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Chair recovery
Dec. 1st, 2003 01:23 pmI've had re-covering the two kitchen chairs I got from my parents on my list of things to do for I-don't-know-how-many years now. The fabric had not only faded, but frayed and even wore through completely. I finally got the impetus to do something about it in the form of my friend Z, who decided it was time to re-cover her dining room chairs. We both wanted to finish before Thanksgiving, since we each had guests coming.
Tag's sent coupons, and I acquired a staple gun with appropriate staples for upholstery. Then we found upholstery fabric at a store in the Twin City Plaza. Having all those choices of fabric, upholstery and other, made me think again about getting a sewing machine to make all sorts of projects. Perhaps... They didn't carry batting or padding, though.
We started with her chairs, since all she wanted was to put another layer of fabric over the old, and we had all we needed for that. She unscrewed the seat of the chair, we approximated the amount of fabric, then folded it over and started stapling it to the underside. The tricky part is the corners, where the fabric will end up being gathered. It's hard to make it smooth on the obtuse angles, but it looks better if it's as close to smooth as possible. We got into the swing of things, and her chairs were finished that day, a beige replaced with sage green stripes, to match the color of her upcoming dining room.
The next day I found batting at Pearl Art Supply (three different kinds!), so Wednesday afternoon Z came over. She helped me measure batting, and decide how many layers to put on (six turned out to be the perfect number). We took the current fabric off (Z hadn't known it used to be purple), taking out the thumbtacks that had been used to put it on, and rediscovered the original fabric underneath, with patterned crimson stripes. Happily, we could keep the padding that was already there, just adding the new on top of the old. It was a bit trickier pulling the fabric tight enough (but not too tight), but we managed it, and I had chairs with a curly cream on cream pattern ready for my guests the next day. I only have to resort to folding chairs when there are 7 or more people. Of course, now it's more obvious that I also need to refinish those chairs... Any bets as to how long it'll take me to get around to that?
I'm pleased I finally got it done, but I wish I knew why I have such a mental block even on tasks many people have told me are so easy.
And I now have a staplegun! Hooray for tools!
Tag's sent coupons, and I acquired a staple gun with appropriate staples for upholstery. Then we found upholstery fabric at a store in the Twin City Plaza. Having all those choices of fabric, upholstery and other, made me think again about getting a sewing machine to make all sorts of projects. Perhaps... They didn't carry batting or padding, though.
We started with her chairs, since all she wanted was to put another layer of fabric over the old, and we had all we needed for that. She unscrewed the seat of the chair, we approximated the amount of fabric, then folded it over and started stapling it to the underside. The tricky part is the corners, where the fabric will end up being gathered. It's hard to make it smooth on the obtuse angles, but it looks better if it's as close to smooth as possible. We got into the swing of things, and her chairs were finished that day, a beige replaced with sage green stripes, to match the color of her upcoming dining room.
The next day I found batting at Pearl Art Supply (three different kinds!), so Wednesday afternoon Z came over. She helped me measure batting, and decide how many layers to put on (six turned out to be the perfect number). We took the current fabric off (Z hadn't known it used to be purple), taking out the thumbtacks that had been used to put it on, and rediscovered the original fabric underneath, with patterned crimson stripes. Happily, we could keep the padding that was already there, just adding the new on top of the old. It was a bit trickier pulling the fabric tight enough (but not too tight), but we managed it, and I had chairs with a curly cream on cream pattern ready for my guests the next day. I only have to resort to folding chairs when there are 7 or more people. Of course, now it's more obvious that I also need to refinish those chairs... Any bets as to how long it'll take me to get around to that?
I'm pleased I finally got it done, but I wish I knew why I have such a mental block even on tasks many people have told me are so easy.
And I now have a staplegun! Hooray for tools!