"Today's blog is sponsored by the letter S" ... for Serging!

      Last week it seems that all jobs DWP Carpet Binding received in were serging jobs. We popped out 17 area rugs for a school. They ranged in size from 8 ft. by 10 ft. up to 12 ft. by 12 ft. It only took us 1.5 days to complete the job; while working on other binding jobs as well, so we didn't fall behind.  This is what a pile of serged carpets look like:

17 area rugs serged for a Montessori school.

We also received a serging job for pieces that were custom made. They chose to use a black serging yarn to accent the black carpet within the off-white field carpet. Here are two pictures of what it looked like:

Cotton serging yarn up-close.

Custom runner with black cotton serging yarn as an accent.

The serging jobs were great projects. We even had a walk-in come in to cut back a custom car mat and finish it with serging to top it all off!

A completely separate job came to us. It was a carpet remnant that was already bound that needed to be cut into three different pieces. The original binding was a gold tone, which was used on a dark taupe (almost purple) carpet. I wasn't fond of the color the factory chose for the carpet. It wasn't even in the ballpark of the color of the carpet. Ultimately, because we could not match the existing binding exactly, we were instructed to bind all four sides to get the same aesthetics on all sides. Unfortunately, my camera isn't great, but here are two pictures of the original binding, then another displaying our binding versus their binding:

Original binding: gold/tan color on taupe carpet.

The binding on the top (going left to right) is ours; the binding on the perpendicular side (up and down) is the original. You can see that our binding has a crisp, clean look when it stitches; where as the other binding has wrinkles and the color is mismatched to the carpet's color. 

You can see that our binding matches the carpet better and it has a better finishing touch. If a person is attentive towards detail, they would notice a big difference. This aids in displaying the quality of our binding, as well as our ability to pick up better color tones to compliment the color of the carpet. We can't always get an exact match, but in this case, we think we hit a home-run!

This week, we already have three projects in for new fringe and a few custom binding jobs to finish up.

As always:

THANK YOU 

to everybody who uses

 DWP Carpet Binding 

for all your binding needs!

Custom Work & Custom T-shirts!

Over the past few weeks DWP Carpet Binding has had quite a handful of work.  We had a lot of serging and binding jobs, but we also had a few custom binding jobs for carpets on boats! Below is one of the pieces that was a part of the custom binding job:

Hand-binding/ Custom binding.

Custom shaped piece for carpeting on a boat.

We also had a couple of runners that needed to be seamed in order to get the desired length. Here's what our seams look like:

Close-up of carpet seam on wool runner (unbound). 

Carpet seam on wool runner, from a distance.

Close-up of carpet seam on patterned carpet.

Carpet seam on patterned carpet from a distance.

Those are just a couple of the projects that have kept us busy these past few weeks. 

In other news:

Many customers have asked, "Where's my DWP shirt?", since Dan and myself have DWP Carpet Binding T-shirts we wear day-to-day. Well, after many requests, we have finally ordered some. They're not the same as the ones we wear every day, but I think they're pretty snazzy!

New DWP Carpet Binding T-shirts!

Hopefully the new shirts will look just as good in person! Time will tell.

THANK YOU, 

to everyone who has come and visited us!

Showing It Off-

Hey, we don't like to toot our own horns, but we don't mind if you do it for us!
This is just a quick post to show some of the recent pictures we received from customers who have bought carpet remnants we had in stock. With an inventory that is constantly revolving, you never know what we may have on hand, but we try to accommodate those seeking remnants as best we can.

Below are some pictures to show how small (or sometimes large) remnants can jazz up your living space.

2 ft. by 22 ft. floral runner

3 ft. by 5 ft. runner for door-way entrance

5 ft. by 8 ft. area rug

9 ft. by 12 ft. area rug (panoramic shot); note how it matches their dog!

8 ft. by 10 ft. area rug

5 ft. by 8 ft. area rug

And just for fun, here's a picture of my nephew doing something he loves ... vacuuming!
(I know. I know. Pretty surprising for a 6 year-old!)

Beneath those couch cushions and vacuum there's a 4 ft circular rug DWP fabricated!

That's all folks. Just a quick set of pictures displaying some of the remnants we have sold in the past.

(If you would like to help us show off our work, please fell free to e-mail us pictures of DWP stock pieces in use.) 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Thank You to all who have come and visit us these past couple of weeks!

Happy Friday!

Dan has piled as much as possible into his 16 ft. trailer to get ready to head out to Stormville, NY for a great flea market!

This time around he's bringing more pieces including:

 large area rugs, custom pieces, small mats and long hallway runners of all colors, styles, patterns and sizes!

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, check out the

 Stormville Airport Flea Market this Sunday, April 28th, 2013.

http://www.stormvilleairportfleamarket.com/

https://www.facebook.com/StormvilleFleaMkt

Thank you to everybody who has stopped in and visited
 DWP Carpet Binding this past week!

Happy Weekend, everybody!

Spring Has Sprung!

Although we haven't hit record highs, the Spring season is back! Flowers are starting to bloom, birds of all types are singing their love songs and the weather is creeping higher and higher each day. This is a time when everybody has a little more pep in their step and their smiles are just a bit bigger than usual. Let's face it, even as New Englanders, the winters seem far too long at times. The team of DWP is happy that the weather is changing over for a few reasons:

1. The flea markets are starting up and Dan is making his go-around with our stock pieces.
2. Business in general will start picking up; which is always a good thing!
3. Warmer weather also brings in new faces to our shop and it's always a pleasure meeting new people. 

With that being said, we have received a handful of phone calls from people all over the state of CT asking when Dan will be back at certain flea markets. The truth is, we don't know. Typically, his flea market visits are spur of the moment based on availability. He tries to circulate them so he makes at least one every six weeks, but sometimes that doesn't always happen. So, if you're one who is eagerly awaiting his arrival, thank you, but it's up in the air where he'll go and when he'll be there. I will try to update his next stops on here as much as I can, but sometimes he goes on a whim and I don't get the chance to fill everybody in.

So, let's talk about the various jobs we've had in house over the past few weeks:

We had one very enthusiastic couple in (Hi Chick & Judy!) to have a carpet, which was a wall-to-wall, re-sized to two different area rugs. They were redecorating a room in their home and wanted to expose their hardwood floors, but keep the carpet as an area rug under their furniture. We cut the carpet to approximately an 11 ft. by 14 ft. & a runner 2 ft. by 12 ft. It was a super thick carpet, so it also needed to be power beveled, then we finished it off with a nice polyester binding to match.
Coincidentally, I just received a phone call from a young woman who is looking to do the same exact thing! We can do it and it's a great way to reduce the cost of buying a new carpet all together!

We had a woman (Hi Judy!) come in with a very nice piece to cut down because it had gotten water damage. It was a woven wool she picked up from Pottery Barn and wanted to salvage. We cut it back after latexing the perimeter and serged all four sides with our cotton serging yarn. It came out lovely and she was able to remove most of the noticeable stains while keeping her carpet useful!

Two other gentlemen came in at separate times (Hi Mike & Mark!) to have remnants cut and bound with polyester binding. Both small jobs that we were able to complete while they waited, to save time and money.

Last, but not least, we had a gentleman (Hi Alex!) come in with a very complex job. He manages a local sky-diving company and needed replacement carpet for a plane that was being worked on. He brought in the old carpet as a template and the new carpet for DWP Carpet Binding to work on. It was a complicated job because of the intricate cuts that the piece had. The custom shape was because the carpet had to go around certain bolts for the seats and have slits cut and stabilized for seat belt buckles to come up through.
What we ended with was this:

Custom shaped carpet for airplane: cut & bound with polyester binding.

This was about a 4.5 - 5 hour project for us. The majority of each small cut-out was hand-bound (by yours truly) yet, even at the perpendicular angles that our binding machine was able to pass through, there were inside corners to put back together. Quite an extensive project, but luckily he was very happy with the end results!

On a side note: While I was finishing up the seat belt areas he and Dan were chatting. He kept inviting Dan to visit his place of business and check the whole operation out. Dan kept joking, "I don't know. I think I like it on the ground, personally." Haha. 


In just a few weeks we've already met several friendly faces on top of our regular day-to-day customers. As always, DWP would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who uses us for their carpet binding needs! We look forward to the "busy season" and the intricate work tasks that will come our way next!

Happy Easter Weekend!

Not everybody celebrates Easter, but we do! 

So, we would like to wish a Happy Easter to any and everybody who celebrates it.

(Happy Passover to those of you who celebrate that!) 

Bobbie (the VP) and myself spent Sunday afternoon coloring eggs for Easter.
:)

We will be open today until about 2 pm. 

(Regular business hours will resume on Monday morning.)

In other news:

This past week we received a set of custom car mats to be serged. One of the pieces was very intricate and required hand-serging in small cut-out areas. You can check out the pictures below:

Custom hand-serging.

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

The customer was pleased with the work, which was a huge relief for me, considering the amount of time that had to be put in. Each square took about 40 minutes a piece, then another 2 hours was spent to make sure that any voids were filled. It was quite an extensive project! 

As always, we'd like to say 

THANK YOU 

to our customers!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Extra Charges -

We had a huge undertaking for a serging job recently. It was a nice job, two custom shaped pieces we had to bevel and serge the perimeters of. Check out one of the pieces in the pictures below:

Custom hallway in for serging.

Custom piece; different angle.

 It may not look like a hard task, but believe it or not this one piece took nearly 3 hours to complete! Custom pieces like this require a lot more time and effort to complete. The inside corners on this piece took about 45 minutes in itself to finish. Inside corners are the perpendicular angles that happen at the junctures of the cut-outs. We relief cut them in order to get our serging machine to by-pass the areas, then we have to glue them back together, almost as if they are seams. Due to the extra time involved, there is an extra charge applied to the cost. Dan and I double teamed this job, so as I was working on the inside corners of this piece, he started the serging on the second piece (you can catch a glimpse of it in the top corner of the second picture). The second piece was not as intricate, yet it still took a good 2.5 hours to complete. With two people working on the project, it didn't take as long as it could have. However, the time and extra labor cost more money. Simple as that.

In addition to custom shaped pieces, such as the ones above, we charge additional fees for handling used carpets. DWP Carpet Binding had a customer bring in two used area rugs for serging. They were surprised when they heard about the up-charge. The fact of the matter is, handling used carpet is a health risk. On the back of these particular carpets there were multiple stains, which could be from anything. We try not to guess what the potential causes of the stains are, imagination can lead you to very disturbing places sometime.  As we were working on these pieces, we used our leaf blower to clean them of excess carpet fibers. Literally a cloud of sand came up upon doing so. That's horrible for our serging machine. Sand can get into every orifice of the machine, which if not properly cleaned, can and will ultimately break parts or ruin the calibrations of the needle and looper, which results in poor stitching quality. With that being said, the health risk of handling unsanitary used carpets and the sand factor, we charge more when working with used carpets. It's only fair.

In a completely unrelated side-note, check this out:

We just BARELY had enough serging yarn to complete the two area rugs!!! The total footage for both area rugs was 130 linear feet and I had guessed that we'd have enough. This is pivotal. There was maybe enough yarn for another 6 inches or possibly a foot. As we worked on the last side, Dan and I were cheering the machine and serging thread on, in high hopes we'd have enough yarn. We did! Then we danced in celebration.

In other news:
I was recently e-mailed a picture of a custom piece I recently made! I wrote a blog about a month ago in regards to this particular piece, as it was made from samples into a "patch-work quilt" area rug.
Below are pictures of the piece in our shop as well as it's final destination in the owner's home!

Custom "patch-work quilt" area rug, in our shop.

Custom piece in place in the customer's home!

  I'd say the customer did a great job working a unique piece into the decor of their home! I noted (for future endeavors) that I could have followed the brick work pattern of the chimney to really pull the room together. The customer said he likes it the way it is and wasn't worried about matching patterns between chimney and carpet. Regardless, I couldn't have been more thrilled to see it in use! It certainly is a piece that I'm proud to have been a part in the making of. The customer also had a big 30th birthday celebration, with 30 - 40 guests; all of which raved about the carpet (this is what I'm told at least). Which is just another feather in my cap ... as I said before, compliments are always welcome! [smiley face.]

On that note, this has been your 101 on why we charge extra for certain job tasks.

Thank you to all who have come to see us in the recent past!!!