I found two of these wonderful vintage
chairs while junking last week.
They definately had potential , just needed a little something.
As I was getting my supplies together
to give them a redo I grabbed the camera to
picture a simple tutorial.
Mmmm , Simple as in my directions will be simple ,
I may lose you here or there as I probably
won't have a good of instructions as McCall or
Simplicity but it will give you a Basic idea of how to.
Both chairs are solid wood with perfect
caned back seats. They had brown velvet on
the seats so first thing that had to come off.
I also took some close up photos of the corners
so later I could refer to them when I was doing
my own corners.
Let's stop here a minute for a safety lesson.
I wear safety glasses when working with
objects like flying staples and tacks.
No chair is worth an eye injury!
You'd be amazed at how quickly a staple can fly
towards you., so safety first.
The chair paint was in great condition ,
it only needed one light coat of spray paint to freshen it up.
Do this after removing the seat from the chair.
On a warm sunny day it will dry quickly!
You'll need a pliers and a screwdriver to get
out the old staples. If your chair seat has a
lighter weight fabric on it and is clean ,
you can go over it with your new fabric of choice.
Hopefully , the chair foam is in good condition and
this was. I took a light piece of quilters batting to cover the
foam , it gives the seat a nice smooth finish
under the new fabric.
So far so good.
Picking the right fabric is always hard for me ,
I had 3 neutrals with 3 different textures to choose from.
I went with a cotton / linen blend that'has just a little nubby finish.
I use the chair seat as a template for my pattern.
You could also use the original fabric seat for this.
I always cut my fabric on the generous side
as you can trim it back but you can't add to it.
Remember it has to go up the sides of the foam
and at least an inch into the back side so you have
room to staple it down.
This is when I raid Joe's tools. Since he is a general contractor
he has every tool known to mankind and Home Depot.
It's okay if you don't have a nailgun and a compressor.
The hand held electric staple guns work well ,
I've done several chairs using one of them.
Your corners are going to be the tricky part, you may
need to trim away some of the batting.
You want them to lay flat and its not always easy.
If you took before photos look at them to see how they were done before.
The best thing
I can tell you is to keep adjusting your corner folds
until you are happy with them.
If it gets too frustrating ( sometimes it does! )
take a break and come back to it later.
When they finally fall into place staple them down securely.
Attach the seat back onto the chair and your are done!
TA DA!
Unless...
how about a pleated slipcover?
If you decide to make these you'll need to use the
chair seat once again for a template. Before you
reattach it to the chair place it right side up on tracing paper ,
or if you're feeling brave onto the fabric itself.
You want to create a pattern piece for
the base of your slipcover. It needs to be the size of your
chair seat plus one half inch for a seam allowance.
Cut 2 for each chair seat as you will
need one for the backing also.
You can do a pleat or a ruffle. I choose pleats for this set of chairs ,
but I think ruffles are quicker and require less math!
Decide how long you want your pleated skirt to drop ,
add 1 inch for a foldover hem and one half inch for a seam allowance.
My drop was 8 inches so I want my finished
piece to be 9 and 1/2 inches wide by the length. Measure around the
seat on the front and 2 side. If you choose a ruffle
then the length of your ruffle will be 2 and 1/2 times
what you just measured. For the pleated finish you will need
to actually create a pleat in a scrap of fabric , measure the length
of your finished pleat. Unfold it and then
measure how many inches of fabric it took to create
that pleat.
Here's the Math part ,
measure the front and 2 sides of the chair seat -
how many finished pleats will it take to go around your chair?
Are you still with me? If your pleat took 10 inches to create
and you need 14 pleats to go around the chair then you are
at 140 inches long by 9 & 1/2 inches wide.
When I went to cut the pleat strips I added
an extra foot or two onto my measurement.
Again , you can trim this off easier than adding on .
you can cut it in one continuous piece or seam sections
to the required length. Then do a rolled hem across one edge.
Across the other edge pleat your fabric length
taking care to keep them all uniform in size and spacing.
To attach I started at the center front of the
chair seat and pinned my pleated fabric piece in place.
Stitch with a basting stitch , place the back
over the top making sure to not get the
pleats caught in the pinning. Stitch using a
1/2 inch seam allowance , be sure to leave an opening
in the back to turn your slipcover right side out.
Slip stitch opening and press, be sure
to give your pleats nice crisp edges.
The slipcovers are machine wash and dry so these
2 chairs are always going to look as good as they do now.
TA DA!!
Are we there yet? 
The totes are packed with great vintage treasures,
None of the Big Ben clocks that I'll be bringing still
I think I have several scales but too be
I think I have several scales but too be
