Apartment Redress :: Sewing Chair Part II :: Finished!

I am so happy that I decided to do the Apartment Redress series. It has really kept me motivated to keep improving my space. I think that if it weren’t for you, not only would I have not started reupholsterying this chair, there is no way I would have finished up in just a week! Amazing!

Without further ado:

I sewed around the edges of the fabric I cut out last Thursday; just to keep the pieces together when stretching them over the foam.

I took the old foam and traced the shape on the new foam block and cut it out with very sharp scissors.

Then I took the old fabric and transfered the stitch marks to the back side of the new fabric. I just poked the pen tip through the old fabric about every 1/4 inch.

Then I connected the dots:

From that line I was able to correctly stitch the back rest fabric. I folded the piece of fabric in half the same way the old fabric was folded and stitched along the lines. Then I slipped the wood and new foam into the new sleeve of fabric… and I forgot to take a picture of that. But that’s okay, here’s the next step — I stretched the fabric edge down and stapled it to the groove in the wood:

Then I folded the other side under and stapled it into the groove to. This gave it a nice clean finish on the underside.

Molly did a quality control inspection for the seat:

I actually had a hard time keeping her away from the foam. She was kneading it like crazy. That’s so cute, haha.

I centered the foam and wood for the seat on the fabric with the wrong side facing up and started stretching and stapling the fabric.

I actually did it the same way I stretch a canvas and it worked really well. I folded up one side, stapled in the middle, then pulled over the opposite side tightly and stapled in the middle. Then I rotated it clockwise, pulled the fabric over tightly (but not too tight) and stapled, repeated for the remaining side. Then I went back to the starting point. Stretched right of center and stapled. Rotated clockwise and repeated stapling to the right until I was back at the beginning. Then I stretched and stapled left of the center. Rotated clockwise and repeated. I kept doing this, alternating right of the center and then left of the center until I was about 4 inches from the corners. Oh and while I was doing this, I was stretching it so the pattern lined up along all the edges.

I folded the corners like this:

I had a really funky rounded corner on the wood, so if you have a square corner, it would be a lot easier. The main thing is that you want a nice finished fold without funky gathering or bulges on the corner. I just stapled it down once folded.

I took an old piece of scrap mat board and cut it to fit the underside of the seat and stapled it down to cover up the raw edge of the fabric.

Then I marked where the new screw holes needed to go, and put everything back together:

You can see the whole Redress of the chair here in the flickr set and all the Redress projects here in the flickr collection.

Now it’s late, the lighting sucked, and I was completely disappointed with this shot, so I’m going to reshoot it tomorrow when I have better light and I put up the new photo. Same thing goes for the dresser, it was such a bad picture that I’m just going to wait to post it, haha.

So why did this get up so late? Welllll… I received a phone call a little before 11 (just as I was starting to sew of course) and it was the chocolate shop I applied to last Saturday and would I be available to come in for an interview today. I said yes and off I went ironing and fixing myself up and eating some lunch and away I went. Well I got the job and will start training on Thursday. It’s just part time, actually less than part time as it will be mainly filling in when people need off. I just would like more of a financial buffer than I have now and be able to put more money away into savings each month and this will help out with that. Perfect. It’s exactly what they need and it’s exactly what I need.

And then as I was walking to the chocolate shop from the bus stop I received yet another call and it was the Octagon shop saying they would love it if I could teach knitting classes starting in January. Perfect! I’m going to be teaching beginning knitting classes in Jan/Feb and then towards the end of Feb I’ll be teaching a Beginning Pattern Writing Workshop! What fun! I’m really excited and a little nervous, but I’m sure I’ll over prepare and do just great. If you live in the area you should totally take one of the knitting classes with me ;)

I’m really hoping that this will lead to teaching other fiber arts classes and maybe some painting and drawing classes too. Or maybe I could get a discount on other classes they offer and get to take some ceramics classes or life drawing (which is always good to keep doing even if I’ve already had 3 figure drawing classes).

And as an added bonus to both jobs I think it will help me to start meeting other folks in the area and at the Octagon shop other artists particularly. Exciting!

How will this effect Craft Leftovers? Maybe a little delay in posts if I get called in last minute, but other than that, not at all. I think it will be enough to help out with savings, but not so much that I won’t be able to keep up my current pace.

And with that, I’m totally exhausted. I’m going to go hop into the shower, make some tea, curl up with some knitting and a good book and relax a bit.

Have a good night!
Kristin