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trade school in New York completed her training. Since then, she's made a living doing what she loves best, upholstering and covering furniture for businesses in Washington, D. C., California and New York.
"There were very few women in the business when 1 entered, and very few even now,” Moregan said. “Men ask me how I manage to haul the furniture around. That’s never been a problem,” she said, pointing out that working with furniture is more a matter of skill than muscle. There are arduous chores in the business. One of them is retying springs - a task accomplished with extra-strength cord and ropeburned fingers. Moregan routinely corrects and reties the springs on furniture she upholsters.
“I’m fascinated with the basic structure of the pieces I work on,” she said. “Usually springs aren’t broken - it would be pretty hard to break a steel spring. But webbing is torn and springs poke through, throwing the whole spring structure off.”
After springs are corrected and webbing repaired, a cover of burlap goes over the base. Then the stuffing is shaped. Moregan has worked with horse hair, hog hair, feathers and straw. “Some day I expect to find leaves,” she said. Over the stuffing goes a muslin cover, then over the muslin layers of cotton batting.
“This is the way it’s always been done,” Moregan said. “This is the way I learned.” She said that just recently she’s seen pieces with cardboard inside as cheap methods replace some of the time-honored quality of the upholsterer’s art.
Over it all goes the last layer of fabric, and this step is also given extra care. “I take a lot of time in matching if it’s needed,” Moregan said. “I’ve worked with antique fabric and terribly expensive fabric. The final product is worth it.”
she have a favorite type ot iuii...ure? “I usually love each piece of fine furniture I work on,” she answers. "But my favorite is the over-stuffed furniture of the
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