Upholsterer
Description
Summary:
Upholsterers manufacture specific types of upholstery for furniture. Upholsterers design and craft cushions for comfort and decoration.
Requirements:
- 10+ years proven work experience in production, upholstery manufacturing, and sewing operations in automotive and Marine preferred.
- Experience in upholstery, sewing, cutting, creating patterns.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where maybe doing something different every day.
- Speak and write English, is a plus.
- Ability to understand written and oral instruction.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Work with Engineering and designers to coordinate fabrics, furnishings, patterns and colors.
- Measuring and Cutting Fabric: Upholsterers need to accurately measure and cut fabric or leather to fit furniture frames. Precision is crucial for achieving a professional finish.
- Sewing Techniques: Proficiency in sewing is essential. Upholsterers must be skilled in stitching fabric pieces together, creating seams, and ensuring durability.
- Understanding Different Upholstery Materials: Upholsterers work with various materials, including foam, fabric, springs, webbing, and nails. Knowing how to handle each material is vital.
- Applying Finishes: Upholsterers apply finishes to furniture, such as attaching fabric securely, using staples, glue, or tacks.
- Foam Handling: Foam is a key component in upholstery.
- Creating Cushions: Upholsterers design and craft cushions for comfort and decoration. They choose materials like cotton, wool, down, feathers, polyester, or foam to create stylish and cozy cushions.
- Webbing Application: Webbing, made from interwoven fabric strips, provides support for padding and springs in furniture.
- Basic Carpentry Skills: Upholsterers often need to break apart furniture frames or make adjustments. A hammer and saw are fundamental tools for these tasks.
- Attach fasteners, grommets, buttons, buckles, ornamental trim, and other accessories to covers or frames, using hand tools.
- Design upholstery cover patterns and cutting plans, based on sketches, customer descriptions, or blueprints.
- Draw cutting lines on material following patterns, templates, sketches, or blueprints, using chalk, pencils, paint, or other methods.
- Make, restore, and/or create custom upholstered furniture, using hand tools and knowledge of fabrics and upholstery methods.
- Read work orders and apply knowledge and experience with materials in order to determine types and amounts of materials required to cover workpieces.
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems -- Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
- Attention to detail. The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Inspect your work.
- Ensuring Health & Safety procedures are followed and to maintain all quality systems in order to meet your production targets.
- General House Keeping cleaning & keeping your work area tidy.
- Follow the company standard operating procedures.
Physical Demands/Working Conditions:
- Must be able to sit for long periods of time. Requires ability to push and pull a variety of fabrics. Be able to climb, stoop, kneel, and reach.
- Must be able to make substantial movements of the wrists, hands, and fingers. Be able to hear, see, and communicate through written and verbal means.
- Static Strength -- The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Must be able to exert up to 50 pounds of force (push/pull).
- Performing General Physical Activities -- Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
- Work is performed inside a warehouse environment that has good ventilation, but the employee is exposed to hot temperatures, dirt, dust (exposure to cement dust) and loud noises.
- Must be flexible and available to work in other areas based on company needs.
- Staff must remain flexible and available to provide staffing assistance for any/all disaster or emergency situations.