Wingback Chair

It's still cloudy today, but at least I went for a walk so I'm feeling a bit more energized. :-)

So, here's where I left off yesterday.

Wednesday night I tore off the rest of the upholstery and was left with that! What had I gotten myself into?

Yesterday, I pretty much worked all day on it.  I used the old material for a pattern and cut out all my pieces.  I didn't really take many pictures.  I tend to not cut my fabric enough (I like big pieces!) so I tried to really cut the pieces the correct size, but I'm afraid the fabric for the bottom cushion is too small! Luckily, I have extra and I planned on making a cushion for another chair anyway!  I think the rest of the pieces are fine though, except maybe the top which I'm changing from the original. I'll have to double check that.

I had to sew piping for the first time ever!  I found a good tutorial which I watched along with some of her other ones.  I removed all the piping from the chair so I just reused it!  It was pretty easy since I have a zipper foot for the sewing machine. Once I sewed all the piping, I just used the old fabric pieces again for a pattern and laid the piping sorta on top of the new fabric and pinned it in place. Then I sewed it on! 

I had to re-do one of the front arm pieces.  I pinned them inside out (upside down?) on the opposite arm. For the first piece I sewed the piping to the bigger arm piece then I attached the front piece sorta upside down.  But that made the bottom part of the arm piece look backwards (if you really look closely.) So, for the second, I sewed on the front arm piece and then sewed that upside down to the bigger arm piece. This is the one I had to redo, since I couldn't really see what I was sewing and I don't have "normal" seam allowances.  (I don't really like to measure ;-)! )  I think it looks ok, although I may run another seam across on both of the front arms.

 I hadn't really realized there was so much sewing in upholstery. It makes me think I should just do a slipcover.  But I've already removed the old fabric (Plus I have a "autumn" slipcover already.)  Now it should come together pretty quickly. I'm ok with all the stapling, and I have to figure out how to sew the upholstery to other pieces when they're on the chair. I borrowed a nice round needle from my MIL so I should be all right!

 I also have to really think about the bottom cushion. I cut the pieces to go around the zipper, but they're too narrow. I didn't really measure and it turned out my pieces were crooked. When I ironed them (which I also don't like to do), I found out, but decided to go ahead and sew 'em on anyway.  So, I'll have to redo that.  

I've made lotsa cushions (I redid our couch) and did a pretty good job on them, once I figured out that size matters! My top cushions are a bit crazy b/c I thought since they are "slouchy" cushions, it wouldn't matter if they were square! Well, it matters! Plus, one cushion insert is way smaller than the other 2(how did that happen? I think it was from the middle of our old red couch and it got leaned on more). Anyway, the cover is also smaller. I really should re-do that one...

So much work to do, so little time!  This weekend is a long one (Victoria Day is Monday) so I might not post again until Tuesday! :-)