Tags
amateur upholstery, burlap upholstery, chair upholstery, dhurrie ottoman, eBay, frame upholstery, Home Depot, Ikat fabric, Joanns, Michaels Craft Store, ottoman upholstery, Simpsons, Spider Pig, swivel chair, upholstery outlet, upholstery thread, vanity chair, velvet chair, velvet upholstery, West Elm, West Elm Dhurrie
Well, the roof caved in. Literally. I use the term “caved in” loosely. There were a few leaks in this little old house and who knows how long they’ve been here. Here I am, mad at the dog, thinking he’s sneaking on to the new couch at night, peeing, and then crawling up on the ceiling and peeing there too (Spider Pig, anyone?!). Call me a sleuth, but it only took me a few thought processes to realize it was the torrential San Diego downpour from the previous night that was the culprit.
So what does any normal, organized person do? UPHOLSTER A CHAIR! I have found that since becoming “with child,” I can find almost anything to do to avoid the actual task at hand. “Do dishes? Sorry, darling. I’ve got some burlap to cut.” So here I share with you a project I started in Dallas and finished just this week. I plan on posting no photos of the finished project that are actually in focus. I am also considering only uploading a video of a drive-by photo flurry. The fabric is amazing, the chair is darling, but my sewing and ability to finish the details in a patient and thoughtful way is apparent in a still-shot of the chair. You’ll see.
Here is the adorable swivel vanity chair I bought in Dallas for $30 (more than I wanted to spend, but I saw it’s potential). I was not a fan of the mauve velvet and sparse nipple-tassel beading. I’m really hoping to inspire some of you to take on a project like this. By no means was it easy, but I am really proud of how it turned out (based on my skill level which is near zero. Well, maybe 1.5). I always figure that in any project I start, as long as I do things slowly, patiently, and thoughtfully, how bad could it turn out? Well, if you know me personally, you know those adverbs do not describe my character. I also think that when I do these sorts of projects, I’m also cultivating some sort of spiritual growth and personal development. So I convince myself that I’ll get an awesome chair AND a brand new, sparkling sense of maturity. So if this is something you want to do, just try it out! I figure that I’m the one that has to sit on the chair, so if it’s terrible but I’m proud of it, it was totally worth it. Let us begin…
THE PLAN: Take apart chair slowly and document everything. Make stencils of fabric onto the new fabric. Put it back together in the same way. Theoretically, a perfect plan!
The first step was to unscrew the swivel chair from the base. This was super easy because I just needed a screwdriver.
In your chair, you might notice a more natural progression in take-apart-ingness, but I saw the next step as pulling off the cord/piping. Little fingernail scissors are great for this because you can snip away at any stitching that gets in your way. Then I used the screwdriver to pull up all the staples that were used to affix the fabric. Just yank it all up (although I did try to take care not to rip the fabric, as I still had to use the fabric as a template). This part makes your hand cramp and you may lose a lot of rogue staples, so do this part in a neighbors yard.
I took apart the back panel, found more staples, and yanked those up too. There was this weird claw thing that was supposed to clamp two panels of fabric. I understand what it was meant to do (and how I resolved the issue without using it) but it’s hard to explain. Hopefully it will be clear in my ‘reconstruction’ section. Despite a finished chair, this torture claw, as I like to call it, is currently next to a pair of stretched-out ankle socks in my trash can.
This first photo is before I took off the cardboard backing and the fabric that covered it. It attached to the back panel of the chair. When the back panel was attached, the claw closes over it and pinches it tight so that there is a tight seam. I ended up just stitching this by hand rather than navigate this skill.
Remember to take lots of pictures of what you’re doing. It really helped to refer to these when I was putting it all back together. Also, really pay attention to how it was put together. If these photos don’t really show you a cohesive process, it’s because I really didn’t take enough ‘before’ pics. I wish I had taken more because it really is important to remember how all these pieces of fabric fit together correctly. I pity the ass-hat who inherits my chair and studies MY methods on construction.
RECONSTRUCTION
I found this amazing ikat fabric at an upholstery outlet. I think it was pretty pricey (maybe $25ish/yard, while NOT pricey for upholstery fabric, is risky for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing). I LOVED it and may make a pillow for the couch and use scraps to wrap around a photo frame.
I’m in love with this fabric. However, if I had to choose all over again, I’d choose one that was less stiff (maybe more like the original heinous velvet but in a nicer color) and perhaps one with a less bold print. While the print wasn’t difficult to work with, it does create an additional challenge to keep the print cohesive (i.e. going in the same direction or somewhat matched up on the seams) throughout the project. I think a softer fabric may have been more forgiving.
So firstly, I took all the old pieces, laid them out, and used them as a template for cutting out the new pieces. Get lots of pins and match everything up, using your beautiful new fabric to the best of it’s spatial ability. Even though I cut generous templates (I added about an inch border to the new fabric), somehow I still struggled with getting it all to fit. Good luck with this part. Definitely don’t cut smaller portions (duh)
I also cut long rectangles that were the length of each cord in order to make new piping cord. Here’s what I bought at Joanns or Michaels. I just wrapped one of the rectangular pieces of fabric around the cord, pinned it, and (eventually when I figured out how to turn on my sewing machine), stitched a seam as close to the cording as possible. This is my biggest mistake, however. As you will see in future photos, this stiff piping and fabric make it difficult to bend around corners without bunching. If I did this again, I would either buy pre-made, flexible cording OR I would be more thoughtful about sewing the cord in a moon-like shape, rather than a long straight piece. That way, the fabric is already intending to be curved.
I also bought a yard or so of iron-on reinforcing material because I didn’t want this linen-like material to get stretched out if a fat ass sat on it. The fabric comes with instructions, but you literally steam iron it on. At this point, you might be so sick of the project (or reading this post). Press on.
So now you have your old chair, your new pieces and your piping. Get a ton of pins and just start pinning those things on. I first sewed the piping to the round seat piece. Please pardon my streaky manicure.
Then you sew the rectangular front panel piece to the same piece of piping. You do this by flipping the rectangular piece over and sewing it on backwards so that when you fold it over front-ways again, you can’t see the seam of the panel OR the seam of piping. Sew right up close to the piping so there aren’t any gaps). Ignore the back panel for now. It’s just draped on.
Then I sewed on the piping around the back of the round seat piece (again, this is where I messed up because the piping crinkled and looks bunchy, although it looks great in the front piece. I don’t know what went wrong). So sew on the back piping and play around with attaching the seat back panel to the piping. It’s hard to pin AND shove these pieces into the crack, so be careful. I initially sewed them together wrong (see second pic) but who cares! I just got my nail scissors out and snipped them apart again.
One tricky part: you want the space between the back rest and the seat to be really shoved back there, not just sitting there. I ended up sewing a piece of the old velvet to where the two pieces joined and pulling it back, all the way THROUGH, and stapling it to the wood on the back. I felt that this kind of helped pull it all in. Let’s call this the Spanx section of the tutorial.
Then I got impatient for it to look more completed, so I got out my handy staple gun (which I used for the trunk upholstery project) and tacked on the bottom panel. I guess I forgot to add piping to the bottom (as the ugly original chair did) but I don’t really care, even if it does look blobby. I can always re-do this later I suppose.
Next I pinned the piping to the back panel. Placement was crucial here because if I put the piping on top, the ends were too short to connect to the other piping pieces. So I ended up pinning it much lower in the back, which worked out just fine.
Next, pin on your back panel. This is when things got really caaraaazzzyyy! The panel was WAY too short! How did this happen when I measured everything out AND give it a few extra inches for a buffer?
So with some wiggling around, it finally fit. This is where they used that claw thing, so I instead handstitched the top of the panel to the piping, added the cardboard piece, and stuffed it with the fluffy piece. I LOVE upholstery fabric. It’s so freakin’ strong. I use it for everything because…it’s super strong. This photo is pre-fluffy-stuff.
The final ouch was hand-stitching all the piping together. This was super tricky because the cording I used was pretty thick. It had to be tucked and flattened and really stitched in order to stay in place. I was most worried about this part, and I think I did a good job making it fit (at this point, I cared not about whether it looked professional).
SOOOOOOOOO, here’s the final product. Because writing the post was as exhausting, if not more, as doing the actual project, I’ve given up and decided to post actual, unblurred photos of the chair in action. I love it. I don’t care if it bunches on the backrest. I don’t care that the piping isn’t perfectly curved. I just love it.
Supplies I used:
- A few yards of amazing upholstery fabric
- Iron-on reinforcing fabric
- Cotton cord
- Upholstery thread
- Regular thread for my sewing machine
- A strong sewing needle
- Screwdriver
- Nail scissors
- Mug root beer (not essential to the project but necessary for my parched throat).
ONE LAST PEP TALK:
Please don’t be scared to try a project. Who cares if it looks homemade? IT IS! Here is a project I’ve talked about in the past. It’s the West Elm Dhurrie ottoman for $499How easy would this be?! You can buy the wood platform base, the nail studs, and legs all at Home Depot. Then just get some fun fabric and cushy foam from the craft store. VOILA!
Here is some recommended fabric I’ve found. Click to get purchase information.