Top 5 DIY Upholstery Tips for Beginners

Taking your furniture to a professional upholsterer can be expensive! Instead, try DIYing if you want to spruce up your furniture and add versatility to your home. Sewing vinyl can be tricky, but with the right tools and tips, you can bring your next project up a notch.

Don’t spend too much money on something you can do yourself! Use these five DIY upholstery tips for beginners to help repurpose and transform your piece of furniture into something new and improved.

Don’t Be Afraid To Use Old Fabric

One of the most innovative things you can do when repurposing your furniture is to use fabric you already have. When you save old fabric, you already have pre-cut shapes or extra materials for your next piece of furniture. However, if you don’t have vinyl upholstery material, you always buy and store it for future projects.

Prepare Your Vinyl Before Sewing

Before beginning your upholstery project, you should prep your vinyl materials. It’s essential that your vinyl material lies flat and has no creases. To prepare your fabric, hang it on a clothesline or hover your iron over the vinyl. You should never actually touch the vinyl with your iron to prevent the material from warping.

Use Strong Thread for Sewing Vinyl

For non-heavy-duty projects like tablecloths, you can use regular all-purpose thread. However, if you want your project to withstand the test of time and wear and tear, you should use heavy-duty thread in your project that will help keep everything together and stand out.

Bonded nylon will keep your project together through all weather, wear, or tear. Bonded nylon is available in various colors and will stand out against or match different fabrics or trim used.

Work With Specialized Needles

You may not know it, but you can use different types of sewing needles to sew vinyl. The best needle you can use depends on the material’s thickness. Universal needles will work fine on thinner types of vinyl, but you should use 110/18 or 100/16 sized needles with thick vinyl.

Never Use Pins on Your Vinyl Material

Pins work well in standard fabrics, but not so well on vinyl fabrics. Vinyl materials are similar to leather, and you are more likely to see the pinholes with thicker materials. In place of pins, you can use sewing clips to keep the material in place.

Working with vinyl can be difficult at first, but you can create a new piece of furniture with patience and creativity! Spruce up your home by using our DIY upholstery tips! All Vinyl Fabrics has various materials in different colors and patterns, perfect for indoors and outdoors.