Project Chair
a.k.a. How to reupholster a chair when you don’t know what you are doing
A reupholstery project using an old chair found in a Red Cross store
I wanted a comfortable armchair for my house, and it was time for a big make so I set out one weekend to find an old, cheap-ish chair that would make a good craft project. I ended up with a wing back chair from a Red Cross store, which was in great shape apart from the fabric being a bit worn. After a false start with new fabric (I got a roll delivered but was sent the wrong colour, only discovered after transporting 3 m of fabric on a bike from the post office) I got some in Stof2000, where I also got my upholstery tools.
I set about learning how to re-do the upholstery by reverse engineering the entire thing: taking the existing fabric off the chair in the opposite order to which it had been installed (e.g. the covering on the base of the chair came off first, but was put back on last). I decided that the easiest way to get the fabric dimensions right would be not to rip the old cover off, but to remove it whole and then disassemble it into individual pieces, marking their position on the chair as I went, adding notes for where they joined to other pieces, flattening them back into 2 dimensions, and then using those pieces as my chair pattern.
Then, I made a chair toile from cheap fabric, where I made all of my mistakes (e.g. attaching a zip upside down) and worked out the trickiest bits (e.g. how to sew on elastic at a full stretch). And then after that it was easy! I retraced the pieces on my fabric, stitched them together, installed the zips at the back, stapled it all into place and that was it.
The only thing I couldn’t bring myself to do was re-install the buttons, as I would have had to make holes in the freshly re-upholstered chair back. I did a couple of trials stabs with a tufting needle on the toile and it was a little hit and miss, so I decided to leave it be for now. I still have that tufting needle, though, so maybe in the future.
Usage: I’m happy to say that this gets used at least once a month: it’s a good chair for reading and relaxing. It sits in a sunny spot next to a window.