Biography
Owner/Operator, Tina Ortman, learned to sew the summer after 5th grade when her Dad enrolled his three daughters in a 6 week Singer Sewing School. In 1989 she apprenticed 3 years as an upholsterer in a shop called “Alaskan Durable Products” in Anchorage, Alaska. Applying sewing skills to the tools and materials of the trade creates the ability to build in springs, padding and fabric.
When casting about for a name for her own company, her brother thought something like “Durable” was good and “Sturdy Stitching Upholstery” was born in 1992. Her initial experience at Alaskan Durable Products was mainly cars, boats and aircraft upholstery. Sturdy Stitching Upholstery specializes in furniture. She often tells clients, “I don’t do cars, and you can’t make me.”
Every piece of furniture she’s worked on over the last 21 years has taught her something new.
She’s boiled it down to solving 3 basic elements - Bulk / Bulges / Raw Edges.
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•Bulk when many layers are overlapping and must be reduced.
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•Bulges that need to be smoothed
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•Raw Edges to be covered by the proper layering sequence.
Upholstery is much like painting a house, once the foundation is solid and smooth, the fabric lays on it like a good paint job.
