Construction....no more deconstruction....

First, I like to remind myself when I do projects to get a glimpse at the finish line so I held up a piece of fabric to the completed paint. I like it. Lots.

So in an attempt to be thrifty, I ordered upholstery foam online and it arrived. It looked like the child of the Planter's Peanuts character.

Beginning to expand....

Spreading out....

I was pleased at what I received for a few dollars that would be three times as much at a craft store.

So let's do some assembly!

First, I stapled down burlap and a padded edge I made last week on the seat. The padded edge is simply a stuffed burlap sleeve. This keeps the sharp edge of the wood frame from causing wear and tear to the cushion.

The inside edge of the stuffed sleeve is down. The burlap is lightly stapled on the inside frame.

This is the old, original cotton I laid back on the back frame. I really thought about how to do this back padding. I could cut out 3-4 inch foam and shape it.

After fluffing up the top edge, I decided to reuse the cotton.

I laid over the cotton a layer of the 1/2 inch foam. This is about halfway through tucking in the edges to be stapled down in the back and across the top.

Putting this foam on was fairly easy. It was simply laying it over the cotton and pulling it through against the frame along the side and top and stapling down. As I did this, I constantly checked for smoothness and evenness.

Here it is done. I am pleased with the firm and even shape.

Decided to try the cushion on it, and it fits. With the extra batting and foam it's puffed up a bit, which is exactly what I want. Reupholstered furniture not plump enough has a tired, shriveled look. We all took a test ride and sat on this. Lots of thumbs up.

So I keep promising to start on this, and the foot to my machine has arrived. Put away the chair and pulled out the fabric tools.

Cutting. Since I added more batting to this cushion I added 1/2 inch more around the edge of the cover. It will be very tight to put the cushion into this thing. but again, tight and puffy is  the look I'm doing for.

Next up on the to-do list; making bias for the piping. For non sewers, what is bias? The piping around the cushions there is a cord wrapped in fabric--that fabric is bias. It is cut on the diagonal of fabric because it is stretchier when you do that. You want it stretchy so you can wrench it around corners on square cushions. Cutting fabric on a 45 degree angle is referred to as "cutting on the bias". The resulting stretchy strip of fabric is referred to as "bias" strips. So you have to cut yards and yards of these strips then sew them end to end. If you want to try a new trick I found for how to make bias by simply measuring, sewing one seam and doing one long cut....click here. I did it tonight and will be doing that again.

The most basic of projects seem to need yards and yards and yards of bias. It is a bit tedious.

Non sewers who simply want to get their mind wrapped around how to make piping, here is a basic tutorial for that. It also shows how to use a zipper foot on your machine to make it which is handy.

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Making the piping and double welting was surprisingly easy. The new machine foot worked like a charm. I not only managed to whip out all the piping I needed in one evening but also a generous supply of double welting and got pretty deep into assembling the cushion.

One of these things is not like the other, yet they are all the same.

Feeding cording through the foot. I'm pleased at how easy this is with the new foot and how fast this is going.

Completed single welt.

Feeding through double welting.

Completed.

I spent my first evening, only one evening, making single piping for the cushion and double welting for the finishing edge. Because I'm not great at sewing and running a camera at the same time, I recommend taking a look at this video for a simple tutorial.

After making the piping, I continued to use the foot to start making the cushion cover. Anytime you need to feed a cording through the machine, use the foot.

One side of the cushion cover is complete. I like the look.

So hey, I'm on a roll....let's keep going! Let's put on the zipper.

I continued to use the piping foot because feeding a zipper through a machine is similar to putting piping through.

I did a fancy detail I learned where the zipper pull will be tucked into a small pocket of the cushion.

 

I hope you get at least a small idea of how to assemble a cushion through my pictures. The steps went in this order:

• Making piping.
• Attaching piping to the two faces of the cushion.
• Create zipper panel and attached to non-zipper side panels. (Zippers and pulls can be purchased at any craft store with upholstery supplies. I bought enough for two zippers, and spent $3.)
• Install side panel to the two faces.

I really really really recommend this Sailrite video on the complete step by step process of assembling a cushion. Especially the extra detail of having the tucked in zipper pull--I have never seen that detail and wanted to try it after watching. Obviously I didn't watch the pattern placement as much as she did in the video to make sure things lined up, but I appreciate that aspect of the video because it helped me in my last project that had the paisley design. Those sorts of details make DIY projects look professional.

Ta daaa!

Next? I will be going back to the seat of the frame and making the platform that the cushion sits on. Once that is made and attached, I am done with the sewing machine.

Here is the forecast:

• Seat of the frame.
• Upholster the back.
• Upholster the inside arms.
• Upholster the outside arms.
• Upholster the back.
• Apply dust cover to the bottom.
• Flip it over and sit on it because it's done at that point.

The Under Belly

In my previous posts, I've said how I hated the underneath of this beast because it had razor sharp edges that would cut the back of my hand if I reached under it.

It took me this project to figure out what the heck the culprit of the cuts was. Over the years, I guessed a protruding nail or a sharp edge from a broken part of the frame. But was I wrong.

First let's talk reconstruction. The more I looked at the condition of the jute straps, the more I decided to not just re-nail the ragged edges but to replace the straps. I'm glad I did.

The "before" pic of the underbelly.

Getting the old jute off. It's at this moment, I wonder if there will be anything left to the original chair.

When I demo-ed the chair from day one, you'll remember I mentioned the little sharp "connectors" that were installed to stabilize the jute with the springs. It was hard to take a picture, because they were tiny things. I researched the evil little buggers. They are called "Klinch It Fasteners" and are attached with a "Klinch It" tool. Both are very expensive and used by professional upholsters. If you look it up, you'll see this product advertised as a time saver instead of hand sewing springs to jute. Since I don't do this for a living, I'm happy to spend an hour doing the hand sewing, and you'll see that later. You can also imagine I am also happy to not have razors on my furniture. I'm thinking this is somewhat of a dated method of attaching jute to springs since this is the only piece of furniture I've ever some in contact with that has these evil little buggers.

Looking inside the structure of the chair, you see this connector that holds the spring to the jute so it doesn't move when a body sits on the chair. Looks innocent right?

Until you turn it over. This is the underneath of the chair, and there are the blades. There are nine springs in this chair and each had two little razor critters.

After exorcising them out of my chair. I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am to have these off the chair. Just working on this chair this week, these things have snagged my skin and clothes.

Springs are flailing. Nails all over the place. Time to bring order to chaos.

Let's start installing the jute.

Strapping jute onto a chair frame. It takes jute and a tightening tool. Since I didn't have a helper to take a picture of me using the tool, I recommend this video for a tutorial on how to use it to achieve super tight straps that give your piece a firm seat. I used a stretcher just like she did. In the video, she uses a stapler, I used nails. Both work.

First strap, many more to go.

You will see the springs are all over the place. But they are tied down by twine. There is actually a method to doing that. The ties on mine were actually still in tact and doing fine so I didn't redo those--one of the few things on this project I won't be. A simple search on YouTube will show you how to tie those down.

At this point, I realize I'm so glad I replaced not repaired. I can see the huge difference in how tight the new jute is. When I look at the "before" picture, the jute had been overstretched over time and resulted in "sinking" into the chair when one sat in it. The new jute will make it feel firm and new.

On the inside, the springs are back in place, but slide around very easily over the slick, tight jute. The previous jute and spring installer used "let's install razor bladed connectors" technique. I went old school. You can also see the ties between the springs are in good shape. 

This is "before" I did my razor blade free technique.

I used a simple sewing technique and tacked down each -spring twice with heavy duty upholstery  thread. I ran a needle and thread "over and under" about 8-10 times twice on each spring. There is a enough "give" so when a person sits, the thread doesn't break from the stress, but each spring won't slide while a person sits on the chair either.

Can you see the black thread tacks?

So next....gads....it's almost overwhelming. The frame repair and painting is done. Now we start upholstering! However, I did get my new foot I mentioned I ordered. Maybe I should make the scads of piping I'll need. Let's do that next.

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Here's a cool little thing I just discovered. I ordered a sample of this vinyl from Warehouse Fabrics Inc. The idea for a project this summer is to paint the worn out dressers in the kids' room and line the drawers with a vinyl that will be cool and offer some durability and ease of cleaning to the inside of the drawers.

I ordered the sample for $1.75. Kids love the idea and look. I recently saw it by the yard at Fabric Depot in Portland.  At Fabric Depot, it's $34 a yard. At Warehouse Fabrics, it's $9.98 a yard. My point is, be sure to shop around a bit. I think it's worth the few dollars and time to order a sample and get great savings as much as possible. Plus, it goes back to my point in my original post...I need my fabrics for these projects to be under $10 a yard to make reupholstering furniture a thrifty venture. Lesson learned...shop around a bit.

The Painted Lady

Whilst all the travels for work happen this week, I have the opportunity to lay down layers of primer, paint and clear coat without being tempted to rush.

Rushing painting is the reason I botch painting projects. I just want to be done, and paint must dry. I push it and end up with permanently gummy/sticky paint.

I also decided that I am going to do this project completely differently than I have done before. There are too many great paint options out there for the novice to experienced crafter to make a project easy and doable.

I am from the old school (think junior high woodshop class) where the thinking was to always take a used project down to the bare wood then stain it. If you have ever stripped wood of whatever is on it, you know why it has taken me until my 40's to do anything different. Between wood stripper, mineral spirits, and wood stain....yuck and yuckety yuck yuck yuck!

No more! I want to simply paint. But if you "simply paint" it peels off, because everything has a gloss on it.

First, always lightly sand down anything you want to paint. It gives whatever you put on it something to grab onto.

Second, on used furniture especially, prime it. And hey, in the last 30 years, primers are now no longer an environmental mess to use. Love technology. For furniture, I recommend a bonding primer. Primer by itself it meant to cover up and block the previous color from bleeding through. Using a bonding primer not only covers up the previous color but grabs onto your sand-roughened surface and provides a great surface for your paint to grab onto. For those of use who don't want to remove paint, but just want to put a nice coat on something...this is the way to go. The bonding primer I used cleans up easily with soap and water....no mineral spirits and a HAZMAT suit.

First coat. Light sand in between to smooth out drips and imperfections. Keeps the surface rough too.

You'll notice I purposely painted beyond the grooves where the "showing" part and "not showing" border is. I will do that with the paint as well. It prevents any chance of an unpainted part from peeking through.

Meanwhile, over at the cushion....I have been scheming. I saw a video online of a "welting foot". "Welting" being the piping that goes around the edges of cushions. "Foot" being an attachment on a sewing machine. For the non-sewers out there, there are scads of feet for machines out there to do all the various kinds of stitches we see in fabric daily that we don't even realize.

This is single welting, or piping. I managed to do this in the last project and hide my mistakes in the seams. This chair is my next project. There is always the option to not put in piping. It changes the look of a piece, and not necessarily for the worse...it's a design feature. 

After the last project, I just about overheated my machine making it take piping through it to stitch it. The piping turned out okay but it was not ideal. I found myself hoping a welting foot would be available out there in internet world for my 25+ year old sewing machine--for a few dollars. I think I have found it.

Especially on this project, where I will need a double welting, I have been a bit worried how to do this.

This is double welting that is glued over the seam and staples underneath.

Did I mention this project would teach me a few new techniques? Double welting is one of them. It's the primary way to make a transition between a raw fabric edge and wood that can't simply be tucked away. Usually the furniture manufacturer creates an edge in the wood to do this. It's actually quite spectacular if it's done well. However, if the welting was shoved through the sewing machine, that spectacular feature becomes an obvious DIY fail.

I found a foot that would fit my machine for less than $10 and it would also make single and double welting/piping. Score! The cushion remains on hold until my week of travels is over and the welting foot arrives. 

The manufacturer placed ridge for the double welting.

Ridge for welting.

So while that foot travels through the Amazon Dot Com universe, let's continue the painting...

First coat of latex.

On this hand rest, I'll make sure to put down two layers of clear coat, one everywhere else. The first coat leaves a streaked black/gray. Don't ever judge a paint by its first coat. If you're unsure, put two coats on a scrap piece of wood.

In case you didn't know, I'll tell you...latex cleans up with soap and water and so does clear coat. I cannot reiterate enough how cool that is. You're talking to a woman who has painted the exterior of her home with a primer that required mineral spirits to clean up. I will do that kind of clean up....grumbling....for acres of painting. I will not do it for a few square inches of a chair that came with razor blades installed (see previous post). Soap and water is five minutes of time. Mineral spirits is a half an hour of clean up and twenty four hours of smelling like an oil refinery. Your choice. 

Five days later.....

My crazy week of travel is over. As I came and went, I primed, painted and coated. Here are the results. I like the results.

Next post....

The welting foot has arrived and springs. How to fix springs!