Love Seat

Times: 9.00-5.00
Duration: 2 days
Includes: Everything
Cost: £195 introductory price

If you have a passion for interiors and are interested in learning how you can create your own designs for use on upholstery, fabric, wallpaper or simply for artwork, then this is the course for you! During this two day Photoshop masterclass you will be will create four unique designs, which you can then apply to any textiles of your choice. Designed to be completely accessible for beginners, this class is taught by the super-talented Beth from @bob1325, whose ability to create visually striking pieces has seen her reap huge praise and accolade from the industry. You can check out her own designs here: www.bobo1325.com/

Day 1
Begins by flexing those design fingers and creating a stripe design, which will be developed by experimenting with different tools and filters. You will be encouraged to think about placement and colour harmonies. Developing on the basic skills learnt in the morning session, in the afternoon you will create a geometric based pattern. By the close of this first day, we will aim to teach you the basics on how to create a repeating pattern, how to experiment and manipulate using filters, blends and how to layer styles.

Day 2
Under Beth’s expert guidance you will delve into the world of botanicals and florals, using everything you learned on day one, to create a more complex repeat design. All motifs for this will be provided from our vector library. In the afternoon, which is the freestyle section, you will have the option to test your new-found design skills and design something completely unique to you. You will recolour and manipulate to create a design that suits your design aesthetic.

The small print

All designs created will be your property to take away and we will provide a USB for this purpose. You will be encouraged to bring some of your own images (photos/ artwork) for use in the freestyle section. Should you choose to do so, you will be able to have your designs printed in-house onto a selection of fabrics. This is not included in the course but can be added on at a cost of £45/ metre panel.

Times: 11.00-5.00
Duration: 2 days Sat & Sun
Includes: Everything except fabric, a guide will be sent in the booking confirmation

Want to create something different? Not quite a sofa, better than a stool; this unique frame was designed by our Creative Director; Anthony Devine for BBC’s Money for Nothing and quickly nicknamed the #stofa! It became so popular with our regular students, that we introduced it as a course and it has fast become one of our firm favourites due to the creative nature of the design and the variety of different ways it can be approached!

You will start the course by customising your legs to match your fabric choice, from a range of paints and waxes provided by us. You will then be taken through a thorough health & safety induction, during which you will be introduced to the pneumatic staple gun and shown how to safely operate it. After you are up to speed it is on with the upholstery. You will require no previous experience as Anthony will be leading this workshop and will guide you, step by step, through the exact process he used to make the TV ‘Stofa’!

You will learn a lot of techniques, from webbing, applying hessian, working with foam, cutting and applying fabric and this is also our first weekend course which can include an introduction to basic sewing! Class sizes will be kept small to maximise teaching time and at the end of the two days, the #stofa is yours to take home and enjoy! It is a very creative course as it can be upholstered in lots of different ways and using different methods and skills. Please have a look at the pictures to see how other students have approached the design for some inspiration. Full guidance on fabric will be sent in the booking confirmation.

The #stofa measures approx.:

• 1 metre 17cm in length
• 50cm wide
• 37cm in height

Times: 9.00-4.00 weekdays only
Duration: 15 days
Cost: £1425 divided into 3 payments of £475

Are you completely new to upholstery, thinking about our Business Course in Modern Upholstery but want to ease yourself in with some smaller projects, whilst developing a core set of transferable skills?
Or
Are you considering entering the world of upholstery but want to focus your efforts on smaller upholstered items?
Or
Do you already do some upholstery and want to take it to the next level and convert your hobby into a business?

Then this brand new course is the one for you!

Designed as a precursor to the Business Course, or as a course in its own right, we have developed this course after witnessing many Ministry of Upholstery students make very successful businesses by focusing on a smaller core set of products; such as footstools, dining chairs and headboards. The beauty of this is:

• They are small, so a kitchen table can provide sufficient working space
• They all focus around a core set of skills, which will be mastered during this course and refined very quickly through repetition
• These skills can be easily transferred from one project to another. For example: deep buttoning can be transferred from a footstool to a headboard and vice versa
• You will reduce your set-up costs by concentrating your efforts around a smaller set of products and
• In turn, this will maximise your profits.
• By taking this course before the full Business Course in Modern Upholstery, you can already be establishing a business, taking a wage and learning and developing your core set of skills, at the same time as developing new ones and expanding on your offering

This 15 day course is taught at our fully equipped, state of the art Manchester workshop and has been carefully structured so that you will cover a concise range of skills concentrated around a select few pieces of upholstery. The skills are transferable so actually, the range of projects which can tackled after this course is vast.

This course takes the student through a structured programme of practical work, the majority of which are taught using practice boards, which will also be finished as headboards to enable you to sell them or use them after the course.

On your first day you will be eased in with a thorough induction and introduction to the pneumatic staple gun and tools of the trade. Once you are up to speed and feel confident, we will provide you with a drop-in dining seat pad and our expert upholstery teachers will guide you step-by-step through each process until you complete the task. With this basic introduction under your belt you will move onto our contemporary stool, expanding on the basic prepping skills and introducing you to piping, borders and modern upholstery materials such as backtack strip. After this you will complete 5 practice boards/ headboards, which can be single or double headboard size. The first one will introduce you to shallow buttoning and borders. The second will be about mastering the skill of deep buttoning, the third a more modern take on buttoning and your first foray into sewing; the square buttoning technique. On the fourth board you will learn how to flute and finally you will finish by learning another skill of creating a contemporary headboard with square tiles. Ministry of Upholstery is a modern upholstery school, so you will be coached in modern upholstery skills and using modern upholstery materials. This makes for a course which is more accessible, the skills are easier to master and therefore you can up and running your new business in no time. 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 at home.

Course Content at a glance

All 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 how to use a sewing machine, led by our full-time expert sewing tutor. The pieces that you make are all yours to keep. If you sell these you can expect to recoup around £1200! We also sell kits for all products, so once your friends and family start to ask you to make for them, you can hit the ground running and start your business! If you don’t have the tools and space to get you going, don’t worry, we have 3 equipped self-contained workshops (or Pods), which we rent out on day rates to students. It’s as simple as:

Learn the skills          Buy the Kit            Rent the Pod or use your own space           Make the product          Start the business!

Classroom Sessions Covered

In addition to the practical side of the course we have also selected some core classroom sessions, designed to give you the knowledge to maximise your new business. These are:

• Fire Regulations
• Fabric Knowledge
• Job Costing and pricing
• Foam knowledge
• Question & Answer

Practical Techniques and skills covered

• Full health & safety induction and introduction to tools and materials
• Sewing machine induction
• Shallow buttoning
• Deep buttoning
• Borders
• Cutting and applying foam
• Fluting
• Costing jobs
• Pleating
• Tool selection
• Piping
• Applying ply grip
• Applying backtack strip
• Fabric knowledge
• Fire regulations
• Close nail studding
• Sewing
• Webbing
• Prepping
• 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 is more in depth and covers larger projects, then why not consider our Business 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 15 day course as it is entirely flexible.

Booking is simple, to book a place you can pay your first instalment of £475 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 enquiries@ministryofupholstery.co.uk 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 three smaller, more manageable instalments.

Upon booking your first week, which you can do online, you are required to pay the first instalment of £475. Before you attend your 6^th day you are required to pay the next instalment of £475. The same again before you attend your 11^th day. 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!

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: 3 days
Includes: Everything you need to make the footstool 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 Storage Stool! This is our fancy deep buttoned large footstool with a choice of legs. The footstool measures 100cm x 75cm. You simply need to bring three metres of fabric 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 applying a border.

This course is available to book for any 3 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 3 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 3 days is the average completion time for this course but we do not guarantee that you will finish in 3 days as everyone works at different speeds. If you do need an extra day these are chargeable at £85/ day.