What Have I Done?

Well, It seemed like a good idea at the time....I hope I won't regret it.....I hope you will find it interesting? What am I talking about? The 31 Day of Change Challenge(and it's not to late to join in my pain journey....that's what!

I have committed to blogging for 31 days STRAIGHT on one topic! October 1st, that's Saturday for everyone who is as bad with dates as I am... What's my topic? I'm so glad you asked...

                                                         

I even made my own button. We know that Wednesday's will be easy, I will continue my on-line upholstery class. As for the rest, one day at a time....I guess.

Day 1 The Upholstery Gun
Day 2 Fabric Sources
Day 3 Foam
Day 4 Jute webbing Crafty Projects
Day 5 Making your frame sturdy
Day 6 Tying Springs
Day 7 Under the Springs
Day 8 I Can't do this
Day 9 Uncommon Supplies
Day 10 Crafty Upholstery
Day 11 Inspirational Upholstery
Day 12 Paint the frame
Day 13 Chic painted frames
Day 14 MacKenzie-Childs
Day 15 Plaids
Day 16 Stripes
Day 17 Upholster...Anything!
Day 18 How Much Fabric?
Day 19 Upholstery 101 (week4)
Day 20 Who did it?
Day 21 Go, Dog! Go.
Day 22 Making Piping
Day 23 Let's Nail this down
Day 24 Or, you can do this
Day 25 Just Sit on It
Day 26 Upholstery 101 (week 5)
Day 27 Transportation
Day 28 What's Your Little Secret?
Day 29 Got Paint
Day 30 Technical Difficulties
Day 31 They Entertained Me!

I hope I won't bore you...and please feel free to suggest ANYTHING about upholstery that you would like to know!

On another note...have you ever seen a white deer?

she is actually an albino...and apparently quite rare.

she lives across the street from my home, in the woods.

all her offspring are totaly normal in color. She is a bit crazy, or brave...she just stares at me and waits for me to go back in the house so she can continue eating her way through my garden.

Upholstery 101 (week 1)

Hello, and welcome. If you are new here, this is the first of a series of posts following my upholstery project. I hope you will join along, find a project, and dig in.....and if you only want to watch, that's OK too! For Week 2 go here; Week 3 go here; Week 4 go here; Week 5 go here; Week 6 go here; Week 7 go here; Week 8 go here; Week 9 go here; Week 10 go here; The Finale go here!

Every Wednesday, until it is finished, I will share a step-by-step tutorial of re-upholstering this chair

so let's begin.....

This week, I used these tools

a nail puller, safety glasses, a dust mask, razor blades (not shown) and a pair of needle-nose pliers

Before you start...take lots of pictures to reference back to later.

Stripping the chair. Using a combination of puller and pliers, remove trim, fabric, nails and/or staples

go slow, try not to rip the fabric too much you will need some of the pieces for a pattern when cutting your new fabric. Take pictures along the way and also take notes of the order pieces come off. You will most likely re-upholster in the reverse order.

Note: arm has piping and is under stuffed

Note: side has piping on both sides

Note: back has 3 pieces

Note: sides are hand sewn together...I probably will not put it back together this way. It is not necessary with today's products available....but I will be flexible, and make that decision at the time.

I used a razor blade (oops, not in my tools photo) to cut the hand sewing.

open side seam all the way down the back

the reason why the back has no support. Not enough strapping, and set on the inside

 when you get to the "insides" of the chair, decide if the webbing/burlap has enough integrity and is doing the job. In this case, the burlap has too much give and should be replaced.

 flip the chair over to get into hard to reach areas. Yes, remove the black fabric to examine the springs

 In this case, I can see that the webbing on the bottom of the chair needs to be re-attached...but I knew there was a problem with the support, because the seat sagged when I sat in it

 under the arm

 Note, the finished inside fabric was in 3 pieces....maybe because of pattern, maybe because there was not enough, maybe they liked the look. However, since the lining is one solid piece, I will consider making my finished chair with one piece, no seems. Yes, this gray fabric is coming off, I need to get to the stuffing

 Note, the reason why the arms were not soft, batting has worn down over time

 the inside back of my chair, no support, need to fix that, I will be adding foam as well as batting for the finished chair

 horsehair for the seat covered with batting. I have used horsehair and it is messy. It does have a more authentic look, I will be using foam & batting

 this edge roll is perfectly fine, I will remove it and save it for the new chair. However, as you can see, the burlap needs to be replaced

and here you are...a completely stripped chair. You may notice that one of the tassels along the top came off in the process. It was very loose and needs to be glued.

I SAVED all the fabric scraps/pieces, I THREW OUT all of the batting, horsehair, nails, trim and burlap.

Next time, I will examine the overall sturdiness of the chair....until then

For Week 2 go here

My Custom Pink Pagoda Frame

Yesterday, I told you about my Pink Pagoda Print. Here is my step-by-step how-to make a custom frame.

First, you start with an Ikea Virserum

measure the width of the top profile to decide how much of a reveal you want

Next, a trip to Home Depot for the perfect profile trim. I wanted one that would compliment the Asian feel of the print as well as the bamboo accents I have in the room

Test the trim to confirm that you LOVE it!

measure, cut to length, and miter the corners

lightly sand your Virserum, to break the factory "seal"

add a bead of wood glue to the back of your cut molding

tape the molding into place (no need for nails) and let dry

spray prime completed frame

apply 2 coats of Rust-oleum's High Gloss Smoke Gray

here is an old painter's tip, since this is oil base, in-between coats (24hrs) place the brush (paint and all) into a plastic bag

...and put it in your freezer. The next day, let it acclimate to room temp for a few minutes, and you are ready to go...without ever cleaning the brush!

close-up of the finished frame profile as well as the burlap mat

...And now, onto creating custom matting

First, measure the reveal of your current mat

decide if you want the same reveal on all sides, measure and mark for your cut

cut the mat, I like to use a razor blade, choose what you are comfortable handling

place the cut mat on the wrong side of your fabric (I used ivory burlap) add double sided carpet tape...also from Home Depot

peel back the paper from the tape exposing the sticky side

trim your fabric so that it folds over half of the way...leaving room for the inside to fold the other half of the way

repeat this for all sides, trim corners, if need be, use a drop of frey check to keep the threads from unraveling

once you have completed covered the mat with fabric, you can lightly press the top to get it extra smooth

...and now onto the ribbon detail. Choosing an accent or highlight color for your print, I used my mini iron, a regular iron would work just fine

sandwiched between the ribbon and burlap is a thin piece of fusible web pre-cut to 1/4". I only mitered one of the ribbon pieces for each corner.

I spray mounted gray taffeta to the board that came with the frame

trimmed it to size, no need to have neat edges, the matting will cover it

placing the finished matting over the back, and using double sided acid free tape, I positioned the print exactly where I wanted it

clean the glass, reassemble, and admire

Don't forget, tomorrow begins the on-line upholstery tutorial