Upholstered Chair

This is certainly not a tutorial (I don't think I could keep you awake long enough for that), but gives you an idea of how I approached (read, attacked) this chair. Now having become a self-appointed expert in upholstery, I would recommend that you arm yourself with some basic tools before you start. 1) Plenty of fabric (maybe an extra 1 or 2 yards over what you compute- you don't want to spend your time piecing together fabric because you miscut). 2) An electric staple gun (I bought a Stanley at Lowes that worked tremendously). 3) PATIENCE. Think twice, cut once. Lay on the chair frequently to make sure you are thinking the right direction, right piece, etc. The fabric that is. You can lay on the chair as well if that helps. 4) Time- it took me approximately 24 hours to do this chair. I did it over four days, because as I got tired, I didn't make good decisions. 5) Some sort of upholstered furniture.
	You'll want a flat edge screwdriver, a pair of pliers and scissors to start stripping the chair. On this chair, the first piece to take off was the fabric under the seat cushion. Pry up staples with the screwdriver or pull with pliers.
	Once you get all the staples removed, you can remove the actual upholstery.
	Now you can cut apart the upholstery pieces. I would recommend cutting the fabric apart right at the seam (essentially cutting off the seam allowance). Then you can add back the seam allowance (I used 5/8") as you cut your fabric. (I found when I ripped the seams apart, the seam allowance varied widely as it had been trimmed.) I took a black magic marker and labeled what piece went where. I should have also given myself an arrow pointing up.
	This pic shows using the upholstery piece as a pattern for cutting. I cut very slowly as I spent time figuring out what piece needed to match what. I cut the inside back first, and used that as a matching reference for the other cuts. I also only cut fabric as I knew what piece it would be next to (in other words, I didn't cut all my pieces at one sitting). I made the decision to make the arms look consistent, as opposed to matching across the width of the chair (I thought a white leafed arm and a blue leafed arm would look funny.) Basically, not everything will or can match, but prioritize where it will really show.
	This pic skips ahead several hours. First, I made some cording, which you can read more about here. As I cut out my real fabric, I used stickers to label those pieces as well. Then I started assembling them on the sewing machine. For example, the three pieces that make up the inside back and sides of the chair were sewn together. Then I sewed the three pieces that make up the arms together. Then I basted the cording to the arms. Then I sewed the arms to the front. I am "fitting" it on the chair to see if it is even close. At this point, don't panic and start adjusting like crazy. Unless something looks REALLY strange, it is probably okay and the fit will change a lot as other pieces are added.
	Now the three pieces of the back are assembled, another strip of cording has been sewn to the arms and I've sewn about one-half of the back to the arms. On these big round curving seams, I started sewing at the center back, matching the centers. Then I sewed to just past the next seam. I repeated for the other direction and then did another fitting to again see if it was close. Here I made a boo-boo, which I had to correct. When I cut the back, I was diligently thinking about matching the top back and cut accordingly. But I forgot that the leaves would now be pointing upwards on the back. So I knew on the front of the chair, the blue leaves were on the left and cut the same. But since the fabric is going the opposite direction, I should have cut the white leaves on the left. And the first time I sewed the pieces together, I matched by leaf color (not by the centers), so I shifted everything over 2 inches. Oops. No, I did not recut the back. I just found the centers so the back fit correctly and moved on.
	Now all the back, front and top pieces are sewn together and placed over the chair. Now is when you can be a little more critical of the fit. On this chair, there was too much loose fabric at the bottom of the right arm. You can see it pinned in the picture. I took that up by moving the cording and resewing the last 12 inches of that seam.
	Side view of chair. Note that the bottom fabric has not been stapled to the chair yet, which will tighten up the fabric.
	Starting at the inside center back, firmly pull the fabric and staple. This chair had a tiny strip of wood to staple it to.
	Close up view of the corner after stapling. I placed staples about every 5 inches. Just remember to pull the fabric straight down. The raw edges will be covered with fabric and don't forget, the cushion will hide the bottom four to five inches of fabric.
	The chair is turned upside down in this picture. Pull the fabric on the outside of the chair straight and staple to the wood every 5 inches.
	The chair is right side up again. Now I placed the front piece (the piece under your knees) on the chair to match with the back.
	I made sure the leaves matched with the back. If you will notice on the right side a blue leaf is mixed with a white one. This is because I centered the blue leaves on each arm. Again, not everything can match, but this is a very inconspicuous place.
	Now that I had my front piece cut, I sewed it to a big square of solid fabric for the seat. I used a nice solid (I do own a fabric store), but an upholsterer would usually use a muslin or something very inexpensive. I just made sure the solid was large enough to cover the seat and have an inch or two to fold under. I literally trimmed it as I stapled.
	Here you see a closeup of where I stapled the seat cover to the chair.
	On the bottom of the chair, I again just cut a big piece of fabric that would be big enough and trimmed it as I put it on the chair. I turned under the edges of the fabric and stapled to the wood.
	Here is the finished bottom with the legs reattached.
	Here is a closeup of the stapling on the bottom.
	Now you can work on the cushion. The cushion is like a pillow on steroids. It takes some time, so be patient. This picture shows the nasty worn out batting that was left on the cushion foam. I took that off.
	This picture shows the cushion wrapped in two layers of low loft batting. My understanding is that the batting gives the cushion a fluffier look.
	I just trimmed the batting to size and did some crazy hand stitching to keep it on the cushion and make sure it didn't have big lumps.
	Another shot of the batting covered cushion. I must have been terribly proud of my work and shot multiple pictures.
	Now I made a muslin cover to hold it all together. I'll admit, I kind of just winged it here. I cut a piece of muslin using the cushion as a pattern, forgot to add a seam allowance, sewed it using a tiny 1/4" allowance. Of course, it was too small, so I just added flaps at the end and hand sewed them close. The preferred technique? Probably not. Just make sure the muslin is tight on the cushion.
	This shows the top and bottom cushion pieces with the cording basted on. I cut the cushions to match the leaves on the center back.
	This shows the pieces that goes around the edges sewn to one piece of the cushion. I cut that piece to about about 2/3 of the way around the cushion. I sewed this piece to the other cushion as well. (Stop about 2 to 3" from the end so you can attach it to your back piece.) The back 1/3 will be a piece that velcros (or zippers) closed.
	Here is the back piece that will be velcroed. Don't worry about matching this- it will be hidden in the chair. However, I would recommend cutting taller that you calculate. I'm notorious for forgetting to include the overlap of the velcro or a seam allowance or something. But, if I cut them taller (by 1 1/2" or so), when I get done, I get trim the top and bottom to whatever height it should be.
	Now you see the velcro attached and that piece ready for me to trim to size.
	Then I attached the velcroed piece to the top and bottom cushion. I say it like it was no big deal, but this is where things can start twisting and you've got too much fabric on one side, etc. etc. I adjusted the seams where I sewed the front and velcroed piece together to take up fitting problems. And now you can put the cover on your cushion.
copyright 2008 j. caroline designs, l.p. Feel free to use this pattern and instructions for personal or commercial use. Please do not reprint these instructions without permission. You may link to this page from your website without requesting permission.