Take a Seat
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Before & After, Craftiness
This is going to be one heck of a post ladies (and gents? Are there any out there?). I have FINALLY finished the chairs. You know, the ones I started 2 months ago?
With my first upholstery project completed I can tell you that you need to be equal parts crazy adventurous, cheap and patient. Extra emphasis on the patient.
I had already completed painting the chairs so I’ll here we go with the upholstery. **You will ABSOLUTELY need some sewing skills to do this!** For everyone who just wants to see the after photos-feel free to skim to the bottom.
I used the old pattern as a guide for my new fabric. As I pulled off each part of the old fabric I marked the top and bottom so I wouldn’t get confused once it was taken apart.
Take LOTS of pictures as you go. This is helpful if you forget the way something was sewn together.
Lay out your new fabric (it helps to have 2 willing assistants!) I bought my fabric at fabric.com. I definitely recommend it-their fabric is a lot less expensive than JoAnn’s or Hobby Lobby. I even got free shipping!
Laying out all of the patterned pieces. This is where it helps to mark your fabric! The cutting and the pinning take the most amount of time-the sewing feels lightening fast after that!
I used a zipper foot to do all of the piping. You can use a specific foot for upholstery but it was $32 so I passed on that. I also used a denim needle. It’s a little thicker and can get through the upholstery fabric.
Go pin your pattern together. I did this right on the chair. You sandwich the 2 pattern pieces and 1 piping piece and pin.
This is what it should look like pin side down.
Make sure to baste (longest stitch) on your first try! This is really important for beginner sewers (like me!). You will make mistakes and it’s much easier to rip out a baste seam.
After you have your new fabric/pattern the way you like it, it’s time to attach it to the chair!
These are the tacks that I used. I tried to use staples but the wood was too hard.
I don’t have pictures of me tacking the fabric in (I only have 2 hands!) but it’s fairly simple. Just go along the edge of your chair and about every 6 inches put a tack in. Make sure your fabric is smooth and straight!
After you’re done with the tacks you move on to the trim. The chair used to have trim that was a little to fussy for what I was going for. I couldn’t find anything at the store that I loved so I just used 2 strips of piping for the trim. I;m about 200% sure it would have been easier to sew if I had the upholstery sewing foot but like I said-I was totally cheap-o on this project.
So here we are the BIG REVEAL! Congrats to all of you who stayed with me through this crazy long rant post.
Lulu loves the new chairs!
Not perfect but pretty good!
The sassy backs of the chairs. The zebra print is actually dark brown, not black.
Just so we remember….
Before
After
Cost breakdown:
$60 for the chairs
$20 for the paint
$46.26 for the fabric
$21.46 for the pins, extra trim cording and the denim needles
I’ll be posting this on:
Tags: DIY project, garage sale find, reupholstery
April 10th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Wadda mean are there any gents!?!
I’ll have you know all the Barden boys visit your little blog-spot.
Great job on the chairs! The old re-upholostery show on HGTV “The Furniture Guys” scared me off of any project like this – Good Job! Now go have a beer.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Thanks so much for the advie. I really think your chairs turned out swo great. I love both fabric choices. I need ot learn how to make the piping. It scares me.
April 13th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Love this chair and love the pillow!
April 13th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Luv that awesome zebra print…thanks for sharing with all of us!
Blessings,
Linda
I’m having a GIVEAWAY…come by and check it out…I think you will like it!
April 14th, 2010 at 10:12 am
This is gorgeous! love the funky zebra on the back! great job!
April 16th, 2010 at 8:41 am
What a fantastic makeover. Love it! Thanks for sharing.
July 13th, 2010 at 11:48 am
LOVE the chairs. Of course I’m crazy for anything zebra. This is definitely one of the best amateur upholstery jobs I’ve seen. Great job! I have a thrift store chair in my garage I’ve been trying to work up the courage to tackle. You’ve inspired me!
July 16th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
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