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DeniseMGM
True Blue Farmgirl
110 Posts
Denise
WI
USA
110 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 20 2015 : 12:00:37 PM
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Is there an upholstery person in your area who would allow you to "apprentice" on your project? Like do your work in their workshop and give you guidance as you work?
In my area there are two, and both are open to doing this; they are both very willing to share their craft - probably because both are busy.
My little bit of upholstery is that it's really a hands-on learning experience. And I actually learned in the process that I don't love it - it's hard on the hands with all the staple pulling and stretching of the fabric. Not trying to discourage you here, just saying you'll get a TON more out of it if you can find someone willing to let you work nearby.
Denise - Farmgirl #1976
www.lionsdaughter.wordpress.com |
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Marilyn Hartman Sullivan
True Blue Farmgirl
1138 Posts
Marilyn
Oxford
PA
USA
1138 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2015 : 10:19:09 AM
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Years ago (like about 40), my wonderful MIL had given me a wing chair that had belonged to her mother before she went into a nursing home. It was clean, but the upholstery was old and worn shiny in some spots. As a child bride who had always made her own clothes, I just assumed that it wouldn't be a big deal to recover the chair. After all, I had seen all the fabric and supplies at the fabric store -- how different could it be from sewing garments? At first, I thought I would make a slipcover, since I didn't have tools for staple pulling, hammering them back in, etc. Didn't take me long to realize that making a slipcover that would actually fit would be a toughie. So...I took all the upholstery off the chair, used the pieces as pattern pieces for my new-and-improved version and started to cut. I sewed and fitted and tugged and tucked -- I stood back and squinted -- I tacked and hammered and hummed merrily along because in my young mind, there was nothing I couldn't do. My teenage husband took the wooden pieces from the fronts of the arms of the chair and the curved legs, and painted them shiny shiny black (which was pretty stylin' stuff in 1970s Hoosier-land!) and we tacked them back to the fronts of the arms and reattached the legs. My oh my, how beautiful that chair looked to me when it was finished! It was a black velour-ish tapestry with a big medallion that I managed to center on the chair back and on the cushion.
It may have actually been a very awful looking thing, but to me it was gorgeous and I hated like mad to leave it behind when we left Indiana and moved out "home" to Seattle. I have often wondered if that chair is still around and if anyone has appreciated it the way I did.
A couple of months ago, I was looking at a little stuffy upholstered chair I inherited when I moved in with His Dudeness a year ago. It sits in the corner of our bedroom and is in pretty desperate need of an update. The thought of tearing it apart and reupholstering it has occurred to me once or twice, but mostly I just think about hauling it to the dump. Not sure if it is age and experience kicking in, or if I've lost some of my nerve. Either way, the chair is just going to have to sit for now.
Let us know what you do -- post pictures! I am quite certain that you can make it happen. Just don't listen to "no."
Farmgirl #6318
"Where there's a will -- there's probably a family fight." |
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Re-upholstering furniture
