Chevrawesome Chair

I am thankful for Project Runway. And HGTV. And blogs. And Pinterest. And wonderful DIY videos for those of us who like to take on difficult projects. And, of course, mom's lessons on sewing.

Because reupholstering a chair is hard.

Really hard. I could have been part of a cheesy 80s sitcom. Every time I would finish a section I would foolishly say, "That was the hardest part. The next part should be easy!" It became a joke to my husband, but I was sincerely convinced each time I was right. How could it be more difficult than what I just accomplished? I sewed piping and pleats in a curve! ..Oh, that's how.

And yet, I loved it.

Sure there were moments. I put the project down for two days after I completely botched one of the side panels and had to cut new fabric and try again.

But I am often an artist and love creating and I needed a comfortable chair to curl up in to do homework and work on my son's quilt. One that went with the room and my overall color scheme for the house. So I kept marching forward, overall had fun, and ended up with a chair I am excited about.

It cost me about a third of the price a chair like that normally goes for. I found the chair itself at Goodwill for $15 and bought the fabric on sale for $55 for 9 yards. I probably only needed 7 yards to simply cover it but the chevron pattern made it necessary to (attempt to) line everything up a certain way. If I had been able to stop buying supplies there, I would have gotten the chair for a crazy low price. But I decided to save time by buying the piping.  It cost $35 by itself and is really the only wasted money in the effort (I was distracted and didn't check the price before I was at the checkout--after I'd had the store cut the section already).

So $105 for a chair that fits my sense of style. Good buy. I can be picky.

Reupholstering a Chair

Let me say now that this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know I've already said that and implied it repeatedly above. However, had I taken this on even three years ago, I would not have been able to successfully complete it. Even now, there are flaws in the completed version that I have decided to live with until I come up with a remedy I can feel secure won't make things worse.

I didn't actually mean to buy it. I was looking for more diningroomesque (it's totally a word) chairs with padding that I could personalize.

But then I walked into Goodwill, and there the chair was, looking at me, with its perfectly healthy structure and dingy upholstery. And its $15 price tag. I bought it and took it home and wondered if I had made a relatively cheap mistake and how I would get rid of it if I decided I had made a mistake.

Just look at that face. I couldn't leave it there.

I turned to my friend, always there for me in times of confusion: Google. I found several blogs over covering a wingback chair (this was the one I found the most useful, as well as the videos she links in this blog post--they helped me identify what I was working with when I took the chair apart).

I probably should mention that while I was all gumption and positivity and self-confidence and actively looking for a (much easier) reupholstery project, this is actually the first time I've done anything like that. My sewing experience is mostly limited to costumes for myself and my son. 

I should also mention that my brand-new old wingback chair had a surprise waiting for me: it's a recliner! I had no idea until I sat in it at home and happened to lean back.

So I jumped straight into the deep end. That's fine. Some people learn to swim that way.

The Process: It's All About the Record-Keeping

Even the tack strips were meticulously
labeled.

I like to keep records. Luckily, we live in a fantastically technological age, and so I was able to keep records by simply taking approximately a billion pictures with my phone as I took the chair apart. I am not sure I can clearly articulate how glad I was that I had taken the billion photos when I started trying to put the chair together. I can tell you that I bought the chair in late September, slowly took it apart through January (I had maybe an hour a week to devote to it, and that was not always the case), took lots of pictures, and labeled everything to an embarrassing degree (until I was putting things back together, at which point I was super relieved I obsessively labeled and took pictures).

Note the wear and tear on the head.
That's not even very far into the
removal.

Taking the chair apart was actually a learning process for me. I finally perfected the art of removing staples after almost stabbing myself with a screwdriver more times than I'd like to admit. You need a flat head screwdriver that you don't mind possibly ruining, a hammer, and pliers. The professional-grade staples that had been used to attach everything to my chair fought removal most of the time. I had to wedge the screwdriver at an angle (45 degrees or so) and hammer it into the wood just below the staple, then twist to create a gap. At which point, it was generally simple to remove the staple with pliers. 

I carefully kept all the fabric I removed from the chair and labeled, as well as the tack strips, pli-grip strips, and metal tack strips for each section so I wouldn't have to replace any of the hardware.

I learned while doing this, as many others have, that chairs are actually much less sewn than we tend to think they are. Mostly they're cobbled together with staples and other sharp implements. 

I just loosened the metal tack strips with my screwdriver.

The pli-grip strips are kind of like stapled-down carpet tacks.
You should pry them open, then carefully remove the staples.

The side panels were attached at top with a tack strip that
could curve around the arm, then pli-grip for the front curve
and metal tack strips for the top and back. Then they were
stapled to the bottom. No sewing, but lots of room for error.

I am so glad I took as many photos as I did, if only for the moral support the photos gave me whenever I doubted if I had the right approach. I simply had to follow the photos backwards to reconstruct the chair. 

Putting Things Back Together

Battened and beautiful.

If I were cool, I would have planned these images to line up.

I followed Modest Maven's and my mother's suggestion to cover the chair in quilt batting before moving on to the fabric. It did help contain the loose wool that was falling apart all over the chair, and made it feel fresher even before I put the new fabric on. I also sanded the legs and stained them a nice reddish color (Cabernet by Verathane) before putting three coats of polyurethane on them. You can see in most of the before pictures that they had been varnished and were chipping badly. I like the red tone with the light, bright teal on my finished chair.

I was fortunate in both of those endeavors: I didn't have to buy anything new. I tend to have quilt batting (it can be surprisingly handy) and we bought a bunch of sample stains before we decided how to treat our floors (most of which we didn't use) in the new house.

I also saved money where I could by using scrap fabric for sections that would not eventually see the light of day (in the picture to the right).

There's not much left to say! I used the original fabric as my pattern--luckily the manufacturer of the chair marked pleats and matched pieces by cutting nicks into the fabric, so I didn't have to figure that out myself; I simply ironed all the pieces, pinned them to my chevron material, cut and sewed and stapled. If yours is not marked, however, it will make your life much easier if you go ahead and mark fabric so you can easily align darts and pieces correctly before you sew.

I also learned that it's much easier to sew a section with piping by:

Step 2 of piping!

1. Basting the piping to one side first. I found this made it much easier for me to align the fabric because I didn't have to adjust three pieces, but only two.
2. Then basting the whole thing together. The basting made it easier for me to focus on keeping the fabric nice and straight and unwrinkled when I was ready to sew it close to the piping.
3. Finally sewing a line next to the piping. I used a zipper foot and actually sewed a little into the piping itself just to keep things as tight as possible.

And I learned how to use tack strips and metal tack strips on the back of the chair. The pli-grip was saved for the side panels, and I will tell you that, at least for me, it took some finesse.

The tack strip was used to create
a sharp line on the curve.

The metal tack strip created sharp
edges on the sides.

Just poke the spikes through...

And then you'll roll them into the
chair and hammer.

Final Thoughts

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the putting together process because I found that no matter how many blogs I'd read about wingback chairs and wingback recliners, mine was different. My guess is that manufacturers approach manufacturing in their own ways. So the big lesson here is to let your chair be your guide. Take a million pictures. Label like no one's watching. And create something you love.

I know I love mine.

I did my best to align the chevrons patter. Sometimes I was
at least a little successful.

I really love the way the chair turned out. Maybe someday I'll take
a new picture once I've removed the wallpaper in the room and
repaired and painted the wall. And added trim. And have a new table.
And move the outlet from the middle of the wall (so many things).