My new chair!

I recently reupholstered a beautiful, comfortable chair that was given to us from Preston's grandmother!  It turned out GREAT!  I am in absolutely in love with it!  Every time Carl sits in it, he says "Aahh!" 

So here's a little low-down on how the whole project came about so that all of you that are considering trying it out will realize it's not so bad!

 SUPPLIES

Order in advance

Fabric
Dust Cover
Metal Tack Strips (I used four for my chair)

Taking apart old chair
Permanent Marker (to mark the pieces that you take off of the chair and will use at patterns)

Flat head screwdriver
Needle Nose Plyers

Staining legs (if you want)

Sander

Sandpaper

Stain

Paintbrush 

Putting new fabric onto chair

Stapler (Manual or one that hooks up to air compressor)

Staples

Hammer

Metal cutters (we bought a _______)

Thin strips of cardboard (not pictured)

Cushions

Zippers (I just used them from the original chair)
Sewing Machine

Scissors
Pins

Piping (I just used them from the original chair)
Thread
Unpicker

 Then you start taking apart the chair.  A piece at a time.  If you are like me, you take pictures along the way so that when you put it back together, you have your own personal guide!  

 To be honest, this is the worst part. It takes a lot of time and will give you a sore hand.  I simply used my flat head screwdriver and needle nose plyers to get all of the staples out.  Use your permanent marker to right down what each of the pieces are so that you can put it back together.

Put on a movie and get to know your chair!  But, don't worry, once this is out of the way, it's pretty smooth sailing.

 If I were you, I would order my fabric in advance (or buy it at the store).  I bought my fabric at fabric.com and found some beautiful fabrics that I loved!  There are websites out there that will help you estimate how many yards to buy.  I liked this site.

Also, I would order some metal tack strips and maybe a dust cover at this point too.  You can find them pretty cheap online.    

 Then once you get your fabric, put your "patterns" from the original chair on top and cut around each piece about 1-2" That way you can adjust it if you need to.

 If you are going to re-stain your legs, sand down the legs and your your stain and paintbrush to paint them.  I actually put a coat of polyurethane on top as well.

 Then we started to staple the bottom front cover.  Now the tricky part about this one is that you need some type of sturdy material to sew together and make the corners and something that you can staple down the sides and the back.  (I just unpicked the previous material and used the same idea to sew.)

 Here's a closer look.

 Then you are going to start stapling on the arms.  I had a material that had a repeating pattern so I tried to put the same pattern up on both sides.  If that's the case with yours, be careful when you are cutting out your fabric.  Truth be told I actually stapled one side down before I even cut out the other side.

Now every arm is different and it took me awhile before I decided exactly what I wanted to do, but I love the pleats that we ended up doing.  We made a pleat and stapled. Then another pleat and staple. So on and so forth.  I wanted the same amount of pleats on each arm too.  

 Next come the front of the back side.  If you look close, you will notice that I stapled at the bottom as well.  And at the corners I made a nice corner (just like my mom taught me when I learned to make my bed corners).

 Here we are so far.  Amazing, eh?

 Now, on the sides, you are going to need to cut a long, small, straight piece of cardboard.  This makes it so you can pull it tight and it still looks like a really straight edge.  Put your cardboard in place and staple.

 Fold over and then you are going to use your first metal tack strip for the front of this side.  Of course, I didn't get any great pictures of this.  Let me see if I can explain it decently.  

This is what the metal tack strip looks like.  I used my straightener to iron the fold where I wanted it to be.  Then, I snuck the metal tack strip up the fabric and made holes to the side of the fold that I just made so that when I turned the hooks around, I could hammer it right into place.  Nice and tight.
I hope that makes sense.  If you are at this step, it totally will!

 Now for the back. You want a piece of cardboard for the top of the back.  Staple in.  Then use your straightener and make your folds where you want them (one side at a time).  Then slip your tack strip in and start making the wholes just to the side of the fabric with the tacks.  Then turn around so it's nice and tight and hammer it in place.  Repeat on other side.  Then staple bottom to underneath the chair.

 After you have everything squared away.  Then cut out a piece of your dust cover, fold over all the sides and staple it to cover all your loose ends on the bottom.

Now for the cushions.  Get your sewing hat on baby!

This is how you make piping.  Here is a GREAT tutorial on how to make your own piping.   

 Then, time to sew in your zipper.  Iron both sides.

 Sew it so that your fold is over half of the zipper.

 Repeat on other side.

 And reinforce at the ends.

 Now your cushions basically need to be cut to exactly the same size as they were on your original chair. Once you have both sides cut out, the middle length of fabric and your zipper at the bottom, sew the piping in.  Make sure to cut like above around the corners.  It will make your life much easier!

 Pin really well!!!!  Then flip inside out and....

 Wala!  You have a brand spanking new chair!!!  That is just as comfortable as the first!