Chair Dance-The Finale!

Well, how do you like that?  I'm done!  Yays!  

After all the work it took to put the front of the chair back on, I thought for sure that it would take me another 6 months to get the back of the chair back completed- what with all the welting and then the spikey thingies.  But, nope!  It just took 1/2 an afternoon and I'm DONE!

Gotta tell you, I'm pretty proud of myself.  I was terrified that I'd screw it up, spend more money then it would have been to have a "professional" do it in the first place, and end up with a completely awful piece of furniture that we would then have to haul to Goodwill and then go buy replacements.  Since that didn't happen, I think I will reward myself with shoes from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.  Sound good?

So, I finished up...I sewed the welt, then attached it to the back and sides of the chair back.  I then attached the back piece of fabric using the cardboard tack strips-- I don't think that these particular things should be called tack strips-- they should be called something else as they don't have tacks in or on them.  

After that piece was attached, I added additional batting and then it was time to use these: (yes, those are 3/4 inch steel spikes sticking out of the steel strips...)

Since I had not a clue as to how to attach these, I consulted the all-knowing source of YouTube.  There's a ton of great upholstery information there-- there's also a ton of great Harry Potter videos there and music videos and...yes, it sucked up the other 1/2 of the afternoon not used in upholstery.

The video helped, I used the tack strips (THOSE are Tack Strips!) and moved the chair into the house.  Where it sits in its place and NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO SIT ON IT.  Just kidding...sort of.

 

Remember what we started with?

And, now I begin on the 2nd chair- which will take much less time then the first chair because it is the 2nd chair and the 2nd of anything is always much easier than the first.  And, we are less careful with the 2nd of things...and even less careful with the 3rd.  That's another post.

I'm going shoe shopping.

Frustrated Chair Dance

Well, I've been working on the chair, but I gotta tell you, it's not been easy. Turns out that I'm kind of a perfectionist. (Um, duh?) And, I have this notion that I should just innately KNOW how to do things, like, reupholster a chair. Strangely, I'm not omniscient- not in this endeavor and not in my daily life. Kinda knocks you down a peg or two, doesn't it? I'm kidding here- sort of. I mean, I know that I don't know everything, but I do have an expectation that things just aren't as difficult as they appear. This whole chair thing has been a lesson for me in many many ways. I'm not gonna say that I'm glad that my trans-gendered FIL died so I could learn a lesson, because that is way too weird. But out of the whole strange situation, I'm glad that I get to learn something that will further me on my journey. (And don't even get me STARTED on DH's learning out of this...that's a whole different blog!)

Anyway, back to the chair. When we last left the garage, I had the seat fabric cut out and ready to install.

I made the welt with spray adhesive (woo hoo!) and did some sewing to attach said welt to the "skirt" part of the chair.

I then proceeded to attach all the fabric, making a very very nice corner fold, thank-you-very-much, and then attaching welt and skirt with extra stuffing and a cardboard tack strip! Woo! It all looks very very nice. And, I kinda wanted to stop right there- because it looks so nice.

You can't stop with a redone seat and a naked back however. So, I pressed on. Here's the big road bump/block. The back of the chair is curved, rounded, concave. Not flat is what I'm trying to say. And, when you attach fabric to it, you have to make sure that it's not all lumpy or wrinkly. That's HARD. I cut out my back piece- I even cut it bigger anticipating these issues. After that, I let it sit in the garage for a week. To think about what it had done. Being all rounded and difficult. As if that would make it easier. (It didn't) Finally, on this week I came to realize that no one else in the house was gonna magically take up the re-upholstery project and that it was up to me to figure this beast out. That, and we are having guests at the end of the month and right now we are seriously lacking seating in the living room and it would really suck to be all, "hey sorry we don't actually have chairs, they're in the garage, I'm waiting for the upholstery elves- just sit on the floor for now, I'm sure they'll arrive soon..."

I won't bore you with the attaching, removing, reattaching, re-removing, reattaching again... etc. that went on. Or the sitting on the floor and being mad at the back of the chair. Oh, and I forgot the being really frustrated with not understanding how to fit the stapler under the back of the chair to attach the fabric. Suffice it to say, there was bleeding on the floor of the garage and I was ready to just forget it and cut a new even bigger piece and try one more time- when last night- it worked! And, it's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close and I'm very pleased with the result. Yay!

I will now resume photo taking. It just wasn't a good idea during this last bit of the project. Trust me.

Today I will sew another welt, and then attach that to the back of the seat. Once that is in place, the back of the seat needs to be attached. That means more cardboard tack strips and then the use of some super nasty looking metal nail strip thingies. Seriously, these are some of the most fierce looking upholstery supplies I've ever seen. Should be interesting.

I'll let you know how it goes.