Upholstery Class Week 10

Today was the last day of upholstery class

and...

I did not finish my chair

*sob*

Even though it seemed like I was really close to being done,

there are just so many little steps!

I got a ton of stuff done today but it just isn't finished.

So I signed up for one more hour

a private session with the instructor.

I honestly don't know if I will be able to finish in an hour

but it was my only option other than bringing it home unfinished.

So we will meet for an hour before her next class begins.

Then I have to book out of there so the new folks have room for their projects.

-insert sad face-

Here is what I did accomplish:

First order of business was finishing the buttons.

As we were doing the buttons last week, one of the strings broke.

Kathleen told me that we should stop there and she would bring in better thread

because nobody wants buttons that pop off later!

That's for darn sure.

You use this ginormous needle to do it.

and it is a workout!

push push push, yank yank yank

and finally the needle comes through the other side.

Then you tie it with some cotton batting to hold it in place.

Kathleen showing me how to measure to be sure the buttons are even.

Measuring for the second row.

So awesome seeing it come together!

The back view with all the knots.

Later I took all of those strings and attached them to the nearest wood pieces with tacks.

Next I took all those pieces on the side that were tacked UP

and brought them DOWN and stapled.

All stapled down

Now if money falls out of someone's pocket

it won't be lost in the guts of my chair...

just sit there in the side, easily fished out.

Haha

Is that why we do this step?

Next, fill in the area with cotton

and put muslin over the top.

Neat and tidy.

Filling in the wings with cotton batting.

the side and wing back with the muslin on

I tilted the chair

(after tacking down the strings from the buttons)

and filled the back with cotton batting

Now, before I put the muslin on the back

I had to take out some of the staples holding the fabric of the chair back

so that I could make sure I had nice pleats going from the buttons to the top of the chair.

and I tightened it all up.

Covered the back with muslin.

staple the top, bottom and then sides

Next put a nice layer of batting across the whole thing

using some spray adhesive to help it stay in place.

Measure and cut fabric for the back and sides of arms.

Then mark with chalk and cut off excess.

I then had to spend some time making welting.

The top edge of the arms has it as well as the back.

You attach it to the top but leave some hanging down on the sides so that you can attach that part as you go.

That way it fits perfectly.

hard to explain

but it makes sense when doing it.

Here is a picture of one of the arms with welting attached.

At this point I looked around the room and realized

(again)

that I am a total mess!

My stuff was literally strewn across several areas in the room!

The table:

On top of a nearby sewing machine:

And just look at the area around my chair!

Oh my gosh, a disaster zone!

As a reference, here is my neighbor's work area:

When time was up this is what my chair looked like:

I have attached the top area of the sides.

Welting along the bottom front of chair.

Welting along the arm is about half done.

I simply tacked the back in place to try to protect my batting which is taking a beating from all the times I've moved the chair around.

The front looks amazing and finished for the most part.

But the back.

Oh the back.

I feel like I have a lot to do still...

Wish me luck.

I'm gonna need it!