Tutorial: Upholstery My Way

Well here's a little tutorial for you all. This is a one up from just wrapping a seat. I think it's kinda fun to add fabric to a plain wooden chair--even when you can't just pop off the seat and wrap it in fabric. 

So, are you with me?? This is a bit long . . .

Supply List:
Chair
Fabric
Dacron or 10 oz.+ batting
1" or 2" foam
Electric staple gun
Needle nose pliers
Scissors
Several sharp razors
French gimp trim or other decorator 1/2" or wider trim
Hot glue gun and glue.

1:  Cut your foam to size--I used 2" for a cushy seat. 1" will give you a trimmer, sleeker looking seat.

2:  Loosely staple your dacron in place. No need to be exact or pull hard--you just want to keep things from sliding around on you as you pull your fabric.

Note: Dacron is the padding you'll find at your upholstery stores. It's more crush resistant than regular fabric store batting you'd put in a blanket and will hold up longer.

3: Trim your corners of any extra bulk by pinching them and trimming the wedge.

4: Like this:

5:  Place your fabric on your chair with your pattern straight and centered. Loosely cut or rip your fabric to size so it's easy to work with.  Remember you need enough to wrap around the bottom edges.

6:  We interrupt this regularly scheduled tutorial to show off how stinkin' cute my kids are cleaning my store to earn quarters for the candy machine.

7: Back to work. You have a few choices for finishing the bottom edge. If you don't want to use french gimp trim (will show you this later) then you can nicely finish your edge by folding it over and stapling it along the edge.  Option 2: which I will use the rest of the time--is to simply staple and cut the excess with a razor.  I will cover my ugly edge with french gimp trim at the end.  Once you decide your method, secure the complete front edge to each corner, leaving the sides of the seat loose for now.

8:  Still facing your seat front, pull your fabric back firmly on each side, making sure your pattern is square. Place a temporary staple on each side to hold your fabric square while you work on the back side. A temporary staple is placed by angling your staple gun so that one edge of the staple sticks out.  Picassa was being funny and it wouldn't let me add a nice big arrow pointing to my temp staple in the picture below, but hopefully you get the idea.

Close up of temp staple.

9: Folding your fabric forward from each corner, snip diagonally to each corner. This will allow you to wrap the fabric around each side. CAUTION: Snip slowly. You can always snip more, but you can't unsnip what has been snipped!!

10: Pull your fabric through the back. Pulling tight and evenly--gripping with your whole hand, not just your fingers--staple your fabric into the crevice. Always work from the center to each edge when stapling. Fold the fabric over at each edge so you have a nice finished corner.

11: Using a SHARP razor trim very close to the staples.

12: Next remove the temporary staple from one side.  Since you didn't place your staple tight, these will usually just pull out, but if you have delicate fabric use your pliers.  While pulling the fabric BACK and DOWN with your full hand grip, staple the fabric under the edge of the chair.

13: After you finish each side, you should have a little pocket of fabric at the front corner on each side. We will use this to make our pleats. Take this pocket and pull it straight out.  This will help you center your pleat evenly.

14: Now pull it down. You should have a nice two-sided pleat.

15: Holding the fabric in place staple your pleat under the lip of the chair.

16: Using your uber sharp razor, trim closely to the staples.

 17: Hide all those ugly edges by hot gluing french gimp cord over the top!

 18:  Voila! Beautiful upholstered chairs!!

Thanks for visiting!

Jessica

Sharing Here: