I guess it was one of those times where it could only get better. After the first two near-disaster classes in learning how to upholster an ottoman from scratch, we moved onto the fabric on Tuesday. And I actually did something right!
Full disclosure, part of the reason I had a less-stress class was sheer luck. Every week, there's a new student in the spot where the teacher does the demonstrations. This week, that was me. Sure, you only learn by doing, but it was nice to have the first couple steps, which were timed to be finished in 2 minutes, done for me (especially since the steps involved toxic-smelling glue that sprayed out everywhere.) I freeze up under the pressure of being timed like that — something I learned in the first class. So the teacher glued the cotton and foam onto my ottoman.
Then we had to add this piece of dacron and staple it onto the top of the ottoman, being careful to avoid a bunching of dacron around the corners so that it's all smooth. You also had to staple along a green line that was hidden under the dacron — somehow that magically worked out. The dacron step was started for me, and I finished off the sides. My corners were good. Phew.
Then you give your dacron a haircut, snipping off all the excess. I guess it's more of a crewcut, because you really have to snip close to the staples, removing any extra fluff from the dacron.
The big step that took most of the time in class was shown, but not stapled, on my ottoman. So I did it all on my own, which felt good. The step was to take our 24" square of fabric and carefully staple it to the top of the ottoman, smoothing and creating tension so that there aren't lumps or sagging fabric.
For fabric, I actually brought in an Orla Kiely tablecloth I had from the Orla Kiely for Target line. My teacher pinned my square of fabric onto the ottoman, so that the center pear was in the right spot. We were supposed to stop stapling two inches away from each of the corners. I worked really slowly on this step, stopping to smooth before each staple. This stapling step turned out to be a disaster for much of the class. Shockingly, I stapled with good tension and scored my first compliment from the teacher: "this looks ok." That made my week.
I felt so bad for many of the other students in the class — after inspection they had to start all over. Do you know how hard it is to take staples out of fabric? Really hard. And really frustrating. I helped a woman next to me who had to take hers out and start over. You're pounding your staple remover tool onto the top of this tool that looks like a screwdriver, which you hope is slipping under the staple to poke out the staple (rather than simply creating a hole in the fabric, which is generally what happens.) Honestly, I think part of the problem for some people was the fabric choice. My Orla tablecloth is a nice, heavyweight cotton. Some other people were using thin fabric (even shiny, thin fabric) which shows every little lump in the dacron and requires perfect tension or it's a mess.
So our class is behind schedule. But my little ottoman is ready to go. I can't wait to take her home.
