping with my first round of stitching here can you see that and this time this time I'm going to back stitch to lock threads up keeping my edges together it's a little trickier this time when I get to the end because my boxing is on the bottom but the idea is the same a little notch coming right into the corner where I plan to turn fold it in half and give myself the corresponding notch on the other side of my boxing just of reference point and you can see with my edges together I'm driving right on top of my Stitch line again to that corner drop my needle lift my foot and pivot all my pieces to bring them back together a little past halfway back stitch if we want and let's get that out of here and take a peek so my front is sewn together and my boxing is just hanging let's go to the back I'm going to start our zipper just the same way my zipper has a center notch and we'll go ahead and line that up Center Notch to Center notch slide everything onto the foot and off we go and we're just going to treat this whole zipper like it's a piece of boxing so again we get to the corner we'll make ourselves a notch fold it back it's a little trickier here because the way we've made our zipper it's double thick but the idea is the same drop the needle turn the corner and for now I'm going to bring these together and I'm only just going to go maybe an inch or two I just want to I want to turn the corner I don't want to leave everything hanging let's go back let's do the other side [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] so once our boxing and our zipper are started now we have to sort out this mess where they're going to come together and the way that we are creating this cushion that extra fabric is just going to get incorporated into a pocket you can see that our zipper tab will just disappear whoop into it when the when the cushion's closed and that's a little bit more forgiving than than some of the other ways that you can create a cushion so um we're going to put all these pieces together boxing and zipper and the first thing we have to do is join those so we'll get that whole cushion out of our way boxing on bottom zipper pieces on top face to face and I like to put a little tab of fabric right across my zipper teeth kind of sandwich that in there I'm gonna get in here and I'm going to back stitch when I start a little back stitch right across my zipper and then I'll backstitch at the end if anything splits on this cushion we don't want it to be our zipper and lose our tab and we can trim off the extra zipper tail there okay once it's joined together foreign fabric and see my joins in there too so I'll just flatten that out you can steam it if you like but usually by the time you sew it down it's going to be just fine but I'm going to fold all my edges together until this whole thing lays flat all my edges and that's going to close up my Loop let me let me sew it and show you what it looks like here your zipper should not fold only your boxing next Stitch all my edges together as you can see why it's nice to have an industrial machine because that gets to be really a lot of layers in there if you have a lighter fabric you can get through that on your residential but this one's pretty heavy [Music] all right and that is going to be our completed pocket on this side let's go ahead and catch the other side up [Music] [Applause] [Music] now all we have left to do is to put on our bottom panel which should just be a simpler version of what we did already because our whole boxing Loop is already joined so we're going to go back to the center Front boxing and face panel Center Notch is lined up [Music] edges together now this time I don't have to stop to make any notches but what I do need to do is keep an eye on to see that they're going to come together at that corner and just because you cut everything the same don't assume that they're going to automatically line up because fabric can be very knotty when you're sewing it and it can sort of move around so we're looking pretty good right now but you do want to keep an eye on that and just check to make sure that your notches are going to hit at the corner and if they're not sometimes you can just manipulate them to come together a little bit if they're really off you might have to stop and figure out was it a cutting air was it a sewing error but hopefully our notches land right at the corner and we'll get in there drop our needle lift our foot and turn that corner and you want to look look at that how my pieces can kind of get caught and folded back so you want to make sure that you get all those edges press down together and it's a lot to keep track of when you're new to cushions but after a while you get used to uh what you're supposed to be looking at now I am still even though we don't have to make that pocket I'm only going to go down to about here so I can still leave leave my pocket loose is that still where I'll plan to finish so that any little wiggle room that's left I can just I can just work it into my fold please just like I did on the first face panel [Music] start back at that Center [Music] back stitch it line up my corner that looks pretty good keep all my edges together and I'm going to try and stay really tight on top of my stitching from before wrestling around make sure nothing's pinched and keep driving right down my Stitch line [Music] okay let's pick it up from the back and I'm going to take a little time to trim my welt join so that I can see all my edges keep them together I'm gonna have to find my Center notch in there there it is here it is [Music] foreign that corner Notch is lining up nicely now if this is your first cushion don't be one bit surprised if your notches don't line up takes us a while to get cushions to cooperate now as I come around here I don't have to stop to join the boxing and zipper I just have to take what's left and work everything in flat and right along my edges there we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] that is everything thank you for joining us I hope that you learned something new and I hope that you keep exploring all the variations that are out there for boxed and welted cushions maybe next time you want to try a different way to join your wealth car maybe there's a zipper method that you'd like better there's really no end to the variations that you can explore to make your perfect box belted cushion so do get out there find books subscribe to other YouTube channels and if you can get into a class and if you enjoyed this particular video please do subscribe so that you see new videos as they become available foreign [Music]

Channel: The Workroom Channel

Views: 447,717

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Id: 5drVgRcGd6c

Length: 24min 19sec (1459 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022