Yay for Upholstery!

And, YIPPEE for finishing!

I had these two slipper chairs that I was going to get rid of when we got our cool new recliners from West Elm.  But, I decided to reupholster them and keep them in the living room (it's a long story involving Chester Field).

I had these two chairs professionally recovered when I was in my light blue glam phase.  I thought they did a terrible job and was never very happy with them.

Without further ado.  This is the after photo.

When I bought them, during my jewel tone phase in the early 90's, they were pretty expensive.  I remember paying $700 a piece for them and was very excited about furnishing my huge living room that had been empty for a few years since we bought the house new.

I thought it was going to be a quick deconstruction because, after all, I had had them professionally reupholstered.  I figured that when that was done, they had stripped them to the bones.

That was so not the case.  I was very frustrated to find that they hadn't even stripped off the old fabric.  They had just put padding over it so it wouldn't show through.  Lazy swine.

So, it took twice as long as it should have, but I still got both of them stripped down in just a couple of days.

I chose a neutral siege because I have a lot of other colors going on and still plan to have a teal colored couch some day.

For this task I broke out Ye Ol' Singer instead of Cheapo Brother.  She makes a much more even stitch.

I decided I wanted a puffy, squishy, down-filled cushion, so I made this casing with three pockets.  Top and bottom are narrow pockets for the down and the foam cushion goes in the middle.

I did this task outside because goose down was a flyin'.

Then I looked at this and thought, "this foam goes into that case?"

With much effort and sweat, I managed to get it in there, then stitch up the ends.

Too much?  LOL

By the way, when I made the cushion cover and it was time to get that behemoth into it, I wrapped it in a plastic bag and sealed the opening around the vacuum cleaner hose.  When I turned the vacuum on, it sucked all the air out, making the cushion flat.  It easily slipped into the cover.  When I got it all situated, I turned off the vacuum, cut the plastic bag off and pulled it off of the cushion and out of the cushion cover in pieces.  It was so easy, I couldn't believe it!

And, surprise!  I couldn't just make it all beige.  I saw this fabric at Hobby Lobby and loved it immediately.  I had to find a way to incorporate it onto my piece.

I made several mistakes on this project and have one more chair to do.  Now my dilemma is, should I fix the mistakes and risk the chairs looking a bit different, or should I make the same mistakes so that they'll look the same?  Hmm.  Also.  Still trying to decide if I should paint those legs or leave them nude.

The End.