Thursday, August 27, 2009

A chair re-do

Earlier this year my friend from the North came down and spent some time with me. We had a lot of fun shopping, eating, talking, crafting, etc..... you get the picture. Anyway, one thing I asked my friend to do for me, was to help me recover a chair.

Now I am not into re-upholstery, but this was a special chair. It belonged to my hubby's Aunt, and I believe it was her mother's chair. We got this chair when dh's aunt was moving into assisted living, so she could not able to take all the furniture with her.

I wish I had taken a picture of the chair before we started this fabric removal. It appears to have been covered once before.

But you can see the basic bones of this chair. We found that the seat of the chair had straw for the stuffing. I decided to leave the straw inside, and just recover it with batting.

My sweet friend worked and worked on that chair. She really knew how to take the old upholstery off and use it as a pattern for the replacement fabric. One of the guys that works next door to my dh gave me the roll of fabric. His neighbor had put out several rolls of upholstery fabric for the trash. He knew that I sewed and quilted, so he salvaged them for me. Yeah!

DF actually brought that massive staple gun with her from the North! I'm so glad that she had the tools.

And now, this is how the chair turned out.............

Isn't it great? I so love this chair. I think the fabric really compliments this type of chair. I have enough fabric left over to make pillows for my couch.

So the chair has been handed down, recycled, the fabric was salvaged and a very special friend re-did the upholstery.

Nice history!

p.s. I have signed on with Vintage Thingie Thursday. Please be sure to check Coloradolady's blog and visit the other vintage finds!

16 comments:

blushing rose said...

Whoa! Love the bargello type print fabric, Jocelyn! Beautiful.

Good thing you did not take the 'stuffing' out of it, that makes it age verified & much more valuable.

What a lovely piece & history for you.

How's the old ankle today? Hugs, TTFN ~Marydon

Elenka said...

Now, THAT, is a masterpiece!! Good for you!!

Lisa said...

Wow! I can't believe what you have accomplished! You'd never know it was the same chair! Great job

Old Time Cindy said...

Nice job! Don't you love having crafty friends?
Thanks for sharing!
Living it up at Lakewood,
Cindy

Jingle said...

That looks great! Much nicer! Welcome to VTT!

Jane said...

WOW! What a great job you two did on that chair. I'm very impressed. And you got all that fabric free. I can't believe someone would leave upholstery fabric out for the garbage man!!! You definitely put it to good use.

Keetha Broyles said...

Lovely job!!! You're really GOOD.

I like that you preserved the "feel" of the original fabric in the new.

Crispy said...

Well Done Ladies!! It's so wonderful that you fixed the chair instead of tossing it.

Crispy

Coloradolady said...

What a great chair transformation. Love it!! Have a great VTT!

Anonymous said...

My goodness, I am thoroughly impressed! I have an antique chair whose seat is all messed up that I was thinking to sell because I just don't want to deal with redoing it... but after seeing your post, I am wavering. :)

Anonymous said...

WOW it's GORGEOUS!!..beautiful 'William Morris' fabric extremely appropriate..i LOVE it!!

CC said...

What a beautiful chair and such memories that it holds. I just love that fabric. Happy VTT..have a wonderful weekend.

Nanette said...

That turned out just beautiful!
Valerie

Anna said...

neat chair, free fabric, and a friend .... what could be better....your chair looks great

Allie said...

Excellent re-do!!!!! Love that chair!

Anonymous said...

Looks great!!! That chair does look like the sister to mine! So pretty. And I totally didn't know that someone else had the vintage thingie Thursday going on ... I will have to join!

Thanks for stopping by!