Classic Sofa

Times: 9.00-4.00 weekdays only
Duration: 4 days on any weekdays, subject to availability
Includes: Everything you need to make the chair except 4 metres of fabric and fire retardant interliner if required
Cost: £450

If you love the classic design of a cocktail chair but need to fill a slightly bigger space, then you need the Sidecar in your life! Designed by our Creative Director Anthony Devine, this piece is bound to be a talking point in your home. Keep the fabric plain and the piece classic or be bold and make it a statement, either way you will receive a masterclass in modern upholstery tuition. You will start day one with full staple gun induction, ensuring you feel comfortable and ready to tackle your project. You will then be furnished with a brand-new frame, made by our team of expert frame-makers. Our teachers will then guide you step-by-step through each element until your Sidecar is ready to take home and enjoy. Throughout the course you will learn how to web, hessian and foam your project. You will be introduced to a variety of modern upholstery methods including making piping, potential buttoning, applying backtack and plygrip. You will also be able to use our large range of paints and waxes to finish your legs to match your chosen fabric.

This course is available to book on any 4 weekdays and runs from 9.00-4.00. Please select the week you would like to commence the course from the dropdown box and we will be in touch to finalise which 4 day suit you best.

Availability

All of our daytime courses are flexible, which means that they can be taken on any weekdays to suit you and spread over one or even several weeks. If you wish to take all your dates in one week, then please select that week from the dropdown box. If, however, you wish to spread the course over more than one week, then please do contact us via phone or email to discuss availability. If dates do not appear in the dropdown box, it does not necessarily mean that we do not have those dates available, it is always worth giving us a shout.

Please note that 4 days is the average completion time for this course but we do not guarantee that you will finish in 4 days as everyone works at different speeds. If you do need an extra day these are chargeable at £85/ day.

Times: 9.00-4.00 weekdays only
Duration: 40 days
Cost: £2988 divided into 4 payments of £747

Want to start a new career in upholstery? Then why not study with the UK’s leading modern upholstery school!

We have designed our unique 40 day Business Course in Modern Upholstery for those who want to learn the comprehensive skills required to be able to go on and start a business. Our course is taught at our fully equipped Manchester workshop and is carefully structured to ensure that you will cover all the key skills needed to go on and tackle a range of complex upholstery projects.

This course takes the student through a set programme of practical work, starting with a basic drop in seat dining pad and progressing all the way through to a large wingback chair. Ministry of Upholstery is a modern upholstery school, so you will be coached through all modern upholstery skills required to complete a large range of projects. Although the majority of the course focuses on modern upholstery methods, we also understand the importance of traditional upholstery and so to ensure that you cover all main techniques, you will complete one of our cocktail chairs using mainly traditional methods.

This unique course also allows for you to bring a selection of your own pieces for re-upholstery. Once you have gained the basic skills and feel confident, you will be encouraged to bring your own pieces. This is known as free learning and you can even start to bring customer jobs. This important part of the course allows you to start to think about your own style and the focus your business will take. You may even wish to design your own fabric and use this! Ministry of Upholstery have recently invested in the latest digital printing technology, allowing our students the opportunity to print their own fabric designs in-house. This course even includes a theory session based around the basics of Photoshop and creating your own designs!

Finally, you will finish this course with 5 days in your own self-contained workshop, known as a Pod, where you be encouraged to work autonomously and put everything you have learned into practice. Upon completion of this you will be awarded the Ministry of Upholstery ‘Graduate’ seal of approval, which you can display on your social media and website to show people that you have trained with the best modern upholstery school in the UK!

Throughout the course you will be encouraged to build up a photographic and video portfolio of your work, which will document the techniques used and skills gained. This record will provide an invaluable reference tool to enable you to go on to independent work. You will also take part in a range of classroom sessions covering the following less hands-on side of running an upholstery business:

• Fire Regulations
• Workshop set up at home and introduction to compressors
• Fabric Knowledge
• Job Costing
• Introduction to Sewing Machines
• Fabric Design
• Social Media for Business
• Fabric Measuring
• Accounting
• Plus more

We work to a set programme to ensure that you complete all key skills within our skills matrix.  Throughout your course, you will complete the following practical projects, all of which are included in your course:

Module 1	Drop in seat dining pad – all materials included
Module 2	Small shallow buttoned footstool – frame and materials supplied, you must supply fabric
Module 3	Large deep buttoned footstool – frame and materials supplied, you must supply fabric
Module 4	Wingback chair focusing on cap on arm and box seat cushion – frame and materials supplied, you must supply fabric
Module 5	Wingback chair focusing on scroll arm, pattern matching and fixed seat – frame and materials supplied, you must supply fabric
Module 6	Cocktail chair using traditional methods – frame and materials supplied, you must supply fabric
Module 7	Free Learning – you will supply frames and fabric. All materials, except specialist foam, will be included
Module 8	Pod Time – you will supply frames and fabric. All materials are chargeable. We estimate the cost of this to be between £40 and £60.

These frames are all included in the cost and are brand new frames made by our expert frame-makers. Everything you require to upholster these jobs is also included in the cost of the course. You will only need to supply the fabric and any fire retardant interliner, should you require it. You will also be given a full induction in sewing and, as part of the course, you will make a buttoned scatter cushion. You will be required to supply a small selection of projects of your own choosing for your free learning and one piece for your 5 day Pod time. These can be pieces that you source or we can provide you with a new frame at extra cost. The pieces that you make are all yours to keep. If you sell these you can more than cover the cost of the course as we estimate the market value around £4000!

Techniques and skills covered

• Full health & safety induction and introduction to tools and materials
• Sewing machine induction
• Shallow buttoning
• Deep buttoning
• Facings
• Borders
• Cutting and applying foam
• Scatter cushion
• Box cushion
• Pattern matching
• Fluting
• Costing jobs
• Pleating
• Tool selection
• Stripping
• Piping
• Arms
• Seats
• Applying ply grip
• Applying backtack strip
• Slip stitching
• Double piping
• Fabric costings
• Fire regulations
• Close nail studding
• Sprung seats
• Sewing
• Webbing
• Cutting
• Measuring fabric and fabric guide
• Use of machinery
• Workshop set up advice
• Information about setting up in business
• Fabric design and printing

If you are looking for a course which focuses on smaller projects, then why not consider our brand new Access Course in Modern Upholstery

Availability
This course can be taken on a totally flexible basis. The core hours are 9.00-4.00 Monday to Friday but you are not required to attend 5 days per week. You can even do this course on a day/ week basis if this suits you so please call us for a chat if you would like to discuss this in more detail, we’re always happy to help. Please note that there is no specified timeframe within which you have to complete the 40 day course as it is entirely flexible.

Booking is simple, to book a place you can pay your first instalment of £700 using the Buy button on this page and selecting the first week of attendance. You can then call or email us to book the rest of your time.* If you wish to book odd days or discuss availability, then please email us on  or call us on 0161 222 4243.

*Please note that we have a maximum class size of 16 and classes are booked on a first come, first served basis. If you want to check availability for the whole course before you book then please contact us.

Payment
We appreciate that this course is a large amount of money to pay in one go so we have devised a payment scheme that allows you to pay for it in four smaller, more manageable instalments.

Upon booking your first week, which you can do online, you are required to pay the first instalment of £747. Before you attend your 6^th day you are required to pay the next instalment of £747. The same again before you attend your 11^th and 16^th days. This allows you to stagger the payments according to your attendance rate. If you attend once per week for example, then you’ll only make a payment every 5^th week!

Although this course is about focusing on skills and not completed projects, we estimate the total value of the products you will make throughout the duration of the course will exceed £4000!

Times: 9.00-4.00
Duration: 7 days, weekdays only
Includes: Everything you need to make the wingback chair except your fabric and fire retardant interliner if required

If you want to get stuck straight into a meaty project without the hassle and time of having to strip an existing project, then the Queen Anne wingback chair is a large project that covers many techniques.  As with all of our courses you will start your first day with a thorough induction, where we will introduce you to the pneumatic staple gun. This chair can be tackled in different ways, depending on the skills you wish to cover or the way you wish your chair to look. Take a look at the pictures above of the various ways past students have tackled the piece for some inspiration! Over 7 days* you will construct the whole piece from bare frame to completion and all you need to bring with you is the fabric. At the end of the 7 days you will walk away with one of these stunning armchairs for your home and a whole raft of upholstery skills.

For this project you will require 7 metres of plain fabric or 8 metres of patterned or striped/ checked.

Availability

All of our daytime courses are flexible, which means that they can be taken on any weekdays to suit you and spread over one or even several weeks. If you wish to take all your dates in one week, then please select that week from the dropdown box. If, however, you wish to spread the course over more than one week, then please do contact us via phone or email to discuss availability. If dates do not appear in the dropdown box, it does not necessarily mean that we do not have those dates available, it is always worth giving us a shout.

*Please note that 7 days is the average completion time for this project. We do not guarantee that you will complete in this time, as everyone works at different speeds. If you need an extra day this will be chargeable at £85/ day.

Times: 9.00-4.00 weekdays only
Duration: 10 days on any weekdays, subject to availability
Includes: Everything you need to make the sofa except approx. 14 metres of fabric and fire retardant interliner if required

The Daddy of all sofas! It’s bold and beautiful and will pack a punch in any house! Have you always dreamed of owning your own Chesterfield style sofa, well now not only can you have the sofa of your dreams, but you can also say “I made that!”. With the help of our expert tutors, benefitting from over 120 years of experience, you will be guided stage by stage through the process. This is a masterclass in deep-buttoning, but before that you’ll start with a brand new solid hardwood frame and cover the important processes leading up to the fabric. Then the main feature; all that beautiful button work. Whether you’re a total newbie, or you’ve got some upholstery experience and want to go to the next level, this is a great in-depth course, which will equip you with many transferable skills. We highly recommend it! Whilst you are totally welcome to take this course as a complete beginner, please be advised that it does contain some complex techniques and may take a day or 2 longer than the advertised 10 days in some cases. Extra days are chargeable at £85/day.

This course is available to book on any 10 weekdays and runs from 9.00-4.00. Please select the week you would like to commence the course from the dropdown box and we will be in touch to finalise your dates.

Availability

All of our daytime courses are flexible, which means that they can be taken on any weekdays to suit you and spread over one or even several weeks. If you wish to take all your dates in one week, then please select that week from the dropdown box. If, however, you wish to spread the course over more than one week, then please do contact us via phone or email to discuss availability. If dates do not appear in the dropdown box, it does not necessarily mean that we do not have those dates available, it is always worth giving us a shout.

Please note that 10 days is the average completion time for this course but we do not guarantee that you will finish in 10 days as everyone works at different speeds. If you do need an extra day these are chargeable at £85/ day.

Times: 9.00-4.00 weekdays only
Duration: 4 days
Includes: Everything you need to make the ottoman except 2 metres of fabric and fire retardant interliner if required

If you don’t have your own project and fancy a cheeky little 3 day course which allows you try your hand a spot of deep buttoning, then we are spoiling you with a choice of two; this and our Deep Buttoned Footstool! More or less the same as the deep buttoned footstool in size and design, but with an added bonus of some storage inside! You simply need to bring three metres of fabric and 2 metres of lining cloth (or you can get that from us) and we’ll supply all the rest! This course serves as a slightly more in-depth introduction to upholstery and will cover making and applying piping, back-tacking, slip-stitching, button-making, deep buttoning and lining.

This course is available to book for any 4 weekdays and runs from 9.00-4.00. Please select the week you would like from the dates available and we will be in touch to see which 4 days suit you.

Availability

All of our daytime courses are flexible, which means that they can be taken on any weekdays to suit you and spread over one or even several weeks. If you wish to take all your dates in one week, then please select that week from the dropdown box. If, however, you wish to spread the course over more than one week, then please do contact us via phone or email to discuss availability. If dates do not appear in the dropdown box, it does not necessarily mean that we do not have those dates available, it is always worth giving us a shout.

Please note that the 4 days is the average completion time for this course but we do not guarantee that you will finish in 4 days as everyone works at different speeds. If you do need an extra day these are chargeable at £85/ day.