Wingback Chair and Spring is Coming!
We can't really complain about the weather in Sydney. It is winter and yet we hardly ever really need coats and get a lot of blue sky days. But summer means swimming in the sea and warm days everyday so we do look forward to it. I took this picture this morning and I think spring is on its way.
Since my sister left we have mostly been ill. I have just had no energy! I have been working on my second wing back chair though.
This is it before.
It has taken me a long time to get all the upholstery off. My hands were really sore from all the pressure on my palm from twisting the screw driver under all the staples. There are hundreds of staples and it takes longer to get them all out than to put the new covers on. I just used a screw driver and a pair if pliers. Those were all the tools I needed.
The first piece to come off was the skirt and then the back, which is held on with this metal strip. I will reuse all of that. Under the back was a thin layer of foam which I will reuse.
This is the back of the chair upside down.
Then the sides come off and then the outside of the wings.
Then it is the inside of the wing.
Then the seat back.
Finally the arms and front of the underseat were left. The arms are the hardest bit to put back on. Last time I took ages removing them to try to remember how to get them back on.
It had some old fabric underneath which was similar to the top fabric but not the same. So it had already been reupholstered once. I removed every single staple that was not needed. I just don't like to think of any old staples or fabric underneath - this must be the perfectionist in me!
Here it is completely stripped. I am leaving the white underseat fabric as it is really thick and there is nothing wrong with it. I just have to sew the new piece onto it by hand as I can't get it to the machine. I feel this is easier than removing it. So that is what I have spent some time doing lately!
I also made a new cushion cover for the seat. For the other one I never got round to making either the seat cover or the arm covers and I regret this. I am definitely going to make the arm covers this time to keep the chair clean.
Here is the piping for the cushion cover. I bought the cord for this. For the piping for the chair I used the old cord which was plastic, and recovered it. I bought some new cord because I never had arm covers so had no piping to reuse.
I used the old cushion as a sort of template to get it the right size.
Here is the new cushion. It is too loose for the cushion and so next time I will take apart the cushion cover and use that as the template. It isn't too bad but could be a better fit. This cushion cover was actually the hardest part about doing the entire chair which surprised me. The piping was hard to sew around.
Sadly I have had to use different fabric for the second chair. The first one has gone bobbly in places and I really didn't want to do another chair in it. I think this is what put me off doing arm covers or seat cover. My plan is to recover it, but I don't think it will be very soon. I am not too heart broken as I think I can do a much better job of it next time.
I should be able to recover the chair faster than it took to take off the old covers... well I hope so!
it's a great article, i love the pictures. Thanks for sharing this bookmarking your website as we speak lol xx
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