Sewing a Cushion, Putting on Sides | The Chair Chapter 5

Welcome to the long-awaited chapter 5 in my first re-upholstery project.

The Chair | Chapter 2 – This was the adventure it selecting the fabric. Clearance!

The Chair | Chapter 3 – Chapter 3 is when we took all the old fabric off and lost some skin on our fingers too

The Chair | Chapter 4 – Our most recent chapter saw us put on all the batting and the seat, back and arm fabric

And so the story continues with the reupholster of the seat cushion. I originally called around to a dozen places in town to have a professional do this, but after one place told me they couldn’t do it since there are springs inside the cushion and another quoted me about $70, my boyfriend’s gracious mother recommended we do it ourselves. Excellent!

She is a thrifty woman after my own heart and a wiz on the sewing machine.

Sunday The Chef and I headed over there fabric in tow to have some dinner and work on the cushion. While he went to a concert, his mom and I hit up the sewing machine. This is by no means a tutorial of how to sew a new cover for a t-cushion, but join along in our re-upholstery adventure.

First we made a pattern with newspaper to cut out pieces for the cushion.

Katie the cat helped hold the cushion down so it wouldn’t move while I was tracing. Thanks Katie.

Ben stood guard over the new fabric to be used.

I traced the patterns and cut them out. No cats helped with this part but they tried.

Freida made the welting. Also known as piping, this is the finishing decorative element we’ll use on the seat. I used craft paper twist that I had instead of buying specific upholstery rope. It saved me about $3.99 a yard.

After that I sewed the finished welting to the top and bottom patterns and then sewed the middle fabric to each top and bottom piece. Freida put in a zipper also. It’s helpful to have a zipper that goes around the corners of the cushion instead of just along one side so that you can open it and the cushion will fit in while you are putting the new fabric on.

Finally I went home with a newly covered seat. I’m very excited about this because the rest of the chair I can do myself, there is no sewing involved so I will be able to finish it soon.

Ben was so excited he wanted to come home with me so he hopped in my bag on the table. Cats kill me. And they make me sneeze. Is this where the phrase comes from “The cat’s out of the bag”?

Since I was on such a roll with this I went right to work on putting on the sides. Mind you this was at about 11:00pm on a Sunday night and the caffeine in my tea was still kicking. I just hoped the landlord downstairs wasn’t wondering what I was doing with all that stapling and hammering.

First I put in 3 staples to the underside of the fabric on the sides to hold it on then put on a row of stiff cardboard backing so the fabric will fold over nicely. This cardboard holds fabric in place and makes a straight edge when you need one. Here is a view of the side of the chair.

With some quick staples on the sides, back and bottom, which will all get covered, I repeated this on the other side and was finished in no time.

Here is where the chair stands today. I’ll give you a close up as to not ruin the finished product.

There is still more to do before a final reveal:
1. Cover the front arm parts and adhere them to the chair
2. Put on the back
3. Put the ticking on the bottom
4. Refinish the legs. Sand, clean, stain and seal them.

Soon enough I will be finished with this chair and it will live happily ever after in my living room.