Adventures in Reupholstery...Kelly and Bob's Chair Part I

So I have to admit...this was a new adventure for me. It all started when I stashed a chair (which my husband purchased for 50 cents at a yard sale) in my barn and held on to it for five years swearing I would someday recover it. One day while digging in the barn I found the chair and pulled it out. As it is nearly impossible to get anything accomplished while watching three children, I called my mother and she suggested that I get started and just start ripping it apart first...Little did I know that pulling out nails, tacks and staples would be such a therapeutic task.

So, I ripped the chair down to nothing...see...


I had no intentions of reupholstering on my own... in fact, the next week my mother came up and we bought all of the materials and I sent it home with her, completely content to find a new chair to dismantle. (Check out my mother's story about the chair on her blog After I Finish This Row).

So, I continued on with my dismantle therapy...I was hooked...One day I remembered that I had an old favorite chair somewhere in the barn. When I asked my husband he said he had thrown it out...but I found it. This chair was a hand-me-down from my husband's sister Kelly and brother-in-law Bob. By the time we were done with it, it looked like this:


I know...scary...but I got to work and in the end it looked like this...
But this time I did not stop here...and put the frame in my mother's car. I decided I was going to give this a try... So I went to Joann's, and bought fabric and foam..determined to give this a try.

First, I used a staple gun to add fresh burlap. Then I used this upholstery "stuff" and weaved it together to make the back. The chair had cardboard there previously, but I didn't think it would last very long, so I used the weave method instead...Here is the chair after these additions:


Looks so much better doesn't it?? Next came the foam and organic cotton batting...


Completely foamed and batted...


One "How to make bias tape" tutorial, thanks to Erin at Patchwork Underground, one "How to make cording" tutorial, thanks to Jen at Just Another Day in the Lives of... and a little sewing later and ....

Voila!!! A New Chair...Or should I say...a new old chair!



Not too bad, huh? I would be lying if I said I wasn't ecstatic that this project will not be added to my new found favorite blog CraftFail, my mother and I laughed until we cried last night looking at some of the mishaps on this site. Stay tuned for Part 2...after I sand the legs and put this chair back together...