Yes I'm still alive. I had 3 posts in October, I was on a roll. And then it stopped Ha. But here I am, attempting again to be more consistent. And I have a story to tell.
It's a story about a chair. A chair that was bought some odd years ago by a lovely couple named My Parents. They were redoing their room, wanted a nice chair, bought this one. And decided it didn't match. So it sat in their basement for another some odd years.
Well made chair, nice shape, just awkward pattern.
Just under 2 years ago when I moved/got married this chair was gifted to my by my impulsive dad much to the disagreement of my mother (by this time she had replaced said chair with a new chair so I don't know what here bond was to the chair that kind of ugly). But I graciously accepted said chair because, well, I was a newlywed and broke and free things are always nice.
Awkward pattern.
Fast forward 20 months and the chair was sitting in our back room, where it hadn't moved since we moved. It was a great place holder for quilts, my wedding shoes (what do you do with your wedding shoes when your done having a wedding?), a random pile of gift bags, and probably some dust.
Once fine fall evening a thought burst into my head. Reupholster. Such a naive little thought. I checked my sources (pinterest), looked at some fabric options, made a pleading argument to my husband and decided I was up for the challenge. I'm a crafty person, I was bored of my living room, and thought that this reupholstered chair would be a perfect fit. The tutorials I found seemed simple enough.
1. Take apart your chair piece by piece.
2. Carefully document each piece and each step by taking pictures and writing notes.
3. Use your old pieces as a pattern to cut new pieces.
4. Sew any needed pieces together.
5. Put the chair back together.
5 steps! I thought I was in heaven.
*Disclaimer* I love crafts. It gives me something to do while also giving me something new for my home. However, I have no patience (mom, stop snickering). I want instant gratification. I want it done in one day and to look perfect. I've always loved sewing but it has always been my demise because I simply cannot control myself and will quickly rush through a project which results in a crappy looking half sewed piece of fabric. So with this project, the hubs only agreed if I took my time and went slow. I really tried people.*
So on a trip to Hobby Lobby we went. We easily agreed on a fabric (surprising). Used our coupon. And I happily bounced home to begin.
300 staples, a couple blisters and a bloody knuckle later and I had only gotten the bottom piece off. What did I get myself into?
Thankfully I saved that spiky, metal strip. It saved my life later on.
This back edge had 4 different layers of staples.
So many random pieces being pulled in random ways and I just wanted to scream.
This chair thing was not an easy 5 step process. It took me almost 3 days of just pulling staples out. Once I finally had all the pieces removed I thought to myself "Sweet, now the easy part. Sew the pieces together and staple back on."
Finally cutting fabric. This was probably the most exciting part.
Au contraire my friends.
The pieces cut out nicely. I had
just the right amount of fabric I thought I had lined the fabric pattern up quite well, and i got to sewing. Joy was spreading through my body, a smile across my face and the hubs was starting to be impressed. We got the backrest piece on. Smoothed it out and stapled it down. It looked lovely. I went to take a test seat and my hopes were crushed. The fabric didn't fit right and there was at least a 3 inch gap between the actual chair and the fabric that was now pulling away from the chair once I was sitting in it.
I may have cried.
I'll fast forward to save you some heartache. I unstaples. I resewed my seams. Refitted. Resewed again. Restapled Test sat. Unstapled. Resewed. Restapled. Test sat. Unstapled. Rearranged. Restapled. Too ripply. Unstapled. Rearranged. Restapled. Unstapled half. Restapled. Finally decided some small ripples were ok.
All in all I unstappled and restappled the backrest piece 5 times. Holy nightmare.
I would like to say putting the rest of the chair on went smoothly. But I would be lying. It was as huge of a night mare as the backrest piece but it was fairly close. Luckily I saved some originaly metal strips that came with the chair which helped tremendously with attaching the final back piece. But There was one part where I was cutting cardboard strips from a box lid. Classy. But it worked.
About the 4th time of re-stapling that stupid backrest piece.
Finished!
All in all it took me a good two weeks of working on it almost every night. My house was a disater, I vaccumed up way more staples than is probably good for a vacuum, but the chair is done. It looks decent. I really like the fabric we chose. But I'll admit, my heart flutters everytime someone sits in it (a whole two people have so far) because I'm terrified it will just fall apart.
Our backroom exploded.
My advice. Bench pads and barstools...go for it. Full on chairs... buy a new one. But I followed through, it looks decent, and I think I surprised the hubs and the mom (ye of little faith).
Finished!
How it looks in the room. Doesn't exactly fit...But I'm going to swing the couch around and put it on the far right instead. Eventually.
I really am pleased with the final product. It was a lot of work and would have been a whole heck of a lot easier to just buy a new chair. But I proved something, it gave me a project for awhile, and it was somewhat fun haha.
