My first upholstery project

A few weeks ago I attended the "Folsom Fiesta" workshop. It's a miniature room box workshop put on by a group of wonderful ladies (and a man). They've been doing this workshop for about 25 years. Each year has a different theme, and they spend the entire year planning it. This year's theme was "A Place to Pout." We learned how to make this little chaise lounge, dressing table and seat. All throughout the day they shower you with coordinating gifts that they've made or purchased all year! It was wonderful-- so much work and thought put into each item.

They gave us this little nifty pleating board to construct our pleats with. It's covered with graph paper, then wax paper for easy-to-measure pleating. The board is some kind of foam board, so that the pins can be easily pushed through.

You just double the length of your fabric, based on the actual length you need. Pin the left end to the pattern. Take a pin, go two squares to the right, pick up the fabric, bring it over one square left and pin it down. Just repeat until finished. Then to set the pleats you can spray with spray starch (or hairspray).

Does anyone know the pros and cons of using spray starch vs. hairspray? I did notice that the spray starch made the pin holes stay starched, which made it difficult to make them disappear after I took the pins out.

I will try to post pictures of all the wonderful little gifts in my next post. I've got to go to work now! Stay tuned!