Saturday, June 9, 2012

Reupholstering a chair part 1 Tufting

I 'm really excited to get this make over completed but I 've been taking photos of the whole process so I thought I'd share some of what I've done so far.....
I picked up this cute little chair several weeks ago and have been working on it off and on for awhile now....
Last weekend I worked on reupholstering the back of the seat and did some tufting for the first time.  I used the buttons that were on it and the 3M General Purpose spray adhesive to hold the fabric in place.  
Just a little tip--
Let your adhesive set up really well before you put the fabric on the buttons.  If you don't the adhesive will soak into the fabric and leave a dark spot.

I've also been using a fabulous book that my husband bought me for my birthday.  I'll share that soon too.  If you are interested in learning upholstery it is full of wonderful information and tons of DIY photos.
One of the things they tell you to do is deconstruct carefully and iron out all the original fabric pieces you remove to use as a pattern for the new fabric.  I decided to reuse the foam so the button hole placement was already there holes were already cut, etc...
Again, using the old fabric I marked where the button holes should go then snipped out tiny holes with the scissors.....
These buttons were like huge brads so they were nice to work with.
I started with the top row then moved down each row.  You tuck your fabric (between buttons) as you go making sure the tucks all face down so they don't collect dust....

At the top and bottom there are actually vertical slits cut into the foam so that those pleats can be pulled nice and tight all the way to the backing board.
This is a great step towards doing more complicated reupholstery I think.  I find it all really intriguing and FUN!  To see it get reinvented...
Here's the back---I followed what they had done and stapled the ends of the brads down.  All of this was done with small 1/4" staples
While trying to sew the piping for this my thread got caught in the motor of my machine so my husband has to try to get it running good for me again before I can finish it all up---  I'm so close to being done and only need to sew for a few hours to have it wrapped up...
Can't wait to share photos of the finished chair

4 comments:

  1. It is going to look amazing!!!! I love the fabric. Are you keeping this one??

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    1. Nope! This is for the shop....I'm REALLY loving the whole reupholster process. It's been fun!!!!

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    2. This one won't be in the shop long:)

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  2. your doing a great job...I redid a chair my Dad built about 60 years ago..for my son and his wife...yeap...love the material

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